Volleyball takes three of four in return to Houston

By Dan Elledge     9/23/10 7:00pm

After a trying tournament the weekend before at Louisiana State University featuring some of the nation's top teams, the women's volleyball team returned home to feast on some lesser out-of-conference opponents in the second edition of the Rice Invitational. The return to Tudor Fieldhouse turned out to be just what the Owls needed as they posted a 2-1 record in the tournament. Although Rice lost to Arkansas State University 3-2 in its first match last Friday, the Owls played much better in their final two games of the weekend as they beat Samford University 3-1 later that night and Stephen F. Austin University 3-0 on Saturday.

In their match against Arkansas State (6-6), the Red Wolves held off a Rice rally in the first set to hang on to a 25-23 victory. Arkansas State middle blocker Cayla Fielder made two kills at the end of the set after Rice had tied the score at 20 apiece. Rice made a similar run in the second set to cut Arkansas State's lead to 24-23, but the Owls could not comeback and succumbed by a score of 25-23.

Rice came back in the third set to win 25-16, led by junior outside hitter Jordan Meredith's five kills. Rice made a similar fast start in the fourth set, breaking out to a 19-9 lead with junior outside hitter Ashleigh McCord tallying eight kills to help the Owls even the match. The decisive fifth set proved to be Rice's downfall, with the Red Wolves jumping out to an 8-4 lead that eventually turned into a 15-12 win.

---

---

Samford (6-8) proved to be a much easier task for the Owls, with Rice asserting its dominance early with a resounding 25-12 victory in the first set that was sparked by 10 kills from the Owls. Rice faltered in the next set, losing 25-23, but regained its killer instinct during the last two sets, picking up 26-24 and 27-25 wins. Meredith contributed 14 kills, while senior setter Meredith Schamun had 45 assists along with senior libero Tracey Lam's 24 digs.

Rice finished off the tournament in authoritative fashion, never letting SFA (7-8) come close in the match. The Owls won their sets by a combined 38 games. Meredith had a match-high 16 kills, while McCord posted 11. Schamun contributed 39 assists to go with Lam's 15 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Nancy Cole also stepped up by contributing nine kills and three blocks to help Rice to 25-13, 25-10, 25-14 victories in straight sets.

Since Arkansas State, SFA and Rice all went 2-1 in the tournament, there had to be a tiebreaker. Since Rice had won eight total sets over three games, compared to Arkansas State's and SFA's six, the Owls were crowned champions of the tournament.

McCord was named most valuable player of the tournament, as she racked up 49 kills in three games. Lam was honored as both the libero of the tournament and as the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week. Lam impressed at the weekend's tournament as she tallied 69 digs over three games.

Rice's conference season began with the Owls playing the University of Houston on Tuesday night. Rice won a tight-knit first set 25-23 to get things going, and the Cougars could never keep up as the Owls finished them off in the next two sets 25-20 and 25-21, leading to a 3-0 victory.

McCord led the team with 13 kills while Lam had 25 digs and Schamun had 38 assists. The win gave Rice a 6-7 overall record and a 1-0 record in C-USA, a good way to start the conference season.

Head Coach Genny Volpe felt that the team was ready for C-USA play and that the tough out-of-conference schedule prepared them and helped them make improvements for the road that lies ahead.

"I think we played a tough schedule so we have seen some big blocks and tough serving coming at us," Volpe said. "The aggressive serving that we have seen has helped us become better passers. I think our team has seen a fast offense run consistently at them from teams we have been playing and I think it has helped us defensively as well."

Meredith agreed with Volpe that the Owls did play some tough teams, while at the same time learning something from every game.

"We played some really tough teams: Pepperdine, LSU, [the University of North Carolina]," Meredith said, "We played a couple of teams that were in the top 25. I feel like we played the best teams that we could and even though we had some losses, we learned from them."

Rice faces its first conference road test of the season as the team heads to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to play the University of Southern Mississippi today and tomorrow.

Since 2005, Rice has held the edge over Southern Miss (7-4) with a 4-2 record, including a crucial 3-1 win last year in the C-USA Tournament semifinals, which led Rice to win the C-USA Tournament.

Volpe feels that Southern Miss will definitely bring a challenge, with the Golden Eagles returning much of their talented squad from last year.

"Southern Miss returns every starter from last year and what they do very well is that they have a very good outside attack so their outside hitters are really good," Volpe said, "They have crafty setters as well so we expect a hard-hitting team coming at us and a crafty setter doing things with the ball."

Even after a tough start that has led to a 6-7 overall record, Volpe feels that this team has something in them that might make them special and might shock C-USA as the season goes on.

"I have a really good feeling about this group becoming one of those strong teams down the road," Volpe said.

---