Volleyball Sweeps Tulsa, 3-0

Friday, October 23

Tulsa, Okla.

3:00 PM

University of Memphis

14-8, 5-4

Tulsa

10-11, 5-4

MEMPHIS

Tulsa

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Oct 23, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Seering serves up career-high five aces in win.

By: Tammy DeGroff

TULSA – Kendall Seering served up a career-high five service aces and the Memphis volleyball team (14-8, 5-4 The American) swept past host Tulsa (10-11, 5-4 American) in a mid-afternoon conference match Friday. In all, Memphis recorded nine service aces and hit .237 in the three-set (25-15, 25-22, 25-12) victory as the Tigers grabbed their first-ever win in Tulsa in their sixth try.

"Our passing and serving game was really good today," Head Coach April Jauregui said. "We dominated that part of the game. It was another good team win, and we needed this one today before we play the first place team in the conference, Sunday."

Memphis jumped out to an early lead in the match. Tied at six-all, Memphis went on a 7-1 run that stretched the Tiger lead to 13-7 after Torika Baleilekutu downed back-to-back kills. Tulsa broke that serve, but Memphis then got back-to-back kills from Summer Morgan to take a 17-10 lead. Memphis stayed on the gas and closed out the opening set, 25-15.

"Summer played really well for us today, both hitting and blocking," Jauregui said. "In all, this was probably our best total team effort this year."

In the second set, Seering followed up a Memphis block to stretch what had been a 7-5 Memphis lead to 9-5. A pair of Tiger attack errors let Tulsa sneak back to 9-7 down, but McKenzie Hayes downed three kills on the next six points to stretch the Tiger lead to 14-9. Kills from Michaella Moss and Hayes pushed the lead to 16-9, but Tulsa downed a kill and a block to cut the deficit to 16-12. But Memphis again seemed ready to tuck the set away, up 24-18. But the Golden Hurricane fought off set point five times before Baleilekutu finally tipped a ball away, sending the Tigers to the locker room with the 25-22 second set win and a 2-0 lead.

In the third set, Memphis used its passing and defense to keep the home team at bay. Freshman Mady Ruhlman tallied 13 of her 23 digs in the third set, while Seering scored two more service aces to help the Tigers roll to a 25-12 third set win.

"Mady played remarkable," Jauregui said. "She was passing, digging, talking…probably the best I've seen her play all year."

Memphis now travels to Dallas to face league-leading SMU, Sunday at 1 p.m.

"SMU is tough," Jauregui said. "There's a reason they're a top 30 team, but if we bring our effort like we did tonight, with the passing and serving, we give ourselves a chance."

Hayes led Memphis with 11 kills and a .417 attack percentage, while Morgan finished with nine kills and a .421 attack percentage, adding three blocks. Ruhlman led all players with 23 digs, while Michaella Moss added 12 digs.

Rebecca Reeve led Tulsa with 10 kills, while Brooke Berryhill added 13 digs.