Tulsa Advances to Second Round of NIVC With 3-1 Win Over Kansas City

Thursday, November 30

Wichita, Kan.

3:30 PM

Tulsa

18-14,10-9AAC

Kansas City

22-9,12-4Summit League

Tulsa

Kansas City

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Advances to Second Round of NIVC With 3-1 Win Over Kansas City

11/30/2023 7:10:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

BOX SCORE (PDF) | SEASON STATS (PDF) | UPDATED BRACKET (PDF)

WICHITA, Kan. — The Tulsa volleyball team advanced to the second round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) with a 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 25-16, 25-19) victory over the Kansas City Roos in opening-round action Thursday in the Charles Koch Arena on the Wichita State campus. The Golden Hurricane's fifth consecutive win moves TU to 18-14 overall while the Roos end the season 22-9.

Tulsa earns its fourth-ever NIVC win and first victory in the tournament since 2019. The Hurricane will face Wichita State (22-8) Friday at 1:30 p.m.

"So proud of our girls and how composed they played this afternoon against a very good Kansas City team who just recently won their regular season," said Head Coach Lauren Ramatowski. "We have continued to get better every day at our offensive range. We did a wonderful job at keeping pressure on them from the service line, which led to us being great in transition. I'm happy for our team that we get another opportunity to play volleyball together."

Ramatowski becomes the second head coach in program history to lead Tulsa to a postseason victory in the first year of leading the team (Steven McRoberts, 2011).

Outside hitters Kayley Cassaday and Beth Bayless led the offense with a combined 42 kills on the day, with Cassaday leading the way with 23 kills with only six attack errors in 50 total attacks for a .340 hitting percentage. Bayless' 19 kills registers as a career-best.

Setter Avery Kalsu averaged 8.75 assists per set on the way to setting up five Tulsa attackers for 35 kills. She also led the defense with 21 digs for her 17^th double-double on the year.

Following Kalsu's 21 digs was libero Marta Pecalli with 16 and defensive specialist/setter Brayden Hipp with 11.

Tulsa's front row won the blocking battle Thursday with 10 team blocks. Middle blocker Arianna Mongare recorded five block assists to go with one block solo, while Bayless and Tytiana Johnson each went up for three total blocks.

Match Notes

» This was Tulsa's fourth ever NIVC win and first since 2019 when the Hurricane advanced to the semifinal.
» Tulsa has played in seven NIVC matches in program history … all have ended in 3-1 decisions, including Thursday's win over Kansas City.
» Avery Kalsu (35 assists/21 digs) and Marta Pecalli (16 digs/11 assists) each recorded a double-double.
» Beth Bayless had a career-high 19 kills.
» Tulsa won the blocking battle 10-4.
» Marta Pecalli eclipsed 500 digs for the third time in her career … she has 506 in 2023.
» Kayley Cassaday (615) surpassed 600 kills on the season … she's the fourth Hurricane to ever to accomplish the feat.
» Head Coach Lauren Ramatowski becomes the second head coach in program history to lead Tulsa to a postseason victory in the first year of leading the team (Steven McRoberts, 2011).

How It Happened

SET 1 | UMKC scored the first point of the set and held three-point leads at multiple points in the opening frame. Down 22-21, Tulsa used a four-point run to take its first lead of the set and close out the stanza 25-22 to secure the first match point. 15 of the Hurricane's points came from kills. Kayley Cassaday registered seven kills in the set.

SET 2 | Tulsa jumped out to a 10-6 lead to open set two. The Roos closed the gap, took control at 14-13 and never trailed again. From there, they outscored Tulsa 11-5 to finish the set 25-18 to tie it up at 1-1. The Hurricane was held to a .000 hitting percentage, as Tulsa hit away only nine kills to go with nine errors.

SET 3 | The Hurricane offense found its footing again with 16 kills and only three attack errors in 41 attempts for a .317 attack average. Tulsa took the lead at 2-1 and never let up, leading by as many as 11 points at 22-11 before finishing 25-16 to go up 2-1 on the Roos. Tulsa held Kansas City to a .070 hitting per set. Avery Kalsu had 12 assists to go with seven digs, while Brayden Hipp and Kayley Cassaday each had six digs.

SET 4 | The Roos never held the lead as Tulsa put the pedal to the metal in the fourth and final set of the match. The Hurricane led by as many as six points at multiple points in the set, including the final set score 25-19, sealing the 3-1 victory for TU. Kayley Cassaday had seven kills while Avery Kalsu recorded 10 assists.

Tulsa 25 18 25 25
Kansas City 22 25 16 19