Oct. 9, 2004

Final Stats

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Freshman outside hitter Sarah Weiland had a match-high 15 kills and sophomore right-side hitter Blair Moon posted 10 kills in just two games of action, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball dropped a hard-fought contest to Conference USA foe Memphis, 3-0, Saturday evening at Fogelman Arena.

All three games were tight as the total point differential was just 15 points. In the end, however, it was Memphis the held the advantage in each instance as the Tigers won in straight games, 30-25, 30-28, 30-23. The loss snapped a six-game home winning streak for the Green Wave dating back to the 2003 C-USA Tournament, as Tulane fell to 9-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play. Memphis, meanwhile, improves to 18-4 on the year and 3-0 in league action.

"We had to play from behind for most of the night," head coach Betsy Becker said. "We've got to do a beter job of coming out of the blocks, because against a quality team like this, you can't expect to come from behind all the time and end up with a win. Memphis is a really good team, and they had all their pistons firing tonight. We clearly were flat at times and it cost us.

"Offensively, we couldn't get our cylinders firing which is facilitated by defense. Our defense was lacking this evening. But what we will do is train harder, and not look back. We know we're still a good team and we still have all the confidence in the world that we can have a stellar season."

The Tigers led the Green Wave in every statistical category, including an impressive .339 attack percentage (53 kills, 15 errors, 112 attacks) while limiting Tulane to a .232 mark (48-22-112). In addition, Memphis tallied nine service aces to Tulane's three, and nine blocks to the Green Wave's five.

Following Weiland and Moon, senior middle blocker Deva Fowler posted nine kills while fellow senior middle and senior outside hitter Lindsey Norman tallied five apiece. Junior libero Kelli Dickson paced the Green Wave with 11 digs, and junior setter Katie Case was close behind with eight. Fowler led Tulane with three block assists.

Memphis was led by junior outside hitter Nancy Nellans with 14 kills. She was joined in the double-digit kill club by Shelby Burton and Ashley Liford, who posted 11 and 10, respectively. Nellans also led the Tigers defense with nine kills, while setter Heather Watts was close behind with eight.

The Green Wave return to action on Tuesday, Oct. 12, when they travel to Baton Rouge, La., to take on Southern at 7 p.m.