Southern Miss
Tulsa
Golden Eagle Volleyball Team Outlasts Tulsa in Five Sets;
11/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 8, 2009
 Kelsea Seymour netted her 18th double-double  | |
The Golden Eagles have one game remaining in the regular season, while Tulsa has two. Should Southern Miss defeat UCF on Friday, they will win the title outright.
With today's win over Tulsa, Southern Miss (25-4, 13-2 C-USA) captured at least a share of their first conference title since the sports inception in 1979. The loss today by Tulsa (22-6, 11-3) snapped their 11 match win streak, all in C-USA play.
"This was a great match," Coach Ricci Luyties said. "I believe it was two good teams going back-and-forth throughout the whole match. We played probably our best set of the year in that first set. To beat them (Tulsa) 25-9, I felt good that we played that way, but I knew that it was going to go at least four, maybe five sets. I told my team that we were ready to go the distance."
The Golden Eagles placed four players in double figure kills, led by senior Angela Hlavaty with 17, followed by Caitlin Clarke with 16, Ashley Mell and Sarah Jane Bowden added 12 and 11, respectively.
Maia Ivanova led a group of four defensively with double digit digs, tallying 16 followed by Kelsea Seymour with 13, Mell added 12 and Lisa Knecht chipped in 11. Seymour handed out 50 assists for her 18th double-double of the season.
"I knew there were going to be ups and downs and I knew they (Tulsa) were going to get on runs and score bunches of points on us," said Luyties. "We talked about being able to go through those stretches and we did. I thought our players did a fantastic job of that."
The match went down to the wire with Southern Miss taking the fifth set, 17-15.
"At the end of the match when it all tied up at 13, our players again, they came through all the tough situations and did not let up at all," Luyties said. "I thought Angela had a standout match with 17 kills. She dug balls and started out with a lot of blocks against their best hitter. I thought she set the tempo for this match. Brianna came in and did a good job for us blocking in the middle, including a great end of the match block."
Southern Miss set the tone from the start with a decisive 25-9 victory in the first set including a 15-1 run to end the set. The Golden Eagles attacked the nets hard and often with 13 kills, five by Hlavarty, in the set. The black and gold flexed their muscles at the net as well with eight blocks, including two solos.
Tulsa took set two 25-22 in a game that was tied at five different points. The Golden Hurricane rallied behind 19 kills, including seven from Tyler Henderson. Southern Miss countered with 15 kills, spread among five players.
The Golden Eagles battled to take the third set 25-22. Southern Miss recorded 14 kills and forced seven Tulsa errors to take the set. The set saw four different lead changed and was tied at seven different times.
Tulsa rallied with four late points to tie the set at 22, before Southern Miss pulled away on a Tulsa serving error and attack error to force set point. At set point, it was a kill by Bowden on a set from Seymour that iced the set, 25-22.
With momentum swinging back and fourth in a critical game four, it was Tulsa who was able to grab the lead, maintaining it long enough to force a fifth and final set with a 25-19 victory. The Golden Hurricane used 18 kills in taking the set while Southern Miss recorded 12 kills, led by Hlavaty's four.
The decisive fifth set was just what one would expect out of the top two teams in the conference. The two teams traded points back and fourth with neither team holding a two point advantage until Southern Miss rallied for three consecutive points to make the score 11-9. The first 13 points of the match featured seven lead changes and six tie scores.
After a timeout, Tulsa answered the Golden Eagles 11-9 advantage with two consecutive points to tie the game at 11. Southern Miss had match point at 14-12, but Tulsa answered right back to tie the set at 14.
With the Conference USA Championship on the line, Southern Miss answered with two points on a kill by Seymour and the match winning point came on a block by Hlavaty and Brianna Arvin.
The Golden Eagles came up big at the net, out blocking the Golden Hurricane 14.5 to 10.0. Four USM players recorded four or more blocks.
Tulsa's Henderson posted a match-high 31 kills, while Jessica Adams controlled the back row for 30 digs for the Golden Hurricane. Jennifer Eichler added 13 kills to go with 12 digs.
Southern Miss concludes its regular season at home, hosting UCF, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Following the match, both seniors (Hlavaty and Ivanova) will be honored.
