Tulsa Volleyball Blows Past Memphis

The University of Tulsa volleyball team (17-8, 9-5 The American) topped the Memphis Tigers (19-9, 9-5 The American) in straight sets, 25-23, 25-18, 25-18, Sunday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Erica Bohannon led the Tulsa attack with 18 kills on 43 attacks, while Nicole Newton was very efficient offensively, tallying nine kills on 13 attacks.

Valerie El Houssine finished the match a kill shy of a double-double (9 kills, 14 digs), while Brooke Berryhill was strong defensively recording 21 digs on the day.

UM's Katie Gibson led the Tiger attack with a team-high 11 digs on 35 attacks.

The Hurricane has now won nine of its last 10 matches.

“We're building momentum,” said coach Ryan Wills. “We talk about it every week: protect momentum, protect momentum, protect momentum. We started off after the last two weekends, we were in dead last in league play. We just keep steadily getting better and getting better and putting some wins together. I think we've won nine of our last 10 matches, so they're doing a good job of that and we're happy with it.”

After Tulsa fell behind in the early going, down 8-4, TU stormed back to tie the match at 10-10 before taking its first lead of the match a point later. The Hurricane did not let its lead go as Newton and Bohannon combined for 10 kills in the opening frame win.

The second frame was all TU. The Tigers held a brief 2-1, before the Hurricane took the lead for good.

The Hurricane opened up a 10-7 lead to force an early UM timeout. Six points later, with Tulsa's lead up to 15-8, Memphis needed to use its second timeout of the set. The Hurricane ballooned its lead to 20-14 before going up 2-0 into halftime, a spot they saw themselves in a five-set loss to Memphis on the road earlier this year. Bohannon took over in the second set, recording nine kills on 18 attacks.

“It's nice. We were up 2-0 on them when we were at their place about five or six weeks ago, and came back and had a sweep here,” said Wills. “That was nice to go into the locker room 2-0 knowing that happened before, and have a chance for us to grow and get better and compete, so that was a big win for us.”

TU took its momentum after the break and used it to race out to a 10-5 lead in the final frame. The Hurricane did not let off the gas, taking a commanding 20-14 lead before earning its ninth sweep of the year.

Tulsa will now travel to Florida to take on both UCF and South Florida next weekend.

“We come back to the gym on Tuesday and get better,” said Wills. “There are going to be some great matches Friday and Sunday, also two teams we played earlier in the year and didn't do well against. It's going to be a heck of a challenge, but a heck of an opportunity as well.”