Volleyball prepares for Conference USA tournament in Houston

After sweeping the University of Texas-El Paso on senior night in its final regular season match,

the Tulane volleyball team is competing in the Conference USA tournament this weekend, hosted by Rice at Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston, Texas.

The home match against UTEP Nov. 19 was the Tulane seniors’ 88th career win. Senior outside hitter Ksenija Vlaskovic led the team with 15 kills, hitting .303. Senior setter Rachel Lindelow added 36 assists and five service aces. Senior libero Jen Miller posted 13 digs. Senior defensive specialist Jaye Loyd also contributed two digs, two assists and a service ace to go with senior middle blocker Stephanie Stromath’s three kills.

Tulane improved to 17-8 overall and 12-4 in conference play, while UTEP’s season ended at 11-18 overall and 4-12 in Conference USA, since only the top eight conference teams compete in the tournament.

Head Coach Sinisa Momic believes this was a significant win in relation to the Green Wave’s preparation for the conference tournament.

“I’m pleased that we finished with a 3-0 win for our seniors today on senior day,” Momic said. “I think it gives us momentum going into the conference tournament to finish with a good win against a tough opponent. It was a good job by all five seniors.”

Tulane goes into the tournament as the No. 3 seed, behind Tulsa and Southern Miss. Tulsa is 23-6 overall and 12-3 in conference play. The Golden Hurricane finished its regular season with back-to-back wins against No. 6 seed Southern Methodist University. Southern Miss is 26-4 overall and 14-2 in C-USA. The Golden Eagles won their first Conference USA regular season title with a victory over Central Florida.

The Green Wave will fight for its second-straight C-USA title and return to the NCAA Tournament as it opens the conference tournament against the sixth-seeded SMU Mustangs in the quarterfinals Friday at noon. If the Green Wave advances, it will meet the winner of second-seeded Tulsa and No. 7 Alabama-Birmingham, a match that will take place following the Tulane-SMU matchup.

Tulane faced SMU twice in the regular season, with the Green Wave taking both contests. The Wave earned a 3-2 win over the Mustangs at Fogelman Arena Sept. 27 by scores of 23-25,25-21,25-19,21-25,15-12, and Tulane won in Dallas, 3-1 (18-25,25-20,25-20,26-24) Oct. 30. Tulane is 10-2 all-time against SMU, and has taken eight consecutive wins against the Mustangs, dating back to 2005. The Green Wave and Mustangs, however, have never met in the C-USA Tournament. Tulane is 13-13 overall in the C-USA Tournament and 3-1 in the quarterfinal round the last four seasons.

“SMU is a quality team that we’ve beaten twice, but it’s always tough to play the same team three times. It’s going to be a tough matchup,” Momic said. “We understand we’re going to need three quality performances in three matches if we want to win another championship. Our mental preparation is going to be the same no matter who we play. We have to take this one match at a time, because anyone in this conference can be dangerous. We’ve beaten them twice, but that doesn’t mean anything. We can’t think it’s going to be easy.”