Volleyball suffers setback against Tulsa

The Tulane women’s volleyball team had their six-game winning streak ended this past Sunday at Tulsa.

After a 3-1 win against Southern Methodist University Oct. 30 that extended their winning streak to six, the Wave could not outscore fellow Conference USA league leader, Tulsa. The loss dropped their record to 15-7 and 10-3 in conference play.

In their battle against SMU at Moody Coliseum in Dallas, the Green Wave ended the Mustangs’ 11-match home-court winning streak as five Green Wave players recorded double digit kills. Sophomore outside hitter Visnja Djurdjevic led the team with 14, while rookie middle Marija Milosavljevic had 13, senior outside Ksenija Vlaskovic added 12 and both freshman right-side hitter Milica Jovic and Shepard had 11.

A large contribution to the Green Wave’s effective offense was an impressive performance by senior Rachel Lindelow, who had 52 assists, three kills, two aces and 13 digs. Lindelow was among four other players to finish with 10-plus digs, including senior libero Jenn Miller with 18, Djurdjevic and defensive specialist Jaye Loyd with 16 each, and Vlaskovic with 12.

The Green Wave got off to a slow start, losing the first round 25-18 as SMU scored seven of the first 10 points. Tulane, however, quickly answered with two 25-20 wins. Finally, an intense back-and-forth battle led to a 26-24 win for the Green Wave in the final stanza to wrap up the game and give Tulane its sixth consecutive win.

“Whenever we had the lead, they kept fighting back,” head coach Sinisa Momic said. “They’re a good team and kept fighting until the end, but we were steady and that was the difference in the match. SMU is a quality team and it looks like we might be peaking at the right moment.”

Unfortunately, the match against Tulsa on Nov. 1 at the Reynolds Center in Oklahoma did not end as well for the Green Wave. Though Tulane scored took a strong win in the first stanza 25-21, the team was not able to stop the Golden Hurricane’s three consecutive match wins. Djurdjevic and Vlaskovic combined for an overall 31 kills, 14 digs, four aces and four block assists.

“We started really well,” Momic said. “In game one, everything worked. Whatever the play was, we stuffed their best hitters. Tulsa was really relentless in defense and out-dug us by 17. They went after everything. It was close, but again, our blocking worked on and off.”

It was no shutout as the two C-USA rivals traded points in every stanza. The Green Wave rallied late in the second match, but a pair of kills by Tulsa after an attack error by Tulane gave the Golden Hurricanes the win. In the third and fourth rounds, Tulane scored early in the matches and held on by one point late in the stanza. Attack errors and Tulsa kills, however, proved to be the decisive factors.

“We definitely know what our problem is, and we’re going to work on that,” said Momic. “It [Tulsa] was our last conference match on the road so the last three are all at home. The effort was there. Maybe it was the knowledge or the technical level and defense that Tulsa was better at. At the end, we had some unforced errors that Tulsa just didn’t do. We have to work on that and come out a better team after this.”

The Green Wave have another important C-USA battle when they host Rice at 7 p.m., Nov. 6, in Fogelman Arena. The match against the Owls is the first of three home contests for Tulane to end the regular season as the Wave will battle Houston on Nov. 8 and University of Texas-El Paso on Nov. 14.