Sept. 19, 2009

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TUCSON, Ariz. - Green Wave outside hitters Visnja Djurdjevic and Ksenija Vlaskovic combined for 24 kills and 25.0 points, and senior setter Rachel Lindelow posted her fifth consecutive double-double, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 21 Arizona in the Arizona Invitational at the McKale Center.

The Green Wave kept pace with the host Wildcats throughout the match, but Arizona made key plays down the stretch to earn a 25-21, 25-18, 26-24 victory. With the loss, Tulane falls to 4-4 on the year. The Wildcats, meanwhile, remain undefeated in 2009 with a 9-0 record.

"We were way too inconsistent to do some real damage against Arizona," first-year Tulane head volleyball coach Sinisa Momic said. "At points, we were playing at a very high level and we were catching up, and there were times when we played well below our potential. Arizona just played at the same level the whole time.

"It was obvious that we could hang there, but whenever we would catch up, there were more errors on our side than you can have to beat a team like Arizona. In game three, we finally started playing better, but it was too late."

Djurdjevic led the team with 13 kills and fell one dig shy of a double-double of her own with nine, and added a service ace and a pair of block assists for a team-leading 15.0 points against the Wildcats. Vlaskovic, meanwhile, tallied 11 kills and a pair of aces while finishing the day with three digs.

Lindelow had 32 assists and 13 digs, while senior libero Jenn Miller paced the Green Wave defense with 15 digs. Freshman middle blocker Marija Milosavljevic led the front-line defense with three block assists.

Tulane matched Arizona point-for-point throughout the early portion of the opening set as the two teams were deadlocked at 15-all two-thirds of the way through the contest. From there, the Wildcats used a 5-2 rally to create some separation and went on to win the stanza by four.

The Green Wave scored the first two points of the second set, but the Wildcats roared back with four consecutive points and trailed just once the rest of the way. With Tulane clinging to an 8-7 advantage courtesy of a Vlaskovic ace, Arizona tied the set on a Paige Weber setter dump and never trailed again. Weber's kill sparked a 6-1 rally to give the Wildcats a five-point lead and Arizona scored five of the final seven points of the set to take a commanding 2-0 advantage in the match.

Like it had done in set No. 2, Tulane ran out to the early lead in the third set and held a 5-3 advantage after eight serves. Arizona rallied to tie the set at 5-all and eventually took a four-point lead at 19-15 late in the ballgame. The Green Wave battled back to tie the set at 21-21 and staved off match-point at 24-23 with a block by Djurdjevic and Milosavljevic. The Wildcats, however, gob back-to-back kills by Dana Hutchinson and Tiffany Owens to complete the straight-sets victory.

"Whoever is playing, they need to understand how good we can be," Momic said. "We have to play with the right mentality and heart against everybody because you never know when you'll have a chance to beat somebody. I think we showed that against LSU. We believed, we played at a high level consistently and we beat a good team. It just didn't happen today against Arizona."

Owens led the Wildcats with a match-high 14 kills and Hutchinson was close behind with 12. Owens posted Arizona's lone double-double with 16 digs to go with her kill total while Weber led all players with 40 assists. Elise Hendrickson paced the Arizona defense with 17 digs, and Jacy Norton headlined the front-line defense with two solo stuffs and three block assists.

The Green Wave close out play in the Arizona Invitational on Sunday when they take on New Mexico at 3 p.m. (CDT). The Lobos defeated UTEP, 3-0, in their first tournament match to improve to 8-2 on the year, and will play Arizona later tonight.

Following this weekend's Arizona Invitational, Tulane return to action on Friday, Sept. 25 when the Wave play host to Conference USA foe Tulsa at 7 p.m. in Fogelman Arena. The match is one of two home contests next weekend as Tulane will battle SMU on Sunday at 1 p.m. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at 504-861-WAVE.