Sept. 13, 2002

Final Stats

DALLAS, Texas - Sophomore middle blocker Deva Fowler and junior libero Karlyn Daly posted career-high with 20 kills and 22 digs, respectively, as the Tulane University volleyball team defeated host SMU 3-1 in the SMU/Doubletree Invitational Friday night at Moody Coliseum.

The Green Wave defense, which tallied 67 digs with three players tallying double-digit dig totals, totaled 10.0 team blocks and held the SMU offense to a .103 attack percentage. In two of the games, Tulane held SMU to a sub-.100 clip, including a .000 percentage in game three.

Tulane and SMU split the first two games 37-35 and 22-30, but the Green Wave were able to sweep the final two stanzas 30-24 and 30-26 to win their third straight match away from Fogelman Arena and improve to 6-4 on the year. SMU, meanwhile, fell to 3-4.

"I think both of our middles really rose to the occasion," head coach Betsy Becker said. "Deva had 20 kills and she really came into her own with Kelli (Dickson) as her compliment. And words can't express how good Karlyn is or how significant she is to our success. She's all business every point and the players look to her for her calming effect.

"I have a feeling that SMU keyed on stopping Britney (Hurst) and L.J. (Lauren Jones-McClain), and it's a tribute to the rest of our team that our middles came out hitting hard and executed. As a team, we can build on this win because it's against a quality team, and we can get a lot better. It seems like this is the first time since Katie's injury that we had fun on the court together as a team. I think Kelli (Dickson) handled the pressure well, and she really didn't play like a freshman. She was poised and made good decisions."

Hurst tallied 13 kills and 18 digs for the Green Wave, and sophomore outside hitter Lindsey Norman posted 10 digs in the victory. Fowler and fellow middle Kim Swafford tied for team-high block honors with five each, including two solo stuffs by Fowler. Dickson, meanwhile, finished the night with 48 assists while hitting .250 with a pair of kills and six digs.

After giving up the first point of the match, Tulane raced out to an early 10-7 lead in game one. A 4-0 rally by SMU, however, gave the home team the lead before the Green Wave snapped the streak and tied the score on the next ball. From there, the two teams fought to six ties before the Mustangs went on a 5-2 rally and appeared to have control of the game at 23-20. Tulane battled back one again, though and tied the game at 26-all. The Green Wave faced game point on four occasions and served for game point on two previous occasions, but with the score knotted at 35-all, the Tulane defense came up with back-to-back blocks to take the initial stanza 37-35.

Tulane dug itself into a whole early on in game two as seven Green Wave errors helped SMU race out to a 13-6 lead. The Green Wave battled back to cut the lead to three at 14-11 and 15-12, but three straight service errors in as many attempts gave the momentum back to the Mustangs and SMU was able to carry it through the end of the game to take a 3022 decision.

"We just needed to calm down and remain poised. Our emotions took over in the second game and it just seemed like we weren't playing a complete game. We were doing some things well, but we just weren't answering SMU's challenge. Between games two and three, we went into the lockerroom and regrouped. We had a new serving game-plan to avoid their best passer and we created a new matchup over their setter. We basically invited them to hit line on us because we had a good matchup there and was able to take advantage of that matchup."

The Green Wave fell behind 6-2 early in the third game, but Tulane refused to go away and chipped away at the SMU. After tying the score at 9-9, the Green Wave used a 5-2 and a 6-1 rally to take control of the game at 24-18. The Mustangs called a timeout and were able to break serve, but the Tulane advantage proved to be too much as the Green Wave went on to win 30-24.

Game four was a game of runs as the Green Wave rolled out to a 2-0 lead, SMU came back to take a 4-3 lead and Tulane answered with a 7-3 rally to take a 10-7 lead. The Mustangs went on a 4-1 lead to cut the lead to one, but the Green Wave came right back with a 6-1 run to take control of the match at 17-11. It looked as if the Green Wave had to contest in hand with a 25-16 lead, but after an SMU timeout, the Mustangs went on a 10-3 run to cut the lead to 28-26. Tulane was able to regroup, however, and held on for a 30-26 victory.

Katy Moffett led SMU with 18 kills while Kollin Hoskins finished with 10. Defensivley, Kristen Peterson led three Mustangs with double-digit dig totals with 17, followed by Moffett with 15 and Jessica Mihm with 14.

The Green Wave returns to action on Saturday when they continue play in the SMU Doubletree Invitational against Cal at 10:30 a.m. before closing out tournament play against Texas-San Antonio at 4 p.m.