TU volleyball suffers back-to-back losses against SMU

Sports editor Jaralynn Tammi Morellano says TU struggled on the offensive.
After being swept by Southern Methodist University, The University of Tulsa’s volleyball team’s record suffered more falls on Friday and Saturday, with the Golden Hurricane standing at an 11-9 overall record and 4-5 for the American Athletic Conference.
In the first match, the Golden Hurricane had an evenly spread-out offensive play, with graduate player Kayley Cassiday leading with 11 kills overall, Camryn Lingenbrink with 10 and Beth Bayless with nine. However, the hitting game was outshined, with SMU hitting 0.342 while TU stayed at 0.194. The Mustang’s Jamison Wheeler and Natalie Perdue led their team’s offensive efforts with 31 kills split between them.
Tulsa trailed behind the Mustangs from the beginning, never holding the lead. The Golden Hurricane finally caught a break when it was able to find a 6-0 scoring run bringing the score to a close 18-17. Desperate to keep the ball alive for a scoring chance, TU played great defense with 16 digs. Unable to keep up, TU gave up the set with the score at 23-25.
With the second half underway, TU was unable to continue its strong performance, SMU taking the first points of the set. TU gave an equal amount of hitting errors and kills (8-8). SMU continued to further TU’s struggle, hitting at 0.324 during the duration of this set, securing 14 kills with five of them being completed by Wheeler. Despite junior libero Marta Pecalli and Cassaday having 25 digs between the two, SMU’s offense proved too much to handle. This set was the team’s worst performance of the weekend, with TU giving up the set 13-25.
Despite Pecalli continuing her impeccable receiving performance, adding seven more digs to her name, the Mustangs’ firepower proved too strong for the Golden Hurricane, the third set ending 18-25. With that, the Mustangs were able to pull away a perfect 3-0 game.
The next match of the two-day competition continued the next day. Though the scores seemed closer, the game could be described as a shutdown for the Golden Hurricane’s offensive attempts. SMU pulled away with an overall total of 23 blocks while TU ended the game with a mere 10.
SMU gained the first point with a kill from Emma Clothier and its lead only furthered with a service ace from Lauren Ohlinger. Though TU stayed neck-and-neck with SMU in the beginning, it soon lost its footing when SMU had a 4-0 scoring run, 2 points being from attack errors on TU. SMU’s offense that day seemed more spread out than the day prior, with an even amount of kills from its front line.
With threats coming from every section, SMU doubled TU’s score bringing the set 6-12. TU, obviously struggling to stay in the game, was forced to take two timeouts. However, with SMU hitting 0.222 and TU hitting 0.049, it was only a matter of time until the set wrapped up 18-25.
In the second set, TU was able to gain the first point from a service error from SMU, this being one of the only few times TU held a lead. Despite this crucial advantage, TU was not able to recover in this set, its hitting errors putting them at a negative hitting rate in their stats.
SMU, with strong serves and attacks from the front line, were able to go on 4-0 scoring runs twice during the second set, their second one bringing the score 12-21. TU was able to make a significant catch-up when Brayden Hipp’s serving consistency brought the team to 17-22. However, the Golden Hurricane was unable to continue the momentum and only earned one more point, giving the set away 18-25 once more.
The final set was decided by SMU’s superior hitting ability, SMU hitting at 0.342 compared to TU’s 0.105. Half of SMU’s kills in this set were made by Wheeler, who was able to lead her team to another winning set of 16-25.
In the end, the main weakness of the Golden Hurricane this past weekend seemed to be hitting with a grand total of 41 hitting errors, 26 in one game alone. The Mustangs, however, go on to celebrate, for this weekend brought the Mustangs’ record to an 8-1 conference record (14-6 overall) which now puts them at the top of the AAC.