Volleyball Drops First Match Of Season

Saturday, September 21

Memphis, Tenn.

1 pm CT

University of Memphis

11-1

Southeast Missouri

7-6

Southeast Mo. St.

Memphis

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Sep 21, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Tigers turn the page to start of conference play next weekend.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – University of Memphis freshman Gigi Crescenzo downed a career-high 16 kills and sophomore Meredith Wallace posted her third double-double of the season, but it wasn't enough as the Tigers fell to Southeast Missouri 3-1 in the title match of the 2019 Beale Street Challenge Saturday.

The setback ended the Tigers' win streak to the start the season at 11-straight. The 11-consecutive wins to begin a campaign is the best in program history. Memphis' record now stands at 11-1.

Memphis entered Saturday's action as one of five unbeaten NCAA Division I programs. After Saturday's play, four teams remained undefeated, and they are Baylor, California, Hawai'i and Pittsburgh.

Southeast Missouri, which improved its record to 8-6, won the match by scores of 25-21, 25-27, 25-18 and 25-13.

Crescenzo and Hannah Flowers were named to the Beale Street Challenge All-Tournament Team. It was Crescenzo's second tournament honor of the season, and Flowers' third.

Up Next
The Tigers open American Athletic Conference play on the road next weekend. Memphis travels to New Orleans, La., Sept. 27 for a 7 p.m. (CT) match versus Tulane and then moves over to Houston, Texas, Sept. 29 for a 1 p.m. (CT) match against the Cougars.

Head coach Sean Burdette comments
"It was a tough match in terms of taking the loss. Southeast Missouri did a fantastic job of being the aggressor out there today. We had some spurts of being aggressive, but we were not consistent enough. We needed to be better in our serve receive and out-of-system game. This will be a good building block for us, a chance for us to dig in and learn some things and make adjustments. Now, we have a brand new season (with conference play), so it's time to re-set and get ready for Tulane on Friday."

Tigers Tidbits

Gigi Crescenzo's 16 kills surpassed her previous career-high of 11 in a win over UT Martin Sept. 7.
Hannah Flowers had her seventh-straight double-digit kills match and her eighth overall of the season. It was her 43^rddouble-figures kills match of her career.
Sabrina Bianco posted her fifth 40-plus assists match of the season. It was the sixth of her career.
Meredith Wallace had 10 kills and 11 digs (tied career-high) for her third career double-double (also third of the season).
Sabria Cooper posted a career-high nine kills Saturday.
Kaitlyn Gehler recorded 17 digs versus Southeast Missouri. It was her 25^thdouble-figures digs performance of her career.

Statistic	Memphis Leaders	Southeast Missouri Leaders
Kills	Gigi Crescenzo, 16	Laney Malloy, 13 Mikayla Kuhlmann, 13
Assists	Sabrina Bianco, 42	Claire Ochs, 44
Digs	Kaitlyn Gehler, 17	Tara Bielsmith, 19
Aces	Three players, 1	Laney Malloy, 4
Blocks	Andrea O'Connor, 4	Talia Gouard, 6

First Set

The set was tight early, and after a Gigi Crescenzo kill, the score was tied at 10-all.
Memphis went on a 6-3 run to take a 16-13 advantage. The Tigers won three of their points off Crescenzo's serves.
The Tigers maintained their lead at 19-15 when Southeast Missouri made its comeback.
The Redhawks went on an 8-1 run to grab a 23-20 lead.
The Tigers were unable to answer, and Southeast Missouri won the set 25-21.

Second Set

The second set took a similar pattern as the first, but with a different ending.
After a Redhawks' attack error, the set was tied at 9-all.
Memphis pushed out to a 13-9 lead with a 4-0 spurt. Three Redhawks' attack errors aided the Tigers' run.
Southeast Missouri came back and took a 21-19 lead.
The Redhawks stretched their lead to 24-21 with set point on their serve.
Memphis was resilient and tied the set at 24-all on a Hannah Flowers' kill and two Crescenzo kills.
Another Crescenzo kill pushed the Tigers in front at 25-24, but a service error allowed Southeast Missouri to tie the set at 25-all.
The Tigers took the set's last two points – one on a Sabria Cooper kill – for the 27-25 win.

Third Set

The set was close early with nine ties in the first 18 points.
From there, Southeast Missouri steadily built a lead and extended it to four at 20-16.
The Tigers had no answer and dropped the set 25-18.

Fourth Set

Southeast Missouri jumped out to a 10-6 lead and did not trail the remainder of the set.
Memphis tried to stay within striking distance at 14-10 and 15-11.
The Redhawks had the set's final run – a 10-2 spurt – for the 25-13 final and 3-1 match victory.