Tulsa Volleyball Stifles South Florida at Home, 3-0

Friday, October 27

Tulsa, Okla.

6:30 p.m.

Tulsa

12-12,5-7AAC

South Florida

13-9,7-4AAC

South Fla.

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Volleyball Stifles South Florida at Home, 3-0

10/27/2023 9:36:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

BOX SCORE (PDF) | SEASON STATS

TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa volleyball got back in the win column Friday with a three-set sweep (25-11, 25-21, 25-21) over the South Florida Bulls in the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The Golden Hurricane snapped a five-match losing skid to improve to 12-12 overall and 5-7 in American Athletic Conference action. The Bulls fell to 13-9 and 7-4 in league play.

Graduate outside hitter Kayley Cassaday shined for Tulsa with 14 kills in a .333 clip to go with eight digs. Cassaday (1,730 career kills) needs 12 more kills to pass Erica Bohannon (2013-16) for second place all-time on the TU career kills leaderboard.

"We work so hard," said Cassaday. "For the past two weeks, our coaches have been reaffirming that we're still grinding and getting better. It finally came to fruition, and we played good Tulsa volleyball tonight."

"[South Florida] is a really good team, and we knew we needed to get them out of system early on. Part of our game plan was to serve them out of it, and we accomplished that."

Tulsa came away with six service aces on the night, including five in the first set.

Senior setter Avery Kalsu averaged 9.67 assists per set on the way to accumulating 29 assists. She set up seven different Hurricane attackers in an efficient offensive performance. Tulsa's offense accounted for 34 kills and only eight attack errors for a .286 hitting percentage, the sixth-highest average in a match this season for TU.

The Hurricane's front row controlled the net for all three sets, coming away with nine team blocks and holding USF to two blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Camryn Lingenbrink led the way with five block assists while sophomore middle Arianna Mongare and senior setter Avery Kalsu each had four block assists.

It was a team effort on defense as all players on the court recorded a dig. Junior libero Marta Pecalli dug out 12 USF attacks while Cassaday and senior middle blocker Regan Pendleton each had eight digs.

Tulsa will be back in action in the Reynolds Center Sunday when the Hurricane hosts East Carolina (18-5, 9-3 AAC) at noon.

Game Notes
» Marta Pecalli had season-highs in aces (3) and total points (4).
» Avery Kalsu led the floor in assists (29) while Camryn Lingenbrink led the court with five blocks.
» Tulsa recorded 11 kills without a single attack error in 17 attacks for a .647 clip in the first set.
» Tulsa out-blocked South Florida 9-2 … The Hurricane has won the blocking battle in each of the last four matches and 14 times overall.
» The Hurricane forced 21 South Florida attack errors while committing only eight.
» TU held the lead for the majority of all three sets, giving up the advantage only twice (both times in the second set).

How It Happened

SET 1 | Tulsa jumped right out of the gate with a 25-11 first-set score to grab the first point of the match. The Hurricane took advantage of seven and eight-point runs to pull away from the Bulls. Tulsa's serve was on point with five aces, two each from Brayden Hipp and Marta Pecalli. The Hurricane recorded 11 kills without a single attack error in 17 attacks for a .647 clip.

SET 2 | The Hurricane took control at 6-5 and never looked back, cruising to a 25-21 finish to go up 2-0 on the Bulls. Tulsa's offense recorded a match-high 13 kills and blocked five USF attacks to close out the set. Kayley Cassaday had six kills and Avery Kalsu had 10 assists in the set.

SET 3 | In the most competitive set of the night, Tulsa and South Florida battled through eight tie scores without the Hurricane ever giving up the lead. Finally, TU broke the tie at 15-14 and rode the momentum from there to a 25-21 third-set finish to complete the sweep over USF.

Tulsa               25        25        25
South Florida 11        21        21