Tulane and UCF ended the weekend by picking up wins against Santa Clara and UIC on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday, September 11
Tulane 3, Santa Clara 2 – Box Score
UCF 3, UIC 1 – Box Score
Tulane 3, Santa Clara 2 – Box Score
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Tulane Volleyball team thwarted four fourth-set match points and blitzed host Santa Clara in the fifth to pull off a rousing 3-2 (25-22, 16-25, 15-25, 28-26, 15-9) comeback victory over the host Broncos Sunday afternoon in the Leavey Center.
Tulane improved to 5-4 overall with the win, while Santa Clara dropped to 3-6.
The Green Wave had four players with double digit kills (Mackenzie Martin-17, Amarachi Osuji-14, Melissa Kolurbasi-13 and Kayla Kaiser-10), while setter Kate Van Houten added 50 assists and libero Jillian Dits led the way with 25 digs. Sophia Ervanian also recorded 12 digs on the defensive end.
Julia Sangiacomo had 27 kills to lead Santa Clara and Kat Georgiadis posted 31 digs, defensively.
The match was played at an extremely high level, as the hosts hit .386 to Tulane's .284. Kolurbasi and Kaiser combined to hit .442 for the Green Wave in 52 swings.
Tulane was in deep trouble in the fourth set, facing a 24-22 deficit, before a kill by Martin and an ace by Van Houten evened the affair at 24-all.
Kolurbasi registered kills to tie it twice more at 25 and 26 before Osuji hammered back-to-back terminations to push the contest into a fifth set.
In the final stanza, Osuji got another kill and Van Houten another ace to give the visitors a 3-1 lead that it wound not relinquish. The advantage grew to as many as eight (14-6) before Kolurbasi's kill put the finishing touches on the Tulane triumph.
The Green Wave returns to Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse for the Tulane Invitational for matches against Oregon State (11 a.m.) and LSU (6:30 p.m.) on Saturday.
UCF 3, UIC 1 – Box Score
ORLANDO, Fla. - The UCF volleyball team defeated UIC by a score of 3-1 (25-16, 20-25, 25-15, 25-15) in The Venue on Sunday night.
The Knights came out strong as McKenna Melville had 10 kills while hitting .533 in the first set. Meanwhile, Abby Hansen had two of the six blocks during the first set. The Black and Gold had a key 3-0 run that forced a time out late in set one to give them the lead 21-15. Then, the Knights finished off the job going on a 4-1 run to take the first set 25-16.
In the second set, the Knights started out slower after UIC went on a 6-0 run to go up 14-10 and forcing a time out. UCF drew closer, getting within one late in the second set to go down 17-16, but UIC scored 4 straight to win the second set, 25-20. The Knights hit .267 as a team while Melville added 5 more kills.
After splitting the first two sets,the Knights came out on fire in the third set, going on a 7-2 run to go up 17-10. UCF finished the set hitting .448 and added 15 more kills while winning the set 25-15.
Up 2-1 going into the fourth, the Knights began on a 10-4 stretch to force a UIC timeout. The offense continued to dominate as Amber Olson served eight times in a row to go up 14-4, forcing UIC to call their last timeout. After trying to storm back, UCF ran away with the set, winning it 25-15. Along with adding 14 kills to their 57 total, the Knights hit .414 during the set. McKenna Melville had 26 kills of her own while Amber Olsen had 42 out of the 53 total assists.
The Knights improve to 5-0 and look to continue their success against Omaha on Thursday in Kansas. During their stint in Kansas, UCF will also face off against Kansas and Lipscomb.