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September 28, 2007 > Sports > Volleyball downs C-USA foes

Volleyball downs C-USA foes

By Natalie Clericuzio | Thresher staff

The road woes of the past few weeks are all but forgotten for the volleyball team. Rice put together a pair of wins against conference opponents this past weekend to gear up for this week’s rematch against cross-town rival University of Houston. Both the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Central Florida were unable to counter Rice’s strong play on both sides of the ball, resulting in two key conference wins for the Owls.

Last night at 7 p.m. Rice (7-8, 2-1 C-USA) continued their conference schedule, playing UH (8-6, 3-0 C-USA) at Fox Gym. Now, the Owls are ready to take a break: They will not play another match until next Friday.

Last week’s conference play started with Rice facing Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Miss. The Golden Eagles came in with a six-match win streak, but Rice came out strong, bouncing back from a first-point error to score five straight points. The Owls dominated the rest of the game, and, with the help of five kills from sophomore outside hitter Jennifer McClean, Rice won the game 30-15.

Southern Miss buckled down in the second game, coming back from a 4-0 deficit to even the score. The Eagles took the lead for good at 10-9 and won by a 30-28 margin. Three early kills from junior outside hitter Jessica Holderness helped the Owls begin the third game with a quick 6-1 lead before the Golden Eagles gained their footing. After a deadlock at 19-19, Rice began to pull away, taking advantage of four Southern Miss errors to take the game.

But the Golden Eagles refused to concede the fourth game to the Owls, never allowing a gap larger than three points before McClean’s ace moved Rice ahead 14-10. The two teams went back and forth, with Rice maintaining the slight edge over Southern Miss. At the end of the match, two late kills by McClean sealed the match for Rice.

Head coach Genny Volpe said she liked the Owls’ performance against Southern Miss.

“It was really good to get a win on the road against a team with such a strong winning streak,” Volpe said. “It was nice to see us respond with confidence this time around.”

On Sunday, Rice finally returned home from a seven-game road trip to face UCF. The game was marked by strong offensive and defensive play from both freshman middle blocker Caroline Gill, who had 8 kills and 5 blocks, and McClean, who had 8 kills and 14 digs.

Gill’s play was strong enough to earn her the C-USA defensive player of the week award, the first such honor for any Owl this season.

The match against the Knights began with three swift kills from Holderness and an early six-point lead for Rice. Ultimately, Rice won 30-17. The second game began slower for the Owls, but the team scored six straight points to gain a 9-4 advantage. Despite five late ties, Rice continued the strong play to take a 2-0 advantage in the match.

Rice then came out determined to shut down UCF in the final game, jumping to a 10-4 lead. Later, the Knights made four consecutive errors to give the Owls a 14-6 advantage. The two teams then continued to trade points down the stretch, however, before Rice closed out the win 30-24.

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