(10-16-2026 08:40 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Nice to see Rice with three players with multiple aces!


Overall Rice had 7 aces on just 5 service errors.

Tulsa OFOH also had 7 aces but made 10 service errors.

Team hitting Owls .253 , Hurricane .173

Backline defense was really strong once again. Hummel finally feels comfortable in the system and is finally playing at a level we all expected. And both Furoyama and Eastman are playing well. Save for service receiving, Peterson is also very solid when playing the back line. Good to see Smith with back-to-back strong matches in the block. That's what she is here for. I still don't get the benching of Croft. Heck, let her play OH as she is a much better offensive player than Dorotik, and a better block, to boot.

Genny's post-match comments...

Postgame Reaction – Head Coach Genny Volpe
"I'm really proud of our team for how we attacked from pretty much start to finish. I think we could've closed out the match earlier, but we let up just enough to let Tulsa back in and you can't do that against a really good team like Tulsa. Our middles were very efficient again today and Sydnee had another solid performance as well. I loved what our back row players did tonight defensively and from the service line."

Especially good to hear about back line defense picking up. I wasn’t able to the espn+ feed yesterday.

The back line defense was kind of a calling card for us last year and in recent years. The fact that it sounds like it’s “back” (or actually really just finally gelled with the 2026 squad) gets me excited for not just a conference tournament run, but also for a possible run at the regular season title… we’re now just one game out, with the FAU win over Tulane last night as well.

(10-17-2026 08:05 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Especially good to hear about back line defense picking up. I wasn’t able to the espn+ feed yesterday.

The back line defense was kind of a calling card for us last year and in recent years. The fact that it sounds like it’s “back” (or actually really just finally gelled with the 2026 squad) gets me excited for not just a conference tournament run, but also for a possible run at the regular season title… we’re now just one game out, with the FAU win over Tulane last night as well.

Last night's match was also the first I can remember in which we actually had a number of block tips (keeping the point alive) in addition to the blocks. I wonder if play in the block has been a focus of recent practices.