Tulsa Volleyball Heads South for Texas State Invitational, Road Match at Abilene Christian

MATCH 7:
Tulsa (4-2) at Texas State (3-2)
6:00 p.m. CT - Friday, Sept. 12, 2025
Strahan Arena at the University Events Center (7,295) • San Marcos, Texas

MATCH 8:
Tulsa (4-2) vs. Incarnate Word (3-3)
11:00 a.m. CT - Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025
Strahan Arena at the University Events Center (7,295) • San Marcos, Texas

MATCH 9:
Tulsa (4-2) at Abilene Christian (2-5)
3:00 p.m. CT - Monday, Sept. 15, 2025
Moody Coliseum (3,600) • Abilene, Texas

TSU INVITATIONAL LIVE STATS: Texas State StatBroadcast
ABILENE CHRISTIAN LIVE STATS: Abilene Christian StatBroadcast
TV (Texas State and Abilene Christian Matches Only): ESPN+
GAME NOTES: Tulsa

THE COACHES:
Tulsa: Lauren Ramatowski (Kansas State, 2010), 3^rd year
Career Record: 40-28
School Record: Same

Texas State: Sean Huiet (Bowling Green, 2003), 6^th year
Career Record: 120-49
School Record: Same

Incarnate Word: Gabryel Ording (Louisiana Tech, 2013), 3^rd year
Career Record: 35-30
School Record: Same

Abilene Christian: Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup (Abilene Christian, 2011), 3^rd year
Career Record: 23-41
School Record: Same

Welcome to Season 50 of Tulsa Volleyball

2025 marks the 50th season of Golden Hurricane volleyball at The University of Tulsa.
Since 1976, Tulsa has played in 1,594 matches in the program's history, winning 776 in total.
221 different student-athletes have donned the Royal Blue and Old Gold since the program's founding.
TU volleyball players have earned 54 all-conference awards, 15 All-America honors and four Academic All-Americas while winning six overall conference titles and qualifying for eight postseasons (4 NCAA, 4 NIVC).

Coming Up: Texas State Invite and a Road Trip to Abilene Christian

Coming off four straight wins and a 3-0 showing at last week's Wooo Pig Invitational in Arkansas, the Tulsa volleyball squad will take on Texas State and Incarnate Word this Friday and Saturday, respectively, and will follow with a true road contest at Abilene Christian on Monday, September 15 at 3 p.m.
Friday's bout with the hosting Bobcats is set for a 6 p.m. start on ESPN+. Saturday's neutral contest with the Cardinals will begin at 11 a.m.

Scouting the Texas State Bobcats

This will be the sixth all-time meeting in the overall series.
Tulsa has a chance to tie up the series and extend its winning streak over the Bobcats to three as Texas State leads 3-2 entering Friday.
The prior two meetings ended in 3-1 wins for TU in 2013 and 2016. The 2016 match was also at the Texas State Invitational.
Texas State is off to a 3-2 start after putting together wins against UTSA, UTRGV and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and falling to SFA and UTEP.
Last year, the Bobcats the season as Sun Belt Tournament Champions with a 22-9 record, punching their ticket for their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Tulsa is 35-7 all-time against Sun Belt Conference teams.

Measuring up the Incarnate Word Cardinals

Friday's matchup with UIW will be just the second all-time meeting.
The first match ended in a 3-1 winner for Tulsa in the 2016 season-opener during the Hurricane Classic.
Incarnate Word is 3-3 to start the year, earning wins over Abilene Christian, Missouri State and Northern Colorado and falling to Oklahoma, Wichita State and #18 BYU.
UIW went 17-11 last season after exiting the Southland Conference tournament in the second round.

Facing the Abilene Christian Wildcats

Monday marks the fourth all-time meeting between TU and ACU.
The Golden Hurricane have won all three matches so far, earning a 3-2 win in 2018 at home, a 3-1 rout across town at Oral Roberts' tournament in 2022 and a 3-0 sweep at Baylor's tournament last year.
Abilene Christian is 2-5 to start the year with their only wins coming against Missouri State and Northwestern State.
Last season, ACU went 10-18 with a first-round exit in the WAC tournament.

National and Conference Stat Rankings

After two weekends of action, here's where Tulsa stacks up on the individual and team level in the American and the national stat rankings.
True freshman middle Jill Hanson ranks third among all freshmen in the country for hitting percentage at .434. She's also third in the American and 31st overall in the nation.
Senior middle Kat Cooper is seventh in the American Conference for blocking (1.19/set).
Senior setter Brayden Hipp averages 8.81 assists (5th)and owns 185 total assists (3rd), both of which rank top five in the league.
Junior libero Lauren Patterson cracked the conference's top 10 in digs with 3.43 per set.
As a team, Tulsa 39th in the country for assists per set (12.76) and 49th for hitting percentage (.266). Their assists per set mark is second in the conference.

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.
Tied for the lead are junior outside Olivia Vance and senior outside Lauren Eitler at 2.76 kills landed per set.
Senior outside Beth Bayless is right behind at 2.75 per set with senior middle Kat Cooper at the rear with 2.38 per stanza.
Freshman middle Jill Hanson is close with 1.95 kills per set.
Much of this is due to brilliant passing by senior setter Brayden Hipp, who's been distributing the ball evenly through two weeks of play.

Tulsa Goes 3-0 at Wooo Pig Invitational

Tulsa's coming off a strong weekend in Arkansas, 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.

Brayden Hipp Tabbed Preseason All-Conference

Tulsa senior Brayden Hipp has been selected as one of 16 American Preseason All-Conference volleyball players.
The Preseason Coaches' Poll also designated the Golden Hurricane to finish sixth out of the 13 teams.
Hipp has improved in every season she's played for Tulsa. She's coming off a junior campaign where, as TU's go-to setter, she averaged 6.45 assists and 2.89 digs per set.
She had a double-double in 17 of 29 matches played and finished with 17 20+ assist matches, seven 30+ assist contests and 17 double-figure dig showings.
Hipp enters her fourth and final season at TU with two American Conference Setter of the Week awards, one American Weekly Honorable Mention and two American All-Academic Team selections.
In her career, she has averages of 3.79 assists (1,210), 2.37 digs (756) and 0.15 aces (47) … Has 22 double-doubles, 33 double-figure dig matches and 29 contests with 20+ assists.

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.

Tulsa Volleyball Heads South for Texas State Invitational, Road Match at Abilene Christian

Next Event

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

Tulsa Volleyball Heads South for Texas State Invitational, Road Match at Abilene Christian

Next Event

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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