C-USA Volleyball Championship Recaps - CONFERENCEUSA.COM - The Official Athletic site of The Conference USA

C-USA Volleyball Championship Recaps
Match 4: Southern Miss 3, Houston 1

	Tyler Henderson, C-USA Freshman of the Year

CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL

C-USA VOLLEYBALL NOTEBOOK

Nov. 20, 2009

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH FOUR:SOUTHERN MISS 3, HOUSTON 1 - BOX SCORE

(1) Southern Miss 3, (8) Houston 1 (25-19, 19-25, 25-19, 25-11)

Top Seed Southern Miss Picks Up 3-1 Win over No. 8 Houston in Final Match of Opening Tournament Action

HOUSTON, Texas - Sophomores Ashley Mell and Lauren Sears guided top seeded Southern Miss to a 3-1 victory over No. 8 seed Houston in the final day of opening action of the 2009 Conference USA Volleyball Championship inside Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston, Texas.

Mell, an All-C-USA first team selection, added 14 digs for her 14th double-double of the year. Also recording her league-high tying 20th double-double was sophomore setter Kelsea Seymour. Seymour, a Co-C-USA Setter of the Year, dished out a team-high 39 assists and totaled 14 digs in the victory. At the net, Sarah Jane Bowden collected seven blocks, while Sears tallied six.

In her final match in a Houston uniform, All-C-USA second teamer and senior Kinsey Cave led all Cougars with 12 kills, while adding two blocks. All-C-USA Freshman team member Jasmine Terry added 11 kills and four blocks. Freshman Tara Roenicke led the team with a match-best 44 assists and junior Amanda Carson finished with a match-best 20 digs.

Southern Miss will face No. 4 seed and host Rice Saturday at 4 p.m.

QUOTES:
Southern Miss Head Coach Ricci Luyties
On the match
"Well Houston came out and played really well. They're a good team that doesn't have a record that reflects that. They came out ready to play. The first two games and even the third game was really close but then I thought we started picking up our defense and blocking to close it out."

On preparing for Rice
"We've really only looked at this match as of right now, so we're going to back to the room and start figuring out what we want to do against Rice tomorrow. They played really well and we know that they're at home and are a great team so we have to play our best game. We're just get back to business tonight and try to figure out a game plan."

Houston Head Coach Bill Walton
On Houston's errors
We didn't cover very well. They were covering mainly our left front players and our left side hitter. I thought our hitters weren't getting things straight down and we needed to pick it up. A bunch of times the girl straight behind the block thought it was out."

2009 CONFERENCE USA CHAMPIONSHIP
Houston, Texas
Tudor Fieldhouse, host Rice

Friday, Nov. 20
Match 1 - (3) Tulane 3, (6) SMU 1
Match 2 - (2) Tulsa 3, (7) UAB 1
Match 3 - (4) Rice 3, (5) Marshall 0
Match 4 - (1) Southern Miss 3, (8) Houston 1

Saturday, Nov. 21
Match 5 - (3) Tulane vs. (2) Tulsa 2 p.m.
Match 6 - (4) Rice vs. (1) Southern Miss 4 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 22
Match 7 (CBS C) 1 p.m.

All times Central

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH THREE:RICE 3, MARSHALL 0 - BOX SCORE
Host Rice Sweeps Marshall in C-USA Championship Quarterfinals
(4) Rice 3, (5) Marshall 0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-17)

HOUSTON, Texas - Fourth seed and host Rice made easy work of fifth seed Marshall to advance to the semifinals of the 2009 C-USA Volleyball Championship. The Owls (20-8) swept the Thundering Herd 25-21, 25-22 and 25-17 inside Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston, Texas Friday night.

Rice was led by a pair of All-C-USA first team selection in sophomore Ashleigh McCord and senior Natalie Bogan who had 14 and nine kills, respectively. Senior Jenn McClean paced the defense with 23 digs, while C-USA Libero of the Year Tracey Lam tracked down 20 digs.

All-C-USA first team selection Emily Sullivan paced The Herd with 14 kills, while All-C-USA second teamer Elizabeth Fleming had 29 assists. Marshall wraps up the 2009 season with a solid overall record of 22-9.

Rice's semifinal opponent will be either top seed Southern Miss or eight-seed Houston at 4 p.m. Saturday.

QUOTES:
Rice Head Coach Genny Volpe
On the match
"Obviously we're happy with a 3-0 win in the conference tournament, I thought the girls were really focused, I think we started out a little bit tense, but they were pretty focused on being serious and taking care of business, so I was glad to see them loosen up and have a little fun out there and enjoy the atmosphere."

On how to prepare for tomorrow
"Well we'll see who we're going to play it's either Southern Miss or Houston, but I think the team is definitely focused on getting to the championship match Sunday, so whoever we play, I think you'll see a pretty determined team and definitely looking forward to taking it one step at a time to get to the championship match."

Marshall Head Coach Mitch Jacobs
On the match
"All the credit goes to Rice, we had two really neck and neck games,and they pulled them out at the end in games one and two. They had all the momentum, and even when we came out fired up for game three, they just changed it over and got rid of our emotions a little bit and played great, so best of wishes to Rice in the tournament."

On Marshall's mistakes
"We just had way too many unforced errors, that's been our Achilles heel, and it caught us tonight."

C-USA CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH TWO TULSA 3, UAB 1-BOX SCORE

(2) Tulsa 3, (7) UAB 1 (25-13, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21)

Tulsa Advances to Semifinals with 3-1 win over UAB

HOUSTON, Texas - Behind the offensive firepower of C-USA Freshman of the Year Tyler Henderson and Co-Player of the Year Jennifer Eichler Tulsa defeats a pesky UAB team, 3-1, to advance to the semifinals of the 2009 C-USA Volleyball Championship.

The duo accounted for 40 of the team's 62 kills, while Jessica Adams, an All-C-USA Freshman team member, recorded a match-best 28 digs. Teammate Kelsey Hancock followed with 16 digs, while Eichler had 13 for her 13th double-double of the year.

Three Blazers (17-16) ended the season with double-digit kills. Junior Jordan McDonald produced a team-best 14, followed by senior Andrea Lolic and junior Michelle Uzoh, C-USA Newcomer of the Year, with 11 and 10, respectively. McDonalds added 16 digs to her credit for her eighth double-double of the season. Sophomore Heather Thomas had a team-best 17 digs.

The loss is the earliest exit for the Blazers in four years. UAB has appeared in the championship match for the past three years, winning the title in 2006.

Second-seed Tulsa (25-6) advances to face No. 3 seed Tulane Saturday at 2 p.m. inside Tudor Fieldhouse. The Green Wave eliminated (6) SMU, 3-1.

QUOTES:
Tulsa Head Ed Allen
On the match
"Defensively, I felt we could have played a little stronger than what we did, we didn't touch nearly enough balls at the net. They're a UAB team that played very hard, played with a little more consistency than from what we saw earlier in the year, I'm pleased to get the first match underway, and looking forward to the semifinal with Tulane."

On the 3rd game
"The third game, I felt we thought we had the match won before it was won, we had a 4/5 point lead with about 4 or 5 points to play and we just shut down, so that was a little disappointing. Our freshmen played like freshmen at times, they made such huge strides mentally through the course of the year, we just need them to relax as we push through for a championship."

UAB Head Coach Kerry Messersmith
On the match
"I think the major difference in the game was that we couldn't handle their serve, we really struggled with it all night and all of their servers came out tonight with all their guns loaded and ready to go. We just had a really hard time with that and if you can't pass you really can't do anything. I think if we would have passed better it would have been a different outcome. I'm really proud of our kids. I think after getting beat two games in a row, a lot of teams would have come out and been flat and give up, I think our kids showed a lot of fight and heart. I'm really proud of them for that."

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH ONE:TULANE 3, SMU 1 BOXSCORE

(3) Tulane 3, (6) SMU 1 (25-23, 27-25, 25-15, 25-18)

HOUSTON, Texas - Three players had 10-plus kills, while five recorded 10-or-more digs in Tulane's 3-1 win (25-23, 27-25, 25-15, 25-18) over SMU in the opening match of the 2009 C-USA Volleyball Championship inside Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston, Texas.

C-USA Co-Player of the Year Visnja Djurdjevic, a sophomore, led the Green Wave (18-8) with 22 kills and 18 digs, for her 18th double-double of the season. Senior Ksenija Vlaskovic followed with 15 kills and a career-high 21 digs. Vlaskovic now ranks third on Tulane's all-time kills list with 1,505.

Setter Rachel Lindelow (18), Jaye Loyd (14) and Jenn Miller (12) also contributed double-figure digs. Lindelow dished out a match-high 48 assists for her 15th double-double of the year.

At the net, All-C-USA Freshman Marija Milosavljevic had 10 kills and nine blocks. As a team, the Green Wave had 11 blocks, while SMU (19-11) recorded 16.5.

Sophomore Jessica Oliver and junior Kathryn Wilkerson led the Mustangs offense with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. A strong defensive effort was provided by sophomore Dana Powell who recorded a match-best 26 digs, followed by Wilkerson's 19. Wilkerson ended the season with 10 double-doubles. Courtney Manning was solid at the net with seven blocks, while Kelli Becerra had six.

The victory advanced the Green Wave to the semifinals to face the winner of the Tulsa/UAB match.

QUOTES:
Tulane Head Coach Sinisa Momic
-On Tulane's game plan...
"We knew it was going to be a very tough match, we played SMU twice this year, beat them in 5, and then in 4, but we knew that didn't matter. The top four or five teams here can beat each other, so we expected that, and we got a tough fight. But the difference is that we weren't going to quit, we knew SMU was very good defensive team, in blocking and digging, and so we had to match that and we did it. We had 95 digs, which is I think our second best this year, and they had 90 so it was a very scrappy match. We just endured and kept fighting and at this point there's nothing else to do."

-On tomorrow's match...
"I think Tulsa is the toughest team to play here in this tournament. They have a Co-Player of the Year, they have a Freshman of the Year, and they have great defense. We split with them this year, but they're very similar to SMU, or even a better team, the only thing to do is fight point for point , which is what we expected. We played well today and we're confident about tomorrow, and we expect a good tough match."

SMU Head Coach Lisa Seifert
-On how SMU played...
"I felt like we held our own on defense, one of the problems we've struggled with all year long is our attacking, and we only had one attacker hit over .200, and when you're at this level you need four or five. Everybody would be great, but you need at least four or five hitting above .200, and that didn't happen.

-On what she could have changed...
"Nothing in our approach, not in the way we defended them, we just needed more kills, and we needed to hit at a higher efficiency level, and we didn't."