Volleyball enjoys winning weekend in Waco

By Natalie Clericuzio     9/11/08 7:00pm

Even though the volleyball team competed in unfamiliar territory this past weekend, the Baylor Classic tournament in Waco was full of reunions. Rice played the University of Texas-San Antonio for the second consecutive week and head coach Genny Volpe faced off against Weber State University head coach Al Givens, who coached her during her college career at Texas A&M University. The Owls hope to build on their success this weekend when they travel to Nacogdoches, Texas, for the Ladyjack Invitational, hosted by Stephen F. Austin University. The Owls square off today against the University of Oklahoma at 11 a.m., and will quickly follow up that match with a second one against Creighton University at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Rice will tussle with SFA at 2 p.m. Volpe said this tournament will be full of strong competition.

"This is going to be the most competitive tournament of the year so far," Volpe said. "All of these are very quality opponents who will challenge us. I also think we mix in well with that level of competition. I think it's going to be a really good tournament and anyone could win it."

After Louisiana State University cancelled its Tiger Classic last week due to Hurricane Gustav, the team had to look for new competition at the Baylor Classic. There Rice met a familiar foe in UTSA for its opening match of the tournament. The Owls swept the Roadrunners in three games in their first match of the season at Fox Gym on Aug. 29. The second time around, the Roadrunners put up more of a fight as it took the Owls four games to get the win.

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The first game started evenly, with both squads trading points up to a 7-7 tie. Rice then nabbed six quick points to make the score 13-8 and never lost the lead again. In the second game, Rice took the early lead, jumping out to a 13-5 margin. UTSA was unable to overcome the eight-point deficit and lost the second game as well, 25-17.

The third game took a similar pattern to the first, with both teams trading points consistently early. After knotting at 11-11, UTSA went on a run to take the lead 14-11. Rice managed to tie it up again at 17, thanks both to a kill from senior outside hitter Karyn Morgan and to numerous errors by UTSA. That comeback, however, was not enough, and UTSA went on to win 25-21.

Rice came out in the fourth game with what appeared to be renewed spirit, going up 6-1 in a matter of minutes and not letting up on the way to taking a 25-16 game and 3-1 match win.

After defeating UTSA for the second time this season, Rice turned its sights on Weber State.

"Even though we beat them in three I think they challenged us more than UTSA did, who took us to four," Volpe said.

Rice started strong against Weber State, taking the first four points of the match. The two teams proceeded to fight to nine ties until Rice's last minute three-point rally gave them a 31-29 game one win.

The second game started in Rice's favor, with the Owls maintaining the lead up to 18-13. Weber State quickly came back to pull ahead 19-18. Rice responded with five straight points, including three straight kills from Morgan, to regain the lead and eventually take the game 25-20.

In the final game of the match, Weber State started out ahead, but the two squads knotted the score ten times until Rice pulled ahead 19-18 on the way to taking the match 25-18.

Coming off those two wins, Rice still had to face its toughest opponent of the weekend, Baylor University. The Bears took a commanding lead in the match, taking the first two games easily. After a shaky start, the Owls got their footing in the third game. Six kills from freshman outside hitter Ashleigh McCord, as well as consistent digs from sophomore libero Tracey Lam, propelled Rice to a third-set win. The Owls might finally have found their footing in the fourth game, as as the two teams took points from each other up to a 22-22 tie off a Morgan kill. Unfortunately, two untimely Rice errors opened the door for the Bears to take the game 25-22.

Even though Rice did not take the tournament title, the team still received recognition. Morgan made the All-Tournament Team, thanks in part to her impressive play against Baylor when she had 14 kills and 13 digs.

"(Morgan) never got tentative; she just stayed aggressive and regained her composure and took over with her senior leadership," Volpe said. "She led by example, by putting the ball away, which is what we needed from her."

Volpe also said she saw excellent play out of the sophomore class, with setter Meredith Schamun consistently running the offense throughout the tournament and Lam making outstanding plays all weekend.

"Lam was very solid for us all weekend, even though she had a shaky start against Baylor, a lot like some of the other players did," Volpe said. "She just really started relaxing and playing, and she was huge in our comeback . It was really inspiring. She's really coming into her own."

Overall, the long weekend was an opportunity for Rice to find out what kind of team it will be this season.

"I thought we played decent [this weekend] and we could've played better," Schamun said. "I think we saw that when we played well in the last set at Baylor. Saturday was really a kind of learning experience that showed us what we're capable of.

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