Sept. 20, 2009

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TUCSON, Ariz. - Senior outside hitter Ksenija Vlaskovic tied her career high with 25 kills and freshman right-side hitter Milica Jovic tallied 15 kills and five blocks in her first career start as the Tulane University volleyball team rallied from behind to defeat New Mexico, 3-2, Sunday afternoon in the final match of the Arizona Invitational at the McKale Center.

The Green Wave won the opening set with east, 25-13, but the Lobos came right back with 25-17 and 25-20 victories over the next two frames to take a 2-1 advantage in the match. From there, however, Tulane tied the contest with a 25-19 win in set No. 4 and made plays when it needed to down the stretch to clinch the contest with a 15-10 decision. With the win, Tulane improves to 5-4 on the year. New Mexico, meanwhile, falls to 8-4.

"We opened up well," first-year Tulane head volleyball coach Sinisa Momic said. "The first game, we destroyed them, but we basically let them back in with our mistakes. That's something we have to eliminate. We go from great to very bad, and we have to balance that out. That actually happened in the fifth set. It was a great win."

Vlaskovic and Jovic were named to the Arizona Invitational All-Tournament Team, and were joined by the Wildcats' Elise Hendrickson and Alanna Resch, New Mexico's Jade Michaelsen and UTEP's Amy Sanders. Tiffany Owens of host Arizona was named tourney MVP.

Jovic - who entered Sunday's contest with just 11 kills, a .214 attack percentage, 15.0 points and seven blocks in 13 sets of action - connected at a .682 clip with no attack errors in 22 swings. She also chipped in with three assists and three digs, and finished with a career-high 17.5 points. Not to be left out, Vlaskovic tied her career high in kills and hit .314 with nine miscues on a team-leading 51 attempts. She added a service ace, a block and three digs to finish the day with a Green Wave-best 27.0 points.

Sophomore outside hitter Visnja Djurdjevic posted her sixth double-double of the year with 11 kills and a team-high 13 digs, and tied freshman middle blocker Marija Milosavljevic for the lead in service aces with two. Senior setter Rachel Lindelow, meanwhile, posted 55 assists on the day - the third time in the last four matches she surpassed the 50-assist mark - to help the Green Wave hit .273 (66-22-161).

"(Jovic) was the difference tonight," Momic said. "She gave us a lot of depth in offense and was unstoppable, basically. It was nice to see that. The whole team was kind of up and down, and she was very steady. We're still trying to get it together and gel so that we're not so inconsistent. I think we're getting there, and this is a great win for us before we start (the bulk of) conference play. This shows that even when we're not really consistent, we can still beat a very high-quality team like New Mexico."

The Green Wave got off to a red-hot start in the opening set, running out to a 10-3 lead and never looking back. The lead swelled to as many as 13 at 22-9 and Tulane cruised to a 12-piont win.

It was a much different story over the next two stanzas. New Mexico ran out to a 7-4 lead early in the second set before Tulane rallied to tie things up at 7-all. With the score knotted at 8-all two serves later, the Lobos used an 8-5 rally to take a 16-13 lead and outscored the Green Wave 9-4 the rest of the way to tie the match at one set apiece.

Tulane scored the first point of the third set on a kill by junior middle blocker Lindsey Shepard, but New Mexico scored the next four to take a 4-1 advantage it would not relinquish. The Green Wave tied the frame twice, and after falling behind by as many as four at 15-11, rallied to make it a one-point affair at 17-16. From there, though, New Mexico scored two straight and went on to tally the final three points of the contest for a five-point decision.

The set-three win proved to be the last time the Lobos held a lead the rest of the day as Tulane scored the first three points of set No. 4 and continued to stretch the lead as things moved along. The Wave led by as many as eight at 15-7 and never allowed New Mexico back into the frame before tying things up with a six-point win.

It was a similar story in the fifth-and-deciding set as Tulane went up 3-0 out of the gate and led 5-1three serves later. New Mexico rallied to make it a one-point affair at 7-6 before Djurdjevic's attack found the floor to give the Green Wave an 8-6 advantage at the customary switching of benches. A Kelly Williamson kill cut the lead back to one at 8-6, but Tulane scored the next two points on kills by Vlaskovic and Jovic and never looked back.

"It's a matter of consistency," Momic said on the team's play in the final two sets. "It's us eliminating our mistakes because we're thinking about winning and losing too much rather than just worrying about the quality of our ball touches. That was the difference.

"When we said just forget about winning and losing and think about your skills and every single point, that's when we started playing better. We started having fun, realized we could beat this team and we just kept going. In sets four and five, everything seemed to gel."

Taylor Hadfield was the lone New Mexico player to post double-digit kills on the afternoon with 13, while Anna Lehne and Lisa Meeter followed with nine and eight, respectively. Michaelson posted a double-double for the Lobos with 41 assists and 10 digs, while Allison Buck led all players with a match-best 19 digs. Michaelson and Anna Lehne tied Jovic for match-high block honors with five each.

Tulane return to action on Friday, Sept. 25 when the Green 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.