HOUSTON, TEXAS (November 21, 2009) With four players in double-figures in kills, the fourth-seeded Rice Owls volleyball team steam rolled number one seed Southern Miss 3-1 in a semi-final match of the Conference USA Volleyball Championship in Rice’s Tudor Fieldhouse. With the victory, the Owls now meet Tulsa in the championship match on Sunday at 1 p.m. It is Rice’s first-ever appearance the C-USA championship final which will be shown on CBS College Sports. Tulsa advanced to the final with a 3-0 win over Tulane.
Set scores were 25-16, 16-25, 25-14, 25-13. The Owls improve to 21-8 overall, while the Golden Eagles are now 27-5. Southern Miss had previously defeated Rice in the regular season 3-2 in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Jessie Boulavsky led the balanced Owl attack with 13 kills (.393), while Natalie Bogan followed with 12 kills (.500), and Ashleigh McCord pounded 11 kills. Jennifer McClean had a double-double10 kills and 16 digs.
Setter Meredith Schamun directed Owl offense and she racked up a match-high 42 assists and 9 digs. Owl libéro Tracy Lam had a match-high 25 digs (6.25 digs per set average) and even 2 kills.
Today’s win was the result of a complete team-effort on Rice’s part.
“It was the ultimate team win and our defense we really came through and that’s been keeping us going the whole time as it has always been strong,” said Rice head coach Genny Volpe. “But today, we were not only digging balls up we were making the plays, the smart plays to finish off the point.”
“I thought Rice completely outplayed us,” commented C-USA Coach of the Year Southern Miss’ Ricci Luyties. “They outhustled us and they were the better team today by far. They kept the pressure on us, they were hustling, and getting balls up that I think our girls weren’t expecting them to and (consequently) got frustrated.”
Ashley Mell led USM with 16 kills.
In set one, the Owls started off with a 4-2 lead and did not let up. Rice was even up 20 to 10 with five of Southern Miss’ points coming from five Rice service errors. USM staged a mini-comeback to cut the deficit to 20-14, before an Ashleigh McCord kill ended the run and catapulted Rice to a 25-16 win.
The Owls hit a remarkable .424 in the first set with 17 kills (3 errors) in 33 attack, while USM hit .065 with 8 kills (6 errors) in 31 attempts. The Owls also had 12 digs to the Golden Eagles’ 7.
Jessie Boulavsky led the Owls with 5 kills and Meredith Schamun had 14 assists.
In set two USM equalized the match at 1-1 with a 25-16 win. The Golden Eagles jumped out a 7-3 and never looked back. USM hit .273 with 14 kills, while Rice came back to earth and only hit .056 with 9 kills. The Golden Eagles also collected 17 digs to Owls’ 12.
Rice was up 15-10 in the third set and was ahead 19-14 before scoring six unanswered points to go up two sets to one. The Owls hit .333 with 16 kills and 22 digs, while USM hit .071 with 11 kills.
Bogan and McCord had 4 kills for Rice. Schamun posted 13 assists and Lam led the Owl defense with 10 digs.
The Owls kept the pressure up in set four with an early 8-5 lead, but that would be as close as it would get. Rice extended that lead to 18 to 9 and then kept the train of pain rollin’ for a 25-13 win.
Rice in the fourth stanza hit .314 with 12 kills (1 error) in 35 attacks, collected 22 digs, and had 4 team blocks. The Golden Eagles could not get on track and hit only .020 with 12 kills and 11 errors.
Bogan led Rice in the fourth set with 5 kills, while Nancy Cole had three block assists.
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