RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The Southern Utah volleyball team played two matches on the opening day of the UCR/CBU Tournament Friday afternoon, splitting the two with a 3-1 (25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21) win over New Orleans and a 1-3 (17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 22-25) loss to UC Riverside.
In the win over New Orleans, Andreanna McKee had a season-high 11 kills in her first action since September 3. She also had 10 digs and got in on one block. Carissa Richie hit .500 with nine kills on 14 attempts and also contributed on six blocks. Calli Johnson had 13 digs and Molly McDermott had four service aces.
As a team, the Thunderbirds out-hit the Privateers .225-.165 and had eight service aces compared to UNO's two.
The Thunderbirds led by as many as nine points in the opening set (20-11), but New Orleans was able to cut the SUU lead to just two before the T-Birds forced an attack error to take the set. A big 10-3 scoring run gave the Thunderbirds the distance they needed to take set two. McDermott had two of her service aces and dished out two assists during that run.
The Privateers took set three, scoring six of the final eight points after the teams found themselves tied at 19-19. Set four was tied at 21-21 after UNO came back from seven points down early. However, the Thunderbirds closed out the set and the match on a 4-0 scoring run to come away with their third victory of the season.
In the loss to UC Riverside, Stacey Hone had eight kills and seven blocks and Richie added nine more blocks to her Friday total. The team had 14 blocks and forced the Highlanders into 32 errors, but only hit .085 in the match. Down 0-2 they were able to string together a 9-1 scoring run in set three that helped them take that set and stay alive.
Southern Utah was up 18-11 in set four and looked to be on their way to tying the match when the Highlanders went on a 12-1 scoring run to take the lead and eventually win the match.
The Thunderbirds will be back in action tomorrow afternoon against California Baptist at 2:00 p.m. Mountain time (1:00 p.m. Pacific time). The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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