Sunday's Sports Update : Volleyball falls out of first in conference in loss to Tulsa

By Daniel Elledge     10/21/10 7:00pm

The volleyball team fought to keep its regular season conference championship hopes alive, but they ran into a speed bump against the University of Tulsa as Rice lost 3-0. This loss drops the Owls to 12-11 overall on the season and 7-4 in conference play.In the first set, Tulsa got off to a hot start as they led 15-6. Rice could never quite catch up as Tulsa cruised to a 25-15 set win. Senior middle blocker Nancy Cole had four kills while junior outside hitter Jordan Meredith had three kills. Senior setter Meredith Schamun had nine assists while junior outside hitter Ashleigh McCord and junior outside hitter Megan White had five digs apiece.

The second and third sets would be a different story as Rice did not give any ground to the Golden Hurricane. Rice took an early 5-2 lead in the set, but Tulsa came storming back to take the lead at 12-9. Tulsa had the lead at 24-22, but Rice held them off as they regained the lead at 25-24. Tulsa won the next point and eventually edged out the Owls, 30-28 to take a 2-0 set lead. In the set, McCord had eight kills while Schamun had 16 assists and Lam had 11 digs.

In the third set, Rice and Tulsa were even through the first 18 points, tied at 9-9. Tulsa started to pull away to take a 14-10 lead. However, the Owls came back to take a 19-17 lead. Tulsa countered that run of Rice points to tie the game at 25-25. The Owls had three chances to win the set but could not convert. Eventually, Tulsa got its chance and won the set 30-28 and the match 3-0.

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For the match, McCord had 18 kills as Cole had 12. Schamun had 39 assists while Lam had 20 digs and White added 15. The Owls' next game is at the University of East Carolina on Friday. The Pirates are 1-20 on the season and 0-9 in conference play.

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