Volleyball to Face Wichita State in Home-and-Home Series this Weekend

MATCH 15:
Tulsa (11-3, 1-1 American) at Wichita State (10-4, 2-0 American)
7:00 p.m. CT - Friday, Oct. 3, 2025
Charles Koch Arena (10,506) • Wichita, Kan.

MATCH 16:
Tulsa (11-3, 1-1 American) vs. Wichita State (10-4, 2-0 American)
1:00 p.m. CT - Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025
Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.

LIVE STATS: Wichita State StatBroadcast
LIVE STATS: Tulsa StatBroadcast
TV (Tulsa Matches Only): ESPN+
GAME NOTES: Tulsa
GAME NOTES: Wichita State

THE COACHES:
Tulsa: Lauren Ramatowski (Kansas State, 2010), 3^rd year
Career Record: 47-29
School Record: Same

Wichita State: Chris Lamb (Sonoma State, 1998), 26^th year
Career Record: 536-254
School Record: Same

A Home-and-Home Series with Wichita State

The Golden Hurricane continues American Conference action this weekend as they take on Wichita State for a pair of matches - one in Wichita and one at home.
TU faces the Shockers on the road Friday, October 3, at 7 p.m. in the Charles Koch Arena. Then, the two teams will turn around and bring the action to T-Town for a 1 p.m. showdown in the Donald W. Reynolds Center at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 5.

Home Match Promotions

Sunday is Youth and Club Volleyball Day in the Reynolds Center. Tulsa coaches and players welcome back summer campers and will host a free post-match clinic for all kids in attendance at the 6^th-grade level or below.
Tulsa will also be selling old TU volleyball jerseys that are no longer in use. All items are $20 and go towards the Loyal Always True fund, which directly benefits Tulsa student-athletes.

Best Start Since 2016

Despite dropping a heartbreaker at Rice to snap an 11-match win streak, the 11-3 Golden Hurricane are still off to their best start to a season after 14 matches since 2016 (12-2).
At the time, TU's 11-match winning streak was tied for the 5th longest in the NCAA.
Tulsa went 10-1 in the month of September, won 11 of their last 12 matches this year, and have emerged victorious in 14 of their last 19 outings dating back to the end of last year.

Scouting the Wichita State Shockers

This weekend marks the 60th and 61st all-time meetings between the Tulsa and Wichita State volleyball programs.
Wichita State leads the all-time series 44-15 entering the action.
Tulsa is just 2-23 against the Shockers when playing in Wichita. Their only wins came in the 1979 and 1980 Shocker Invitationals (3-0 win in 1979, 2-0 win in 1980), when neither school was involved in any conference.
On the flipside, Tulsa is 6-19 when hosting Wichita State and 7-2 in neutral contests.
The Shockers are 10-4 overall and 2-0 to start conference play after taking down UAB in four sets and sweeping Memphis last time out.
Jordan Heatherly leads the league in assists per set (9.06), while Maddie wilson is No. 1 in blocks per set (1.46).
Last year, the Shockers went 18-14 overall, 10-6 in conference action and won the American Championship on their home court as the tournament's No. 4 seed.

National and Conference Stat Rankings

After five weeks of volleyball, here's where Tulsa stacks up on the individual and team level in the American and the national stat rankings.
Senior setter Brayden Hipp is second in the league with 9.02 assists per set and owns the second-most total assists with 460. Her total assists mark is 45th in the country.
Hipp's 42-assist performance in the win over Little Rock is tied for the 13th-most assists by a single player in a three-set match nationwide.
True freshman middle Jill Hanson leads the American with a .387 hitting percentage. She peaked with .889 (8-0-9) against Cleveland State and has hit over .500 five times this season.
14 blocks in the last two matches propelled Hanson up to No. 9 on the league's blocking list with 1.0 block per set so far this season.
Sophomore setter Brittany Bacorn has come in to boost Tulsa's serve. She ranks eighth in the conference for services aces (0.35/set).
Junior libero Lauren Patterson is holding steady at fifth in the American for digs (211) and digs per set (4.14).
As a team, Tulsa leads the American Conference in assists per set (13.02), hitting percentage (.267), kills per set (13.94) and winning percentage (.786).
TU is 17th in the nation for assists per set, 22nd in kills per set and 33rd in hitting percentage.

Tulsa Thriving on Balanced Attack

Tulsa has four players currently averaging 2-3 kills per set. Any one of them can lead the team in kills for any given match.
Leading is senior outside Olivia vance with 2.96 per set followed by senior outside Lauren Eitler at 2.75.
Senior outside Beth Bayless is third at 2.51 per set with senior middle Kat Cooper managing 2.20 kills per set.
Freshman middle Jill Hanson is close with 1.94 kills per set.
Much of this is due to brilliant passing by senior setter Brayden Hipp, who's been distributing the ball evenly through four weeks of play.

Everyone's Digging It

The defense has also been balanced for the Golden Hurricane.
Four players average two or more digs per set, with junior libero Lauren Patterson ranking fifth in the conference with 4.14 digs per set.
Senior outside Lauren Eitler has been putting up 2.84 digs, while sohomore setter Brittany Bacorn has 2.75 digs and senior setter Brayden Hipp maintains 2.25 digs. All four players haveg 115 digs on the season or more through five weeks.

Golden Hurricane Sweep Three in Tulsa Volleyball Invitational

Tulsa wrapped up the non-conference slate with a trio of 3-0 sweeps over New Mexico State, Oral Roberts and Little Rock to win the Tulsa Volleyball Invitational.
Olivia Vance, Brayden Hipp and Lauren Eitler were named to the All-Tournament Team, with Vance taking home MVP honors after earning 37 kills (4.1 per set) and hitting for .472 over the weekend.
Lauren Eitler's 13 kill-12 dig performance helped push Tulsa to victory over the Aggies in the opening match of the tournament.
In the 85th Mayor's Cup battle between the TU and ORU volleyball teams, the Golden Hurricane came out on top once again, increasing its current win streak over the Golden Eagles to 16 and cutting ORU's series lead down to 56-29.
Tulsa posted a .325 hitting percentage with 51 kills against Little Rock. Notably, Vance landed 15 kills and finished with a .448 hitting mark, and Kat Cooper also finished above .400, going 12-2-24 from the floor for a .417 hitting clip.

Tulsa Goes 3-0 at Wooo Pig Invitational

Tulsa's had a strong weekend in Arkansas in week two, where the Golden Hurricane produced convincing wins over Cal Poly, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Oklahoma was receiving votes in last week's national top-25 rankings.
TU dominated Cal Poly with a .357 hitting percentage, led by .500+ showings by Olivia Vance (.591), Jill Hanson (.571) and Lauren Eitler (.500), with Vance leading the way with 15 kills to only two errors on 22 total attacks.
Oklahoma's nine service aces were not enough to overcome Tulsa's balanced attack, highlighted by a .341 hitting percentage in the second set. Former Sooner Beth Bayless paved the way with 11 kills and 2 aces.
The Golden Hurricane have now won two in a row over the Razorbacks. Three TU players finished in double-digits for kills thanks to a monster performance by setter Brayden Hipp, who recorded a career-best 45 assists to go with eight digs, three kills, two aces and two blocks.

Returning for Tulsa

Tulsa returns four letterwinners, including three veteran starters from last year's roster entering their senior seasons. They are outside hitters Beth Bayless and Lauren Eitler and setter Brayden Hipp. Sophomore setter Brittany Bacorn rounds out the returners on the 2025 roster.
These four players account for 23.6% of total points, 22.2% of kills, 83% of assists, 46.2% of digs and 19.3% of blocks returning from last year.

On the Roster

TU returns three of seven starters and four of 12 letterwinners.
Returning starters include senior hitters Beth Bayless and Lauren Eitler and senior setter Brayden Hipp.
The fourth and final returning letterwinner is sophomore setter Brittany Bacorn.
The Golden Hurricane welcomes four transfer players to the roster in 2025. The TU coaching staff hit the transfer portal this offseason and signed San Diego State senior middle Kat Cooper (Springdale, Ark.), James Madison outside junior Olivia Vance (Bixby, Okla.), Loyola Marymount senior libero Lauren Patterson (Portland, Ore.) and Iowa Western Community College junior libero Quinn Swofford (Branson, Mo.).
The six true freshmen ready to don the Blue and Gold for the first time this year are setter Meg Goodwin (Tulsa, Okla.), middle blocker Jill Hanson (San Antonio, Texas), libero Milee Jackson (Tulsa, Okla.) and hitters Kylee McCoy (Royse City, Texas), Maegan Mills (Topeka, Kan.) and Ava Steffe (Frisco, Texas).

2025 Tickets
Single-game tickets are now on sale for $13 per ticket per match for ages 4 and older and can be purchased in advance at TulsaHurricane.com or at the entrance. Season tickets also start at just $50. Season ticket members will receive 1 (one) membership card per ticket that they order that will be good for all 2025 TU Volleyball regular-season home matches in the Donald W. Reynolds Center. No refunds for canceled games due to weather-related or any other cause. CLICK HERE to start the process of ordering tickets or call 918-631-4688.

Ball Kid Signups
The Tulsa volleyball team is looking for ball kids for the 2025 season. Ball kids and one accompanying parent or guardian will receive free admission for games they sign up for. Ball kids will retrieve balls that go out of bounds on the sidelines for the entire game and provide a fresh ball for servers. Only ages 10-12 are allowed to participate. Individual and group signups will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign up by clicking HERE.

Visit www.TulsaHurricane.com for the latest news and information on the volleyball program. Fans can also follow the team on X, Facebook and Instagram.

Volleyball to Face Wichita State in Home-and-Home Series this Weekend

Players Mentioned

Brittany Bacorn

Beth Bayless

Kat Cooper

Lauren Eitler

Jill Hanson

Brayden Hipp

Milee Jackson

Kylee McCoy

Lauren Patterson

Ava Steffe

Quinn Swofford

Olivia Vance

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