Golden Hurricane Fall in Four Sets to Wichita State

Friday, November 1

Tulsa, Okla.

6:00 p.m.

Tulsa

15-8,7-4AAC

Wichita State

13-10,8-3AAC

Wichita St.

Tulsa

Golden Hurricane Fall in Four Sets to Wichita State

11/1/2024 11:44:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Wichita St. Boxscore PDF Season Stats 11/01/24

Tulsa, Okla. — In their first meeting of the weekend the Shockers of Wichita State get the better of the Golden Hurricane in Friday night's four-set match. The Hurricane dropped set one before taking set two and then dropping sets three and four in the 1-3 (13-25, 25-22, 19-25, 23-25) match. Tulsa falls to 15-8 overall with a conference record of 7-4 in the AAC. Wichita State improves in the conference to 8-3 and 13-10 overall.

Tulsa struggled to find momentum in the first set hitting a season low of .000 on attack percentage. The Hurricane were able to find traction in set two where they posted an attack percentage of .270. Sets three and four were not as successful with Tulsa hitting .103 and .178 respectively. Tulsa did find success in the defensive side of the match where they were able to continue the streak of outstanding digs per set at 14.75. Unfortunately, it was not enough to mount the Shockers as they posted 19 digs per set.

Individually, the Hurricane found the success that they did have in Jolana Smidlova who was able to post 9 kills with a .280 attack percentage. The Hurricane were also assisted with 13 kills by Tatum Tornatta with an added .256 attack percentage. Beth Bayless was also able to add 10 kills to the mix. Brittany Bacorn was able to aid the attack with her 17 assists with support from Brayden Hipp with 16 assists. Libero Marta Pecalli was also a major part as she added eight assists.

It was a defensively hot match at the net with Tulsa posting 13 team blocks shadowed by the Shocker's 15 team blocks. The Hurricane saw a huge contribution from Tytiana Johnson who provided 9 block assists. With an outstanding performance on serve receive Beth Bayless had 49 receptions in the four-set match with only 1 error for a .980 reception percentage. Marta Pecalli continued her defensive anchoring with a team high 16 digs. Brayden Hipp also tacked on 10 of the 59 team digs.

For Wichita State, Morgan Stout had her second-highest kill count of the year with 20 kills in the four sets. She was also able to post a .311 attack percentage and added seven digs and one service ace. Katie Galligan was also able to collect 21 digs and 5 assists for the Shockers.

The Hurricane look to split the series of two games with the Shockers as they travel to Wichita on Sunday, November 3rd, to take on the Shockers in the Charles Koch Arena. The match begins at 1:00 P.M. with streaming coverage on ESPN+.

Match Notes

Hurricane had 11.5 kills per set with a total of 46
Tulsa averaged 14.75 digs per set.
Tatum Tornatta led with 13 kills at 3.25 kills/set.
Wichita State collected 57 kills.
Wichita State collected 15 team blocks.
Jolana Smidlova hit for .280 pct.
Tulsa struggled to find success at the net with 24 attack errors.
Tulsa held Wichita State to a team-hitting percentage of .190.
Tulsa held Wichita State to a hitting percentage of less than .300 in all four sets.

How It Happened

SET 1 | The first set had some success as the Hurricane battled in the start until they were met with a slew of attacking errors that led to a six-point run by the Shockers taking the score from 7-9 to 7-15. Tulsa was unable to battle back as the team hit for .000 in the set with 8 attack errors. Tulsa scored and ended the run for the Shockers with a kill from Tytiana Johnson but soon were met with the offense of the Shockers which propelled the Shockers out to an 8-21 lead. Wichita St. was able to close out the set 25-13 after Tulsa attempted to claw back.

SET 2 | In a set that showed promise for the Hurricane, Tulsa was able to post a .270 team attack percentage with Jolana Smidlova finding 5 kills of her own. Tulsa was able to keep the lead through the entire set with four score ties with the last being at 6-6. Tulsa began to extend the lead with multiple three-point runs allowing the Hurricane to jump to a 15-9 lead before Wichita State called a timeout. After the timeout, the Hurricane kept the pressure on as they closed the set 25-22.

SET 3 | With a battle in the third set that contained 10 score ties and 4 lead changes Tulsa put their offensive trust in Tytiana Johnson who posted 4 kills for the team. Tulsa struggled to hold a lead of more than one point. Tulsa was able to keep the point deficit below 3 until reaching 19-23 and ultimately falling 25-19 in set three.

SET 4 | In what would be the final set for Hurricane, they struggled to overcome the impressive attack of Morgan Stout who posted 8 kills in the set. The Hurricane looked to Beth Bayless and Tatum Tornatta but fell short as each of them were only able to provide 4 kills. The Hurricane fell behind 16-19 before calling a timeout and attempting to combat the deficit. The Hurricane fell in the final set 23-25 after making a last effort that fell short as Morgan Stout closed out the match with her 20th kill of the night.

Tulsa 13 25 19 23 1
Wichita State 25 22 25 25 3