Volleyball Closes Season With Sweep

Friday, November 27

Memphis, Tenn.

12:00 PM

University of Memphis

19-14,10-10American

Houston

19-13, 9-11American

Houston

Memphis

Photo by: George Walker

Nov 27, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Tigers Finish in Tie for Fourth in League Standings

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – Thanks to a 3-0 sweep in a tightly-contested matchup against the visiting Houston Cougars (19-13, 9-11 American), the University of Memphis volleyball team (19-14, 10-10 American) finished the 2015 season in a tie for fourth in the conference standings, Friday afternoon. Memphis won 25-22, 27-25, 25-23 for their fifth victory in the last six outings, and wrapped up the careers of a trio of seniors with three straight home victories. In all, the Friday noon match saw 29 ties and 12 lead changes before Memphis escaped with the victory.

Memphis used some of the momentum from its pre-match senior day festivities to jump out to a 5-1 lead in the first stanza. But with Memphis leading 16-13, Houston got a kills from four different players over a five point span to tie the match at 17-all, forcing a Tiger timeout.

The visitors took an 18-17 lead with a Tiger attack error out of the break, but Michaella Moss downed a kill to tie it up again at 18. Then senior middle Torika Baleilekutu and McKenzie Hayes teamed up for a block to tie the match at 20, and Summer Morgan put down a ball for a 21-20 Tiger lead, their first lead since 17-16. Following a Lindsey Purvis service ace, Houston called a timeout and used a kill from Brookah Palmer to pull to 22-21 down, but Memphis closed out the set on a Cougar service error, 25-22.

Memphis had to work from behind in the second set. Houston hurried out to a 6-3 lead, capitalizing on some early Tiger communication errors. But Hayes downed one of her six kills to start a 5-1 Memphis run that would tie the score at 10. But the tie just energized the Cougars, who built the lead back up to two off a kill from Chenille Walker before a Catlin Lilly kill and a Cougar attack error tied the score at 14. The score would tie up all the way to 22-all before Houston got pair of kills from Palmer for a 24-22 lead. Memphis fought off one set point with a block of a Palmer attack by Hayes and Baleilekutu and a Cougar set error knotted the score up at 24, taking away the Cougars' set point opportunity.

Next up, it was a Tiger opportunity that next went away. After the Cougars were whistled for a second consecutive set error, pushing Memphis up 25-24, Palmer killed another ball, knotting the score at 25-all and wiping out the Tigers' set point. But a pair of Houston attack errors floated out of the court and Memphis hit the locker room up 2-0 thanks to the 27-25 win.

The third set saw 10 ties and two lead changes. Catlin Lilly downed six of her 12 kills in the final set, including one for 10-all and another for 11-all. With the score knotted at 12, Houston got three kills from Chenelle Walker and one from Palmer to push ahead 17-13, forcing a Tiger timeout. Memphis slowly worked its way back out of the timeout thanks to scores from three different Tigers sandwiched around a Purvis service ace. A block from Hayes and Morgan tied the score at 19-all and Lilly downed two more kills to push the Memphis lead to 22-20, forcing Houston to use both of its timeouts.
Houston would make one last push thanks to kills from Hunter Wise, Claire McCown and Shelby Harper, but with the score tied at 23, Memphis went back to Lilly one more time, and the junior outside scored kill number 12 for the 24-23 lead. A Houston attack error closed out the match, 25-23, for the Tigers.

Lilly was the lone Tiger in double digit kills, finishing with 12. Oluchi Agomuo added eight kills and Summer Morgan added five kills and a game-high five blocks. Mady Ruhlman led the Tiger defense with 14 digs, while senior Veronica Zimmerman added 11. Zimmerman, who has missed a number of games due to injury, started at setter for Memphis on senior day and her eighth assist on the afternoon gave her 4,000 for her career, making her just the fourth Tiger in school history to have 4,000 or more career assists. Zimmerman finished with 29 assists. Her 11 digs also pushed her past the 1,000 career dig mark for her career.

Germantown's Purvis led all players with three service aces in her last career game, adding 10 digs.

Chenelle Walker led Houston with 15 kills, and hit .500 for the match. Palmer added 12 kills and McCown 11 in the loss.

Memphis' 2015 season is now complete with the 3-0 win. The Tigers finished the American Athletic Conference standings tied with UConn for fourth overall. The two teams split the regular season matchups, each winning on the other's home floor.

The Tigers graduate three players from this year's roster and next year, will return three starters and 11 letterwinners from this year's roster. Joining Memphis next fall will be a trio of signees from the early signing period – Tai Bierria (Marietta, Ga./George Walton HS) Brianna Kadiku (Cedar Hill, Texas/Cedar Hill HS), and Addison Root (Wichita, Kan./Collegiate School).