Tulsa Volleyball Defeats Texas State to Win Creeds and Crests Classic

Saturday, September 3

San Marcos, Texas

2:00 p.m.

Tulsa

5-1

Texas State

3-4

Tulsa

Texas State

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Volleyball Defeats Texas State to Win Creeds and Crests Classic

9/3/2016 5:11:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Riley Ubben

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The University of Tulsa Volleyball team capped off a perfect 3-0 weekend at the Creeds and Crests Classic with a 3-1 win over host Texas State on Saturday afternoon. After dropping the first set by 10 points, Tulsa (5-1 overall) outscored the Bobcats (3-4 overall) by 21 points over the next three sets to secure the win.

Texas State grabbed a 25-15 first set win behind seven kills from Lauren Kirch. Down 7-3, Tulsa put together three consecutive points to pull within one after an opposing service error before a Trinity Alualu kill and Rachel Moore service ace. The Bobcats slowly pulled away after TU applied early pressure on their way to grabbing a 1-0 set advantage.

"Texas State played really well," said TU Head Coach Ryan Wills. "They were clicking on all cylinders. They made some unbelievable digs and blocks in the first set. I thought we were really hesitant. We wanted to win the match and win the tournament. Once we settled down and managed that about halfway through the second set, we decided to play more aggressive and loosen up. Once that happened we started to serve really well we were able to put blockers in position to slow them down a little bit and things started to go our way."

Tulsa bounced back in set two as they jumped out to a 10-3 lead due in part to back-to-back kills from Alualu. The Bobcats took advantage of a few Hurricane miscues as they gradually tightened the gap with three straight points to bring the score to 12-10. At 17-16, both squads went back and forth over the next nine points, capped off by an Erica Bohannon kill before a Texas State attacking error gave the Hurricane a two-point lead. Another Bohannon kill put TU up three prior to a Bobcat ace from Megan Porter brought the match within a point. Alualu sealed the set win for her team with another one of her 10 kills, 25-23.

The Hurricane began to pull away in the third set, scoring seven straight points behind two kills from Bohannon and two from Rebecca Reeve to put TU up 16-7. Bohannon racked up a match-best 18 kills while hitting an impressive .429 on 35 attempts.

Tulsa recorded a .273 hitting-percentage in the set while holding Texas State to -.027 on their way to a 25-14 fourth set win.

Tulsa never trailed in the fourth and final match of the weekend, taking the set 25-17 while hitting their best in a set on the day as they recorded a .378 hitting-percentage. Reeve pushed the Hurricane lead to five at 12-7 with a kill before the Bobcats came within two at 14-12. TU went on to outscore Texas State 11-5 over the final moments of the fourth set behind kills from five different players to win the tournament.

"We worked really hard this offseason and it's nice to see that hard work pay off and have your leaders step up and lead in the right direction," said Wills. "You hope that when those things happen that the team gets the rewards that they deserve because they've done what you've asked of them and they've worked hard."

Ashton Anderson and Mariah Pardo both finished with 20 assists for a Tulsa squad that hit .250 in the match. Three different TU players had double-digit assists as Anderson, Reeve, and Brooke Berryhill all eclipsed the 10 dig mark. Reeve also added 11 kills on her way to recording a double-double for the third consecutive match. The senior was named tournament MVP while teammates Bohannon and Berryhill were named all-tournament.

Tulsa will be back in action with more non-conference tournament play next weekend when they travel to Jonesboro, Ark. for a three-game slate on the campus of Arkansas State. TU will start off weekend play with a match against UT Martin on Friday, Sept. 9 at 12:30 p.m.