Volleyball loses two of three to christen new home
Owls fall to Louisiana Tech and Oral Roberts but notch first win of the season against Lamar
Opening the season in a new home with the Mizuno Invitational I tournament, the volleyball team earned its first win of the season, although they were not so successful in their other two contests last weekend.
Rice (1-2) handed eventual champion Lamar University its only loss of the tournament, but was unable to take the other two contests, falling to Louisiana Tech University and Oral Roberts College.
The Owls will have plenty of opportunities to redeem themselves this weekend at the Mizuno Invitational II tournament. Rice will face Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi at 1:30 p.m. today and the University of Illinois this evening at 7 p.m. Rice will also take on Louisiana State University, a perennial powerhouse, tomorrow at 5 p.m. The tournament will wrap up Tuesday with a match against Texas Tech University at 7 p.m. All matches take place at Fox Gym.
Head coach Genny Volpe said that LSU, ranked 22nd in the country, will be Rice’s toughest competition, but Illinois will not be far behind.
“[LSU] always has a very good team [that’s] very athletic,” Volpe said. “A very close second is Illinois. They compete very well in the Big Ten … one of the best conferences in the nation for volleyball.”
The Owls were slow out of the gate against the Lady Techsters (1-2), losing the first game 30-21. But the team displayed its resilience, gutting its way through nine ties and six lead changes in the second game. However, it was not quite enough, and Louisiana Tech held on 30-26. In the final game of the day, the two teams traded leads five times. Tied 17-17, Louisiana Tech went on a 5-0 run, which seemed to put the game out of reach. But Rice earned those five points back quickly, making it interesting before losing 30-28.
Volpe said that she thought her team came out a little bit slower than expected.
“I was a little disappointed in how we came out,” she said. “[It] was not a true showing of what our team can do.”
Behind sophomore Jessie Boulavsky’s 20 kills and junior Jessica Holderness’ 21 kills in and 17 digs, Rice took the next day’s match against Lamar (2-1). After dropping the first game, the Owls bounced back to take the next two, only to see the Cardinals tie it up with a win in the fourth game. Going into the final game, the teams went back and forth before Rice’s late 3-0 run sealed the victory.
In their final match of the weekend, the Owls struggled early in the nightcap against the Golden Eagles, losing the first two games. But the squad once again displayed its resilience, winning the third and fourth sets by a combined 16 points. For the second time that day, Rice was forced to play a deciding fifth game. After five lead changes and five ties, the Owls earned three match points to take the contest. But Oral Roberts stymied Rice’s attempts to capture the match and held on to win 18-16.
Despite the slow start, Volpe said she was pleased that her team stayed in every match.
“Our team’s in really good shape [and] I think that [we] really came through watching the team this weekend — they didn’t run out of gas,” Volpe said. “Last year our team kind of fizzled out at times. They’re in much better shape this year.”
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