Tale of two matches as Owls blank UCF before losing to USM

By Paul Fitzgerald     10/22/09 7:00pm

With their goal of winning Conference USA in mind, the volleyball team entered the weekend looking for two victories to put them near the top of the conference standings. Instead, a five-set loss to the University of Southern Mississippi left the Owls in need of some help if they are to attain a conference championship. Rice (14-6, 6-3 C-USA) enters this weekend again needing a pair of victories to keep alive their hopes of winning C-USA. The Owls will travel to Dallas to take on Southern Methodist University, currently fifth in the conference, this evening. The Owls downed the Mustangs (15-7, 5-3 C-USA) in three sets earlier this season. The team will then head to Tulsa, Okla., to face off against the University of Tulsa. The Owls dropped a home match against the Golden Hurricane (17-5, 6-2 C-USA) two weeks ago and will look for better execution this time around to defeat C-USA's third-place team.

"They got us out of system way too much last time," Head Coach Genny Volpe said. "We're definitely going to be focusing on serving aggressively and passing and staying in system."

Rice began the weekend positively, dropping conference foe University of Central Florida in three sets (25-18, 25-17, 25-16). Senior outside hitter Natalie Bogan and sophomore outside hitter Ashleigh McCord both recorded double-digit kills for the Owls, while junior libero Tracey Lam, fresh off breaking Rice's all-time dig record Oct. 13, continued her strong defense with a team-high sixteen digs.

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As a team, the Owls had a hitting percentage of over .400, and UCF (10-12, 2-7 C-USA) could not keep up with the speed of the Rice offense.

"They had a really hard time with the speed of our offense," Bogan said. "We focused on taking things one match at a time, and we were really prepared and followed the game pace for the UCF match."

With a victory under their belt, Rice entered Sunday's match against Southern Miss (20-3, 8-1 C-USA) with high hopes, having won two out of their last three matches. Despite grabbing two of the first three sets, the Owls could not close out the match, eventually falling in five sets (25-20, 28-26, 23-25, 25-20, 9-15).

After splitting the first two frames, Rice opened the third set with an 8-2 run, but Southern Miss roared back to tighten up the score. A kill by senior outside hitter Jenn McClean sealed the set, as freshman outside hitter Nancy Cole contributed four kills and two blocks to put the Owls a set away from a huge victory.

But Southern Miss, facing defeat, came out strong in the fourth set to force a fifth and final frame. Falling behind early, the Owls could not regroup in time and eventually dropped the set 15-9.

Junior Meredith Schamun led the Owls' offense with 49 assists, while four players contributed double-digit kills. Yet it was the defensive aspect of the match that stood out to Volpe.

"It was definitely a battle at the net throughout the match," Volpe said. "They took advantage when we were out of system and set up a good block, and it was tough for us to get a kill during the fourth and fifth set."

Their third conference loss of the season places even more pressure on the team in the coming weeks. SMU is currently in the middle of the C-USA standings, while Tulsa sits in third, one place above Rice. The Owls have managed to stay focused on their current opponent, a point emphasized by Volpe, and have not lost a match to a team below them in the C-USA standings.

Rice will look to continue that trend this weekend, and also start a new one: to beat a team above them in the C-USA standings.

"It was really disappointing to lose [to UCF], but we still have good teams to play," senior outside hitter Natalie Bogan said. "We still think we have a good chance if we beat the teams we should beat. We don't know how the teams above us will do, so all we can do is take care of our own business.

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