Hurricane Volleyball to Begin Season at Razorback Classic

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TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa volleyball team is set to begin its 48^th season this Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 26 and 27, at the Razorback Classic hosted by the 25th-ranked Razorbacks in Fayetteville. The Golden Hurricane will kick off the 2023 season against Michigan State at 2 p.m. on Saturday and face Arkansas at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Tulsa is 6-6 in season-opening tournaments in the last five seasons. Last year, TU went 1-2 in the Husker Invitational, dropping matches to Pepperdine and Nebraska and picking up a thrilling back-and-forth 3-2 win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Michigan State finished last season with an overall record of 13-18 with a 4-16 mark in conference action to finish 12^th in the league. The Spartans were sixth in the conference with 168 service aces but finished in the bottom half of the Big 10 in kills (1,421), assists (1,309), blocks (250) and digs (1,490).

Senior libero Nalani Iosia is the top returner for the Spartans. Last season, she picked up 467 digs and produced season highs of 26 digs against VCU, 10 assists versus Louisiana and three aces at Navy. Overall, MSU returns 11 players in 2023, seven of whom started in 10 or more matches for the Spartans last season.

Saturday's match will be the first-ever meeting between Tulsa and Michigan State.

Arkansas debuts at #25 in the first AVCA Coaches' Poll of the year after finishing last year 21-9 overall with an 11-7 record in conference play. The Razorbacks' season ended with a 3-1 loss to Oregon in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Arkansas ranked in the top half of the SEC in all major statistical categories and finished second in opponent hitting percentage (.175), kills per set (13.63) and assists per set (12.74).

The Razorbacks' top returners are senior outside hitter Taylor Head and junior libero Courtney Jackson. Head led the team with 390 kills at 3.61 kills per set while Jackson produced 376 digs and averaged 3.45 digs per set. Other returning starters include setter Hannah Hogue and outside hitters Jillian Gillen and Maggie Cartwright.

Sunday's match is the 15th contest between Tulsa and Arkansas with the Razorbacks holding the overall series lead at 9-5.

The Razorback Classic is the first of four non-conference tournaments for the Hurricane. Next week will take the Hurricane to Pullman, Wash., where they'll face Drake, Northwestern State and Washington State in the Cougar Challenge (Sept. 1-2).

For the Tulsa Invitational, the Hurricane hosts city rival Oral Roberts on Thursday night, Sept. 7, before finishing out the weekend against UT-Arlington on Friday and Central Arkansas on Saturday.

Tulsa closes out the non-conference portion of the schedule at the Stephen F. Austin Tournament #2. The Hurricane will face Ole Miss and SFA on Friday, Sept. 15, and close out the tournament against Sam Houston State on Saturday.

The American Athletic Conference schedule has Tulsa facing six opponents twice on subsequent days and seven opponents just once on the season. The two-match series includes matchups against Rice, North Texas, SMU, Wichita State, UTSA and Tulane.

A road trip to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls for a single match on Wednesday, Sept. 20, begins Tulsa's 19-match AAC schedule.

2022 NCAA Tournament participant Rice visits Tulsa for two matches at the Reynolds Center on Sept. 23-24. The Rice Owls completed the 2022 season ranked 19th in the final AVCA poll. A four-game road trip follows with Tulsa traveling to North Texas, Florida Atlantic and UAB to end the month of September and open October.

Tulsa will follow with two home matches against SMU (Oct. 13-14) and a pair of road matches at Wichita State (Oct. 20-21) before breaking away for its final non-conference matchup at Oklahoma (Oct. 24).

A total of eight AAC matches remain for the Hurricane with two-game series against UTSA (Nov. 3-4) on the road and a home series versus Tulane (Nov. 17-19) to go along with single matches against South Florida (Oct. 27), East Carolina (Oct. 29) and Memphis (Nov. 10) at home before closing out the regular season at Charlotte (Nov. 22).

Hurricane Volleyball to Begin Season at Razorback Classic

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