Sports writer Joe McCurdy reports Tulsa’s previous three games facing Houston, UFC and South Florida.
The expected turnaround has come to a halt for Tulsa women’s volleyball. There was hope after snapping a five-game-losing streak after sweeping Tulane on the road. Tulsa was looking to build momentum off of that win as they went into midseason, where teams begin to separate from the pack, becoming serious contenders for that conference title, or just a team having a less-than-optimal season. Tulsa was sitting in that gray area where they were not completely out of contention but all it took was another slip for them to fall off and put themselves into a situation where their season was going to be hard to recover. That slip-up was made this past week as the Golden Hurricane went on another losing skid, going 0-3 on the week. This was an immense hit to the team as they fell to 3-8 in conference play.
After securing the sweep against Tulane, the Golden Hurricane had one final road game before coming back home to Reynolds Center. Facing the Houston Cougars, a team that sits atop the AAC standing, Tulsa had their work cut out for them if they wanted to come out with the win. The score-line doesn’t do justice to just how hard Tulsa fought against the Cougars, keeping each set extremely close, but Houston was aided by a few late runs in each set to pull away from Tulsa. Even with the team’s 36 kills, it wasn’t enough to fend off the 19-2 Cougars, losing in straight sets (19-25, 19-25, 23-25).
After another sweep taken by the Golden Hurricane, it was time to reset and look ahead with a two-game home court stand in front of them. First up was a rematch versus UCF, who the Golden Hurricane previously lost to in straight sets earlier in the year. Things weren’t very different this time around, but instead of losing in straight sets, they lost in four. It was a struggle for Tulsa after losing starting middle Rachel Brown to a knee injury early in the first set and the loss was felt for the rest of the match. After losing the first two sets 25-19 and 25-8, the Golden Hurricane came back and fought off the sweep, winning the third set 25-21 but that wasn’t enough as the Golden Knights snuffed out hope in the fourth set, winning 25-20.
Losing seven of your last eight conference games is not a good look when there was high praise coming into this season, but that is the scenario Tulsa found themselves in. They had yet another chance to get a big home win against the USF Bulls, who are in last place in the AAC with only one win in the conference. It was a supposed shoo-in for Tulsa as all the film pointed to a lackluster and unthreatening team coming out of Southern Florida. That’s not what Tulsa was faced with this past Sunday. They were faced with a team that had a tremendous defense, out-digging Tulsa 69 to 57, and had a fiery offense, with more attacks and kills than Tulsa with USF recording 54 kills compared to Tulsa’s 33. Not only did Tulsa lose, but they were also embarrassed by one of the worst teams in the American, losing in straight sets that were not close (25-20, 25-16, 25-22).
Now losing eight of their last nine games, Tulsa is back on the road this week against Temple and ECU, searching desperately for any sort of positive they can add to their season before it comes to a close.
