Tulsa Set to Appear in Second C-USA Championship Match - CONFERENCEUSA.COM - The Official Athletic site of The Conference USA

Tulsa Set to Appear in Second C-USA Championship Match
(2) Tulsa 3, (3) Tulane 0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-20)

	Jessica Adams

Nov. 21, 2009

HOUSTON, Texas - It took just three sets for No. 2 seed Tulsa to earn its way back into a Conference USA Volleyball Championship match as the Golden Hurricane swept No. 3 seed Tulane Saturday afternoon in semifinal action. Tulsa's last and only other appearance in a title match was in 2007 when the program won the tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Championship.

Offensively, Tulsa was paced by a pair of All-C-USA first teamers in Tyler Henderson and Jennifer Eichler. The league's Freshman of the Year, Henderson recorded a match-best 18 kills, while Eichler had 11. The Co-Player of the Year, Eichler finished with a strong .409 (11K-2E-22TA) efficiency and was responsible for ending set one and winning the match with powerful kills.

Tulsa had a strong defensive game as the team recorded 52 digs and nine blocks. Every player that saw action had at least one dig, topped by C-USA All-Freshman team selection Jessica Adams' match-high 18. Tulsa also finished with a .255 (42K-15E-106TA) hitting efficiency to Tulane's .096 (35K-24E-114TA).

Sophomore and Co-Player of the Year Visnja Djurdjevic ended the match with a team-best 16 kills, followed by setter Rachel Lindelow who registered her 16th double-double of the season with 30 assists and 11 digs. Libero Jenn Miller also had 11 digs for the Green Wave.

Tulsa improves its record to 26-6 overall, while Tulane drops to 18-9 and will now await an at-large bit to the NCAA Championship.

Tulsa will face the winner of the Southern Miss and Rice match. Sunday's championship match will be televised live by CBS College Sports at 1 p.m.

QUOTES:
Tulsa head coach Ed Allen
"This was by far our strongest defensive effort. In our first two matches with them we also played well defensively. It was certainly a much stronger defensive effort and we held them under.100 (hitting percentage) for the match. Offensively we were extremely consistent. We got production out of the people we are accustomed to leaning on, Tyler Henderson and Jen Eichler as well as Kelsey Hancock. It was a collective team effort and our ability to serve the ball tough and serve the people that we wanted in particular rotations was critical to allowing our defense to play strong."

Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic
"I don¹t think we responded well at all. We didn't play at all like we played Friday. Tulsa did a great job offensively and defensively and outplayed us. We were just not stable from serve-receive to trying to stop their good offense and really strong hitters and the worst thing is we couldn't run our offense, which throughout this year was something that kept us in every game. All together, Tulsa deserved this win."

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 - (2) Tulsa 3, (3) Tulane 0
Match 6 - (4) Rice vs. (1) Southern Miss 4 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 22
Match 7 - (2) Tulsa vs. TBD 1 p.m. (CBS C)

All times Central