Wednesday, November 23
Houston 3, South Florida 1 - Box Score
Wichita State 3, SMU 2 - Box Score
Tulsa 3, Memphia 1 - Box Score
East Carolina 3, Temple 0 - Box Score
UCF 3, Tulane 0 - Box Score
Recaps
Houston 3, South Florida 1 - Box Score
TAMPA, Fla. – The #22 University of Houston volleyball team clinched at least a share of the American Athletic Conference championship with a 3-1 win over South Florida in Tampa on Wednesday. It was the first conference championship for the Cougars since a regular-season title in 1999.
The title marked the first for Houston since it joined the American Athletic Conference and its fifth in program history. With the victory, Houston (28-2, 19-0 The American) extended its program-record winning streak to 20 consecutive matches.
Junior Kate Georgiades posted her third consecutive game with 20-or-more kills with 24 in the match. Senior Abbie Jackson led both teams with 12 kills, while senior Morgan Janda paced the match with 21 assists.
Junior Annie Cooke's 13 assists in the match gave her 2,541 in her career, giving her eighth on Houston's assists list.
Wichita State 3, SMU 2 - Box Score
DALLAS - Trailing two sets to one and without star middle Natalie Foster due to injury, Wichita State rallied for a thrilling five-set win at SMU, 20-25, 26-24, 17-25, 25-19, 15-12.
It's the sixth win in the last seven tries for Wichita State (17-12, 12-6 American), who avenged a three-set defeat to the Mustangs on October 9.
The Shockers trailed 2-1 in sets and 15-13 in the fourth when Foster turned an ankle attempting to block a ball tight to the net. Without their most efficient offensive weapon, Wichita State regrouped and battled back, surging in front with a 6-0 run. Sophia Rohling and Morgan Weber produced emphatic kills to take the lead at 21-17, and SMU got no closer than four points the rest of the way. Defensive specialist Annalie Heliste provided the winner, sending a pass over the net that landed perfectly on the SMU side for her first kill of the season.
Wichita State struck first in the fifth set, taking a 6-1 lead with help from three Morgan Stout kills. The Mustangs (21-10, 14-5 American) slowly but surely chipped away at the early deficit, eventually drawing level at 12-12 when Jadyn Bauss terminated her match-high 18th kill. With the match hanging in the balance, Rohling put WSU back in front with a kill on the right pin, then Morgan Weber and Stout combined for a rejection on 6'6 SMU attacker Marieke van der Mark to bring the Shockers to match point. A furious rally followed, with Morgan Weber hammering a ball off the SMU block into the scorer's table for the match-winning kill.
The Shockers won despite not having a single player reach double-digit kills. Rohling and Brylee Kelly each had nine, Foster and Stout produced eight apiece, Weber had seven and Kayce Litzau notched a season-best six.
Defensively, libero Lily Liekweg had a team-high 22 digs, reaching 1,000 for her collegiate career. She also added two of Wichita State's seven service aces. Stout spearheaded a Shocker block that compiled 16 rejections; the sophomore had a season-high ten blocks to go along with eight kills.
SMU used a late surge to blow open the first set. The Shockers had battled back to tie at 17-17, but the Mustangs scored three in a row down the stretch to take the opener. Wichita State answered in the second set despite trailing for much of the stanza. SMU led 23-19 following a van der Mark kill, and later had set point at 24-23 when Jamison Wheeler terminated. The Shockers responded with three straight points, as Kelly crushed a kill through the block, SMU committed a ball-handling error, and Litzau rolled the ensuing serve off the tape and in to even the match at a set apiece.
As a team, Wichita State had 15 fewer kills (65-50), a worse hitting percentage (.165-.160), fewer aces (11-7) and fewer digs (85-73), but made up the difference with seven more blocks and 12 fewer attack errors.
Tulsa 3, Memphia 1 - Box Score
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The University of Tulsa volleyball team rallied after losing the first set to secure a 3-1 win (16-25, 25-11, 25-22, 25-23) over the Memphis Tigers (18-14, 8-11 American) Wednesday on the road.
The win boosted the Golden Hurricane's record to 13-17 overall and 6-12 in American action.
Outside hitter Kayley Cassaday (.286) put up monster numbers for the Hurricane, landing 26 kills and only six errors in a whopping 70 total attacks. As the season winds down, she now has 514 kills in 1,604 total attacks on the year.
Defensive specialist Ryann Thomas stepped up in the attack by adding two service aces and a career-high 11 kills from the outside position. She also secured three blocks in the win.
Setters Brayden Hipp (23) and Avery Kalsu (20) boosted the Hurricane attacks with 43 total assists.
On the defensive end, libero Marta Pecalli led the floor with 21 digs to go with a career-high six blocks from middle blocker Regan Pendleton.
East Carolina 3, Temple 0 - Box Score
GREENVILLE, N.C. – A pair of late-set comebacks helped propel East Carolina to a 3-0 (25-18, 29-27, 26-24) American Athletic Conference victory over Temple Wednesday afternoon inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
The Pirates (12-19, 7-11 American) finished out their home slate with a 7-6 record while securing their seventh league win – the second most in a single season for the program since joining the AAC. The Owls dropped to 10-20 and 4-15. ECU completed the season series sweep of Temple and have won seven of the last 10 meetings.
Angeles Alderete registered another 20-plus kill effort – her 12th of the season - concluding her first campaign inside Minges Coliseum with 21 kills, five digs and a .357 hitting percentage. Izzy Marinelli added 12 kills, five digs and a .258 hitting mark to her ledger while Kenzie Beckham tied for the match high with 13 digs.
East Carolina ran an efficient offense, tallying 43 kills and committing just 13 errors to hit .306. The visitors did not fare so well, racking up 20 errors on 121 attempts to hit .190. The Pirates also owned a sizable advantage in total blocks (8.0 to 2.0) and total digs (52-36).
The Purple and Gold fell behind 12-9 at the outset before responding with a 5-2 run to knot the score at 14 on a Marinelli kill. ECU surged ahead from there, scoring 15 of the next 18 points to reach set point at 24-18. Temple faltered on the final rally, sending the ball out of bounds.
With the score tied at 16 in the second frame, the Owls edged in front with a Taylor Davenport kill. Temple looked to be in control late in the proceedings, leading 24-22, but a Marinelli kill and Davenport attacking error sent the stanza to extra points. After the sides tussled to a 27-27 deadlock, Alderete and Shaylynn Hall teamed up for a block and Alderete slammed down a kill to give the Pirates the set.
East Carolina faced one of its largest deficits of the day in the third, falling behind 15-10 after a Jelena Prolic kill. A 10-5 Pirate run got the home side right back into the thick of things as Alderete scored off an assist from Beckham to tie the score at 20. The Owls had two chances to end the frame, leading 24-22, but Alderete and Marinelli answered with consecutive kills to keep it going. Temple could not find its footing in the end, giving ECU the set and the sweep via a pair of offensive misfires.
UCF 3, Tulane 0 - Box Score
ORLANDO— The Knights (25-1, 17-1 American) rolled on past Tulane (8-21, 3-15 American) on Wednesday night in The Venue. With the 3-0 sweep (25-23, 25-17, 25-20), UCF recorded its sixth consecutive sweep.
McKenna Melville reached Top-10 Kills All-Time in NCAA history passing 2,482. Amber Olson racked up another milestone with 3,800 assists.
Kari Zumach ignited the Knights to start the match off with a kill. Tulane and UCF knotted the game up six times but the Black and Gold ran away with the lead at 6-6 with a 3-0 run with kills from Melville, Heidi Bonde and Zumach, respectively. UCF continued to pace through the set with Melville closing it out with a kill, 25-23.
The Green Wave started off with the lead in set two, but Claudia Dillon answers back with a kill to tie it 1-1. Melville sparked a 3-0 run at 3-3 to take the lead. Once again, Melville shut the door on set two with a kill, 25-17.
Tulane snatched the first point, but Melville responded back with a kill followed by Abby Hansen to take the lead, 2-1. The Green Wave tied it up at 3-3 following a 3-0 run to take the lead. The Black and Gold went on a 5-0 scoring ignited with back-to-back kills from Hansen to regain the lead, 8-5. Dillon wrapped the match up with a kill, 25-20.
Melville led the Knights with 23 kills and tallied up 13 digs. Hansen and Dillion each recorded 9 kills and one block.