Volleyball Wins Saluki Invitational

Saturday, September 14

Carbondale, Ill.

11 am CT

University of Memphis

9-0

IUPUI

4-5

IUPUI

Memphis

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Sep 14, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Flowers Named tournament MOP; Gehler, O'Connor all-tournament picks.

CARBONDALE, Ill. – University of Memphis' Hannah Flowers earned the Saluki Invitational Most Outstanding Player honor in leading the Tigers to a 3-0 victory over IUPUI in the tournament's championship match Saturday.

Memphis won the match by scores of 25-19, 25-20 and 26-24. The Tigers swept through the Saluki Invitational with wins over Alabama State, Southern Illinois and IUPUI.

With the three wins this weekend, Memphis improved its record to 9-0. The 9-0 start is the program's second-best in program history. The 2001 team's 10-0 start is the best in school history.

Flowers, who downed 19 kills in Saturday's title match, had 49 kills and hit a .460 clip in the weekend's three outings. She added five aces and six total blocks.

Andrea O'Connor and Kaitlyn Gehler were selected to the Saluki Invitational All-Tournament Team. O'Connor posted 16 kills and six total blocks in the three matches, and Gehler collected 56 digs over the weekend.

Up Next
Memphis returns home to the friendly confines of the Elma Roane Fieldhouse to host the 2019 Beale Street Challenge. The Tigers welcome North Alabama, Southeast Missouri and Toledo to the Bluff City for the two-day tournament. Action begins Friday at 10 a.m. (CT) and continues through Saturday.

Head coach Sean Burdette comments
"This weekend was yet another step for our team in that we had three very good opponents that all game planned and attacked us differently. It really pushed the staff and players to really focus on the scouting reports and then make adjustments in-game. (Assistant coach) Alexa (Wharton) and (associate coach) Taylor (Unroe) brought great scouts to the players and made good adjustments based on each opponent.

"Again, we had players step up when needed. Anna came into the match and hit very well, but also sealed the win with an ace on match point. Andrea was very solid offensively and really brought the attention of their middles which, in turn, opened up Hannah's attack. Hannah did a tremendous job the entire weekend and had high numbers in kills per set as well as hitting percentage. What won't show in the stats is her impact at the service line. Although she didn't have a ton of aces, she really put the opponents out-of-system a fair amount.
"Now, it's time to get home, rest up and get ready for our next opponent."

Statistic	Memphis Leaders	IUPUI Leaders
Kills	Hannah Flowers, 19	Corrissa Remter, 14
Assists	Sabrina Bianco, 34	Rebecca Schlechte, 33
Digs	Kaitlyn Gehler, 21	Rachel Hickey, 13
Aces	Five players, 1	Three players, 1
Blocks	Sabria Cooper, 4	Corrissa Remter, 2

Tigers Tidbits

The Tigers' 9-0 start is the second-best in program history to the 2001 team's 10-0 mark to begin that campaign.
Memphis won its third in-season tournament with the Saluki Invitational title this weekend. The last time the Tigers won three tournaments in the same season was 2011.
Hannah Flowers went over the 700-kills plateau in Friday's win over Southern Illinois. She added to that total Saturday and now has 732 career kills.
Sabrina Bianco posted her seventh 30-plus assists match of the season. It was the 11^thof her career.
Kaitlyn Gehler recorded her second-straight 20-plus digs match and her fourth double-digit digs match of the season. It was her 22^nddouble-figures digs performance of her career.

First Set

Memphis pushed out to an early 3-0 lead and never trailed.
Kills from Andrea O'Connor and Hannah Flowers got the Tigers out to the quick lead.
The Tigers extended their advantage to 11-5 off Gigi Crescenzo's service game that led to two IUPUI errors.
Memphis maintained a comfortable margin the rest of the set and won 25-19.
The Tigers sealed the set on back-to-back kills from Flowers and Sabria Cooper.

Second Set

The set was close in the first 24 points with three ties and no lead larger than three points.
The Tigers put together the set's first mini-run to take a 15-12 advantage. Two Meredith Wallace kills and a Flowers' kill gave Memphis the lead.
IUPUI cut the Tigers' lead to one at 16-15, but did not get the equalizer the rest of the set.
Memphis pulled out to a 20-15 lead and held on for the 25-20 win. Wallace's two kills netted the Tigers' last two points of the set.

Third Set

IUPUI opened the third set taking a 2-0 lead on consecutive Memphis errors. The lead was the Jaguars' first of the match.
Memphis answered with a 14-6 spurt to take a 14-8 lead. Flowers had three kills and one ace in the run, and Anna Palmer added two kills.
The Tigers maintained their six-point lead at 18-12, but IUPUI had one last run.
The Jaguars put together an 11-4 rally to take a 23-22 advantage.
A Palmer kill knotted the set at 23-all.
After an IUPUI kill gave the Jaguars a 24-23 lead, Flowers downed consecutive kills for a 25-24 Memphis lead.
Palmer's ace sealed the 26-24 set win and 3-0 match victory.