Major test to determine if this team has finally turned the corner. Tulsa comes in on a 6-match win streak, with an overall 14-3 record (6-0 AAC, 4-0 home). The boast quality wins against Creighton, Arizona and Pepperdine. In conference, they swept USF, UAB and UTSA, and took two matches against Wichita State, needing 5 sets last Sunday to beat them at home.

They appear to be a very good serving team, with 5 different players having 15+ aces on the season.

Aside from the Creighton match, we've been blown out by every quality team we have played so far this season. Our backline defense finally appears to be playing into form, with Hummel having back-to-back strong matches at libero, and Eastman getting increasingly more playing time. The big question is whether our offense can ever get in sync with any degree of consistency.

(10-15-2026 07:55 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Major test to determine if this team has finally turned the corner. Tulsa comes in on a 6-match win streak, with an overall 14-3 record (6-0 AAC, 4-0 home). The boast quality wins against Creighton, Arizona and Pepperdine. In conference, they swept USF, UAB and UTSA, and took two matches against Wichita State, needing 5 sets last Sunday to beat them at home.

They appear to be a very good serving team, with 5 different players having 15+ aces on the season.

Aside from the Creighton match, we've been blown out by every quality team we have played so far this season. Our backline defense finally appears to be playing into form, with Hummel having back-to-back strong matches at libero, and Eastman getting increasingly more playing time. The big question is whether our offense can ever get in sync with any degree of consistency.

Spot on, Walt.

This one is big… and imo during the OOC we played 1A to Tulsa’s 1B (or vice versa) but since conference play began, Tulsa’s only solidified while we’ve… not quite solidified yet.

I’ll quibble and say that we were competitive (I.e. not blown out) at a highly ranked TCU team (that was tired from playing their second match that day) but the Frogs finished their business for the 1-3 tally. We had tangible leads in at least two of the three sets we lost, so I put that one in the category of “one that got away” but again TCU was definitely not on their A game that night.

Back to Tulsa… the W is important, but (to me) what’s more important is showing that we can (again) compete with a top line opponent. To make the NCAA’s we’ll need to be able to beat Tulsa on our home court (we host the conference tourney), and tomorrow’s result won’t mean too much in the big picture. Other than moving up to the 2 or 3 seed would be very helpful, in order to avoid TU until the final.

Tomorrow let’s go out and take it one point at a time, and show them we deserve to be on the same court with them.

In other American Texas volleyball news…

Yesterday’s Wacky Wednesday Bubble Bursting UNT/UTSA 8th place tiebreaker heartbreaker went the way of the Road Runner as UTSA swept the Mean Green 3-0

If the conference tourney started today, UTSA would be on the good side of the bubble and headed to Houston… UNT would be staying home in Denton and watching all the action on the Plus.

Standings thru 10/14:
6-0 Tulane Tulsa
5-1 ECU
4-2 FAU Rice
3-3 Temple USF
3-4 UTSA
————
2-5 UNT
1-5 clt UAB Memp Wichita

Top 8 make the conference tourney

(10-15-2026 05:58 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-15-2026 07:55 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Major test to determine if this team has finally turned the corner. Tulsa comes in on a 6-match win streak, with an overall 14-3 record (6-0 AAC, 4-0 home). The boast quality wins against Creighton, Arizona and Pepperdine. In conference, they swept USF, UAB and UTSA, and took two matches against Wichita State, needing 5 sets last Sunday to beat them at home.

They appear to be a very good serving team, with 5 different players having 15+ aces on the season.

Aside from the Creighton match, we've been blown out by every quality team we have played so far this season. Our backline defense finally appears to be playing into form, with Hummel having back-to-back strong matches at libero, and Eastman getting increasingly more playing time. The big question is whether our offense can ever get in sync with any degree of consistency.

Spot on, Walt.

This one is big… and imo during the OOC we played 1A to Tulsa’s 1B (or vice versa) but since conference play began, Tulsa’s only solidified while we’ve… not quite solidified yet.

I’ll quibble and say that we were competitive (I.e. not blown out) at a highly ranked TCU team (that was tired from playing their second match that day) but the Frogs finished their business for the 1-3 tally. We had tangible leads in at least two of the three sets we lost, so I put that one in the category of “one that got away” but again TCU was definitely not on their A game that night.

Back to Tulsa… the W is important, but (to me) what’s more important is showing that we can (again) compete with a top line opponent. To make the NCAA’s we’ll need to be able to beat Tulsa on our home court (we host the conference tourney), and tomorrow’s result won’t mean too much in the big picture. Other than moving up to the 2 or 3 seed would be very helpful, in order to avoid TU until the final.

Tomorrow let’s go out and take it one point at a time, and show them we deserve to be on the same court with them.

We play Tulsa again at home next week. As I mentioned in a different thread, the next two weeks will determine if we still have a season to play for. Tulsa, WSU and UNT on the road, followed by Tulsa, UNT and USF at home. No more excuses. It's now or never. Realistically, we need to win at least 4 of the 6, and do no worse than split with Tulsa.

bump

Owls up early 8-5 in set 1.

15-10 at the media TO.

15-10 at the media timeout.

15-10 at the media timeout.

Probably the best we’ve looked all season at the block touch. Still very early. Let’s see if we can keep it up.

Back row defense and the block has looked great. No troubles with the Tulsa service game so far. Tulsa looks pretty unremarkable - not a bad team but we’ve played much better ones this year.

16-15. Ugh. Rice starting to make mistakes.

17-18

17 all. Now 17-18. TO Rice

20-20

20 all. Tulsa challenging the no touch call. Or is it a net violation challenge?

Call stands. 20 all.

20-22

22 all.

SERR 22-23 GRRR

Tulsa ace. 22-24 TO Rice

22-22 then a Rice service error and Tulsa service ace, grrr. 22-24

22-24 two late service errors really hurt. And Sydnee just allowed a service ace. Sydnee's backrow defense is strong, but she does not handle the serve particularly well.

Tied at 24. Hummel ace puts Rice in front, 25-24.