Tulsa Takes Down Bethune-Cookman and Sam Houston at ORU Volleyball Classic

Friday, September 6

Tulsa, Okla. (At ORU)

11:00 a.m.

Tulsa

4-1,0-0AAC

Bethune-Cookman

1-3,0-0SWAC

Tulsa

Bethune-Cookman

Tulsa Takes Down Bethune-Cookman and Sam Houston at ORU Volleyball Classic

9/6/2024 8:16:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery

TULSA, Okla. — The 5-1 Tulsa volleyball team earned consecutive wins on day one of the ORU Volleyball Classic Friday, sweeping the 1-3 Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-17) in the early afternoon and defeating the 1-3 Sam Houston Bearkats 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21) in the evening on Oral Roberts' home court in the Mabee Center in South Tulsa.

The Golden Hurricane improved to 5-1 on the season. It's the best start to a season since 2016 when TU started the year 11-1 and finished with 19 overall wins.

Although Bethune-Cookman challenged Tulsa early in the first match of the day, the Hurricane eventually found its groove and forced the Wildcats to operate out of system. Once BCU was out of sync, Tulsa could not be stopped on the way to the sweep.

Senior middle blocker Rachel Brown and junior outside hitter Lauren Eitler each had seven kills during the match. They were primarily set up by junior setter Brayden Hipp, who finished the match with 19 assists.

On the defensive end, Marta Pecalli, a senior libero, averaged 6.67 digs per set and ended the contest with 20 to her name. Junior middle blocker Arianna Mongare was in on six of Tulsa's eight team blocks.

Against Sam Houston, the Hurricane found themselves challenged often as each set was contested with multiple ties and lead swaps. Three TU players reached double-figures in kills with Eitler leading the way with 13 kills. Hipp took on the brunt of the set work with 29 assists with freshman setter Brittany Bacorn following with 18 assists.

Defensively, Mongare, Johnson and Brown each had four block assists, while Pecalli chipped in 22 more digs, this time averaging 5.5 per set. Eitler dug out 12 digs and secured her first double-double of the year and seventh in her career.

Sam Houston had a whopping five players surpass 10 digs in the match, and Michaela Panekova (16 kills) and Avery Fowler (40 assists) coordinated the offensive attack for the Bearkats.

"When Bethune-Cookman is in system, they're a really good team," senior libero Marta Pecalli said. "When we got them out of system, it was easy for us to score. We did a really good job serving them aggressively.

"Against Sam Houston, they like to play the long game and show a lot of defense, and we kept them out of system, I thought. We scouted them well ahead of today. We played a little disconnected in the first set. In the second set, we allowed ourselves to reset and pass the ball better than them from there on."

Pecalli continued, "For tomorrow, ORU is just another match. We're going to stop them and study them well. We want to win this tournament, and I want to get my fourth win against them."

Tulsa will wrap up the tournament tomorrow against Oral Roberts at 1:30 p.m. in the Mabee Center.

-- Tulsa 3, Bethune-Cookman 0 --

Match Notes

Tulsa moves to 4-1 to start the season … it's the first time since 2016 that the Hurricane has started a season 4-1 or better … that year, TU finished 19-13 overall.
TU gets the 3-0 win in the first-ever meeting between the Hurricane and BCU.
Tulsa enjoyed a 17-3 scoring run to capture the first set.
S Brayden Hipp (18 assists/11 digs) earned her third double-double of the young season and eighth of her career.
L Marta Pecalli finished with 18 digs, averaging six per set.
Tulsa saw 14 of its 16 players step onto the court.
Four Hurricane had five or more kills with MB Rachel Brown and OH Lauren Eitler each finishing with seven.

How It Happened

SET 1 | Bethune-Cookman scored first and took early leads at 5-2 and 11-7. Tulsa had to take a timeout at 13-8, at by which point the Wildcats already had seven kills to two errors while hitting for .294 while the Hurricane was stuck hitting .000 with four kills and four errors. The timeout helped reset momentum as TU fought back with a massive 17-3 run to take its first lead at 16-15 and win the first set 25-16. Timeouts by BCU at 16-15 and 20-16 weren't enough to slow down the Hurricane. L Marta Pecalli helped fuel the defense with eight digs and MB Arianna Mongare was in on all three of Tulsa's blocks during the set.

SET 2 | Tulsa jumped out to a 7-2 advantage to start the second set, forcing a BCU timeout. A five-point difference would separate the two teams until it was 15-10 Tulsa. From there, the Hurricane added four more points to force another Wildcat timeout. At this point, Tulsa was hitting for .320 in the frame and could not be stopped. RS Zella Bennett made her first career appearance for the Hurricane at 23-10 and helped close out set two 25-14 for Tulsa.

SET 3 | Tulsa and BCU traded scores early in the third set until the Hurricane grabbed the lead at 5-4 and never looked back. By the time Bethune-Cookman called a timeout at 10-6, Tulsa was boasting nine more kills, 10 more assists and nine more digs than the Wildcats. Tulsa would win the set by eight points, cruising to a 25-17 finish to complete the sweep.

Tulsa 25 25 25
Bethune-Cookman 16 14 17

-- Tulsa 3, Sam Houston 1 --

Match Notes

Tulsa is 5-1 to start the year … the 2016 season was the last time TU started a season 5-1, and that squad finished 19-13 overall.
In her first match start of the season, OH Lauren Eitler (13 kills/12 digs) recorded a double-double, the seventh of her career.
Three Hurricane had double-digit kills, including OH Lauren Eitler (13), OH Beth Bayless (11) and MB Rachel Brown (10).
Setters Brayden Hipp (29 assists) and Brittany Bacorn (18 assists) combined for 47 assists, averaging 11.75 per set as a duo.
Tulsa out-blocked Sam Houston 9-6 and was led by MB Tytiana's one block solo and four block assists.
L Marta Pecalli completed the match with 22 digs at a 5.5 digs-per-set average.
It was a competitive match as each set featured multiple tie scores and lead changes.
Five different Bearkats reached double-digit digs.

How It Happened

SET 1 | OH Lauren Eitler slammed down Tulsa's first kill of the match for the opening score. TU had leads of 6-3 and 7-4 before SHSU closed the gap at 9-9. Then, the Hurricane moved ahead by three points again until the Bearkats tied the score twice at 13, 14 and 16-all before taking their first multi-point lead at 18-16, forcing a TU timeout. Sam Houston had a three-point lead multiple times from there and closed out the first frame 25-23. Six Hurricane combined for 15 kills and .233 attack percentage, while Sam Houston had 16 kills (.188) and two aces to gain the edge in the set.

SET 2 | Tulsa scored first again but saw the Bearkats fight to make it a 4-4 contest early on. Neither team could gain leverage over the other as the score was knotted up seven more times until TU finally pulled ahead with a 3-0 run to make it a 15-12 set to force a Bearkat timeout. The break failed to slow down the Hurricane as Tulsa extended the lead to six at 20-14, at which point Sam Houston took its second timeout. TU couldn't be stopped as set two went to the Hurricane, 25-20, evening the match at one set apiece. L Marta Pecalli had 12 digs under her belt through two sets with OH Lauren Eitler close behind with nine. S Brayden Hipp also boasted 17 assists (8.5 per set) at this point.

SET 3 | MB Rachel Brown killed the ball to secure the opening score for Tulsa. The Hurricane opened the third set with a 3-0 run and jumped out to a 5-1 advantage. The lead didn't last long as Sam Houston came back to tie the set 8-8. TU broke the subsequent 9-9 deadlock and opened up a lead at 15-11. An ace by OH Beth Bayless made it a 19-15 set and forced Sam Houston to take a timeout to try to reset momentum. From there, Tulsa went on a 6-2 run capped off by a kill from RS Jolana Smidlova to win the frame 25-17 and give TU its first match lead at 2-1.

SET 4 | MB's Rachel Brown and Tytiana Johnson went up together to stuff a Bearkat attack to open the fourth set, giving Tulsa the initial score. The Hurricane took no time imposing its will on the Bearkats by jumping out to an 8-3 lead to force an early timeout by SHSU. TU was up 14-8 until Sam Houston rattled off five straight points to bring the score to within one at 14-13, forcing a Tulsa timeout. The pause worked for the Hurricane as Tulsa refused to trail the Bearkats. Sam Houston took its final timeout at 22-20, but it was to no effect as the fourth and final set went to the Hurricane 25-21.

Tulsa 23 25 25 25
Sam Houston 25 20 17 21