UTSA volleyball was defeated by the University of Tulsa 3-0 on Sunday at the Convocation Center.
The Roadrunners (7-14, 1-7 AAC) are No.12 in the American Athletic Conference and the Golden Hurricane (13-6, 5-2 AAC) are fourth in the AAC. UTSA struggled to get more than two points in a row as they drifted behind the Golden Hurricane 25-18, 25-11, 25-19. The ‘Runners had 30 attack errors and seven service errors compared to Tulsa’s 11 attack errors and four service errors.
“I hope we don’t make all those errors and continue to make those errors,” coach Carol Price-Torok said. “We gotta continue to get our young setters to set the ball if they need to and continue to give them confidence to go get after it. I think it started a little bit with our passing, we gotta make sure we can get the balls to the middle.”
Both teams worked to keep the ball in play, the first set had several long rallies. A serve from Tulsa setter Brittany Bacorn was received by UTSA and sent back to the Golden Hurricane. Outside hitter Arianna Mongare attacked UTSA, with a touch off the block, freshman defensive specialist Bailey Lechler dug the ball up.
Sophomore setter Annika Sokol took the ball and set it to freshman outside hitter Ally Tribe. Tulsa read the play and roofed Tribe, but she saw the block and used it to her advantage. She hit the ball into it, Tulsa watched as it bounced off the block to outside the court. The Roadrunners took the point and closed the Golden Hurricane’s lead.
Junior outside hitter Mia Soerensen had a similar play in set two. A serve by Tulsa setter Brayden Hipp, received by junior outside hitter Caroline Krueger from the back row. Freshman setter Morgen Durgens jumped and set the ball for Soerensen. She used the Tulsa block to her own gain, hit the ball it ricocheted off the block to the ground. The ‘Runners trailed behind the Golden Hurricane most of the third set by two points.
“It was a tough loss, I feel like we definitely struggled with keeping the energy up,” sophomore middle blocker Kai Bailey said. “Just staying together as a team, I feel like we were just frustrated sometimes about how things were going. We didn’t have much success, other than that we still did good, we played our best. We ran down the ball and our defense was on fire.”
UTSA will play Temple University at 5 p.m. Friday at McGonigle Hall.