Sept. 30, 2005

Final Stats

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Freshman outside hitter Sara Radosevic posted a match-high 20 kills and fellow rookie Luna Rebrovic had a career-best 17 digs, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to preseason Conference USA favorite Rice in the league opener for both teams Friday evening at the G. Rollie White Coliseum.

With the 30-21, 30-26, 30-25 win, Rice improves to 9-2 on the year and 1-0 in C-USA play. Tulane, meanwhile, falls to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in league action. Green Wave senior libero Kelli Dickson had 15 digs on the night to become the first player in Tulane history to post 2,000 assists and 1,000 digs in her career.

"Rice is a very good team and they were picked as the preseason favorite to win conference for a reason," Tulane head coach Liz Kritza said. "We played hard, and were in the match from start to finish. We just need to eliminate some lapses we've suffered from time to time. If we can do that, we are going to be a good team."

Rice used a balanced attack throughout the match as three student-athletes had at least 22 sets and another two were set at least 17 times. As a result, the Owls kept the Green Wave defense off balance and hit .280 for the night (52 kills and 17 errors in 125 swings.

The Green Wave, meanwhile, were held to a .152 attack percentage with 44 kills and 24 errors in 132 attempts. A big reason for that was the Owls' big block, which tallied seven team stuffs during the contest.

Radosevic posted her fourth double-digit kill total in as many matches this season and her third 20-kill contest of the year. She was the lone Tulane player to post 10-plus kills as junior outside hitter Sara Thorson was second on the club with nine.

"We have to eliminate the unforced errors and tighten up our ball control, and if we can do that, it will open up our offensive options," Kritza said. "You can't be one-dimensional and have success against good teams. This match is something we will learn from, and we will be better because of it in the long run."

The Green Wave return to action on Sunday, Oct. 2, when Tulane takes on C-USA foe Houston at 1 p.m. at the G. Rollie White. For ticket information, contact the Texas A&M Ticket Office at 888-99-AGGIE or 979-845-2311. For fans who can not make the game in person, live stats are available on-line at the official site of Tulane Athletics, www.tulanegreenwave.com.