Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Tulane
Volleyball Falls To Tulane, 3-0
10/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 19, 2008
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Marshall University's Megan Carlson (Andover, Minn.) recorded a team-high 11 kills, but Tulane had three players register double-digit kills to help lift the Green Wave to a 3-0 (16-25, 20-25, 19-25) sweep of the Thundering Herd in Sunday afternoon's Conference USA volleyball match in New Orleans, La.
With the loss, Marshall falls to 10-9 on the season, 3-6 in league action, while Tulane improves to 16-5 overall, 7-1 in C-USA. The all-time series between the two squads now stands at 2-2, dating back to 2005.
Leading 2-0 in the contest, Tulane broke out to a 17-11 lead in the third stanza despite a pair of early kills from Kristin Marcum (Arlington, Texas) and Carlson. The Green Wave pushed its lead to 19-11 before the Herd scored four of the next five to cut its deficit to five at 20-15. A pair of Marshall attacking errors gave Tulane another seven-point cushion at 22-15, but the Herd rallied for four consecutive points on the strength of a kill apiece from Marcum and Carlson, in addition to two Green Wave attacking errors, cutting the gap to 22-19. A Radosevic kill and an assisted block from Jen Linder and Bridget Wells gave Marshall a 24-19 lead. Radosevic then sealed the set and the victory with her match-high 12th kill.
"I thought the team hung in there," head coach Mitch Jacobs said following the match. "We almost caught them in set three, and had a few chances to catch up to them in set two. If we catch them in set three, I think we can turn the whole match around. We faced a very good team today that took care of business and did what it needed to do to win."
In the opening set, Tulane posted an 18-11 lead and extended that lead to 24-14, before Marshall used a Green Wave attacking error and an assisted block from Layne Kehl (Mountain Top, Pa.) and Cameron Yoho (Sistersville, W.Va.) to fend off a pair of set-points and bring the score to 24-16. From there, a Herd service allowed Tulane to claim the frame and stake a 1-0 lead in the contest.
In the second stanza the teams traded three leads and played to nine ties and a 16-16 score before Tulane scored five of the next eight points to gain a slight 21-19 edge. A Green Wave service error brought Marshall to within one at 21-20, but Tulane struck for four straight points on kills from Sara Radosevic and Ksenija Vlaskovic, in addition to a Visnja Djurdjevic service ace and a service error by the Herd to close out the set. The Green Wave hit .500 for the set despite a four-kill, .800 hitting clip-effort from Jalicia Ross (Bank Village, Trinidad).
Elizabeth Fleming (South Bend, Ind.) guided the Herd offense with 31 assists in addition to a match-high 10 digs, while Taylor Tanner (Union, Ky.) pitched in with eight digs in the loss. Marcum finished with eight kills, while Yoho and Ross finished with six kills apiece.
Tulane received 11 kills from Vlaskovic and 10 from Wells, while Luna Rebrovic and Rachel Lindelow combined for 43 assists (21 and 17 respectively). Lindelow and Jenn Miller notched a team-high eight digs each to pace the defensive effort for the Green Wave.
Tulane out-hit Marshall in the match, .398-.19 and also out-blocked the Herd 4.5-1.0 in the contest.
"Tulane has a powerful offense and we don't see that every night," Jacobs added. "We need to learn to play against teams like that. We lost a little bit from last year, but we are growing up. I thought we actually did some pretty good things today. We just need to take advantage in the moments that we have. It's kind of flipped around this year with Tulane having all the experience, and we can't give experienced teams openings."
Marshall returns to C-USA action, Friday, Oct. 24 and Sunday, Oct. 26 when it welcomes SMU and Tulsa to the Cam Henderson Center. Friday's first serve against the Mustangs is slated for 7:00 p.m. with Sunday's match against the Golden Hurricane to begin at 12:00 p.m.
