Tulsa Volleyball Falls in Conference Opener to Cincinnati, 3-2

Thursday, September 22

Reynolds Center

7:00 p.m.

Tulsa

11-2

Cincinnati

6-6

Cincinnati

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Volleyball Falls in Conference Opener to Cincinnati, 3-2

9/22/2016 10:03:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Riley Ubben

TULSA, Okla. –– The University of Tulsa Volleyball team dropped a tightly contested match in their American Athletic Conference opener to preseason conference favorite Cincinnati, 3-2. The Hurricane (11-2 overall, 0-1 AAC) were led offensively by Erica Bohannon's 22 kills while senior Brooke Berryhill anchored the defense with 20 digs on a night where she became the second Tulsa player to eclipse the 2,000 career-digs mark.

Cincinnati held a slight lead early in the first set before Tulsa took the lead after a Haley Coulter kill and consecutive Bearcat attacking errors. Bearcat outside hitter Jordan Thompson gave Cincinnati the lead at 17-16, but TU responded quickly with another Coulter kill to knot things up at 17-17. Down 18-17, the Hurricane went on a 4-0 run behind back-to-back kills from Jaime Rahilly and Bohannon to go up 21-18. Cincinnati responded with their own run, a 5-0 spurt to go up 23-21 on their way to a 25-22 first set win.

Tulsa used a late run in the second set, dominating the last half of the frame to even the match up at 1-1 with a 25-19 set win. Down 14-11, TU put together six straight points after Trinity Alualu put the Hurricane ahead two before a Bearcat error brought the score to 17-14. The Hurricane outscored Cincinnati 14-5 over the final half of the set, led by Rebecca Reeve's five kills and five digs in the frame.

The Bearcats controlled the start of the third set on their way to a 25-15 win. Tulsa committed 10 attack errors in the set, including three straight that put them behind 15-6. The Hurricane pulled within eight after a Coulter kill at 20-12, but could not rally.

Back-to-back Alualu kills gave Tulsa a 10-9 advantage in the fourth set, their first lead of the frame despite being tied four times prior. Bohannon gave Tulsa three consecutive sideouts with three kills to keep the match tied up at 15-15. Alualu and Rachel Moore combined for a block to give TU a one point lead followed by a Coulter kill that extended the lead to two. Bohannon stretched the lead to three after she extended for a dig and followed with a kill to bring the score to 21-18. The Bearcats responded with an eventual 3-0 run to cut the TU lead down to one, 23-22, before two more Bohannon kills secured a 25-23 win.

A tightly contested match-deciding fifth set saw the score seven times in the early going, as Mariah Pardo tied the set at 8-8 with a kill after multiple Cincinnati blocks that were kept in play before Rahilly slammed one down to give TU a 9-8 advantage. Cincinnati's Thompson tied it up at 9-9, starting a quick 3-0 run that saw the Bearcats grab an 11-9 lead. Cincinnati committed an attacking error to bring the score to 12-12 before another knotted things up once again at 13-13. Consecutive Bearcats kills secured the 15-13 win.

Three Hurricane outside hitters finished with double-digit kills, as Coulter racked up 13 followed by 11 from Alualu and 10 from Reeve. Reeve also put in work defensively, recording 13 digs on the evening.

Tulsa will continue conference play at home on Saturday when they face-off against East Carolina (10-1, 0-1 AAC) at noon in the Reynolds Center.

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