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Sept. 3, 2004

Final Stats

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Three players posted double-digit kill totals and the Green Wave defense once again held its opponent to under a .100 attack percentage as the Tulane University volleyball team defeated Nicholls State, 3-0, Friday evening in day one of the Kathy Trosclair Memorial Tournament at Fogelman Arena.

Tulane got off to a rough start, falling behind 9-3 in game one, but bounced back to win the opening stanza, 30-23, and swept the next two games, 30-17 and 30-16. With the win, Tulane improves to 2-0 on the year while Nicholls falls to 0-1. The victory also marked the 10th consecutive win by the Green Wave over an in-state opponent dating back to the 2002 season.

Senior middle blocker Deva Fowler led the team with 15 kills and seven blocks, and the Green Wave got a 12-kill performance from freshman outside hitter Sarah Weiland and 10 kills out of sophomore right-side hitter Blair Moon. As a team, Tulane hit .342 (52 kills, 14 errors, 111 attacks) and limited the Lady Colonels to a .061 clip (30-24-99).

"Our goal tonight was to control the tempo of the match, and as a team, we did just that," head coach Betsy Becker said. "Our middles gave us great opportunities and opened up the gates to allow our outsides to score. A lot of that was a direct result of our defense. If we can hit quicks in transition plays off of digs, we're going to be able to win a lot of games."

While Fowler, Weiland and Moon were leading the team at the net, junior setter Katie Case did a solid job of quarterbacking the club. The native of Naperville, Ill., posted 42 assists, had six kills in 11 swings, posted two aces and tallied four digs.

Junior libero Kelli Dickson paces the Tulane defense with 14 digs, and senior outside hitter Lindsey Norman joined her in the double-digit defense club with 10. At the net, the Green Wave tallied 10.0 team blocks, including four block assists by Moon, three total blocks by senior middle blocker Iman Houston, and a pair of block assists from Case.

"Katie was just relentless tonight and really orchestrated our offense well tonight," Becker said. "That enabled all of our attackers to hit in the positive. On the flip side, we were able to stymie Nicholls State and neutralize their best attackers. If we can continue to get better, and again capitalize on our depth, good things will happen for our club."

The Lady Colonels stormed out of the gate in game one, rolling to a 9-3 lead. Tulane, however, would respond with a 6-0 run to take a 10-9 lead and never really looked back. The two teams traded points in the middle portion of the first game, but with the score tied at 19-all, Tulane would outscore Nicholls 11-4 the rest of the way to take the opening stanza.

Game two began as a back-and-forth battle, but Tulane took a 6-5 lead early on and watch it steadily grow throughout the contest as the Green Wave took a 2-0 lead into the lockerroom. The next game followed a similar script, scoring the first three points and watching the lead slowly swell until the match ended with a 30-16 game-three victory.

Nicholls State's KaLeigh Butler, Atina Porter and Brenda Ross tied for team-high kill honors with seven apiece, and Ashley Miksch led the Lady Colonel defense with 14 digs.

Tulane returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 4, when they take on Southern Illinois and Georgetown at 1 and 7 p.m., respectively. Day two of the Kathy Trosclair Memorial Tournament begins at 10:30 a.m. when Nicholls State takes on Georgetown. The two Tulane games are sandwiched around a Nicholls/Southern Illinois match, which is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m.