Saturday Volleyball Roundup

OU Tops Northwestern

The University of Oklahoma volleyball team picked up a 3-1 win over Northwestern at the Holiday Inn West Invitational, hosted by Western Michigan, Saturday morning. The Sooners improved to 2-0 on the young season and continue tournament play Saturday night against the host Broncos at 6:00 pm.

The first set was back-and-forth, but was ultimately won by Oklahoma, 26-24. The Sooners faced set-point when Stephanie Holthus connected for a kill to put the Wildcats up, 24-22. OU tied the score at 24 with a kill from sophomore setter Julia Doyle (Plymouth, Minn.), took the lead on a kill by senior middle blocker Sallie McLaurin (Midwest City, Okla.) and went on to win the set on a NU attack error.

The Sooners took the second set, 25-19, hitting a collective .375 behind five kills from sophomore outside hitter Kierra Holst (Coppell, Texas).

Northwestern bounced back to win the third, 25-17, before Oklahoma closed out the match with a 25-21 win in the fourth.

"We responded very well to the pressure [Northwestern] applied in the third set," said Head Coach Santiago Restrepo. "We gave away too many errors, but we really concentrated on the fourth set and came through, making only two errors. It was good to see us answer a challenge against a good Big Ten opponent."

McLaurin led the Sooners with 12 kills and hit .440 to go with five blocks. After recording double-digit kills in in back-to-back matches, she now has 942 career kills. Holst finished second on the squad with 11 kills.

Holthus led the way for the Wildcats with a match-best 18 kills, while teammate Caroline Niedospial recorded a match-best 23 digs.

Seniors Eden Williams (Amarillo, Texas) and Keila Rodriguez (Gurabo, Puerto Rico) both reached double figures in digs for OU with 22 and 12, respectively.

Doyle commanded the Sooner offense and dished out 38 assists, tallied nine digs and six kills, while hitting .750.

Oklahoma is now 18-17-2 all-time against Big Ten teams and 3-3 under Restrepo. The Sooners lone match-up against Northwestern, prior to Saturday, was a 3-0 loss on September 19, 1999. OU last defeated a Big Ten opponent in the 2008 season opener, a 3-1 victory over Michigan State.

"Usually, the Pac-12, Big Ten and Big 12's RPIs are one, two and three throughout the year," continued Restrepo. "Obviously, [Northwestern] is a team that is going to be playing against some very good teams, beating some good teams, and that's going to help us in the RPI, because our conferences are so equal it helps us get a little one-up on them."

Game Two

Senior middle blocker Sallie McLaurin (Midwest City, Okla.) was named Tournament MVP as the University of Oklahoma volleyball team rolled to its third straight victory at the Holiday Inn West Invitational, hosted by Western Michigan, Saturday evening. The Sooners improved to 3-0 on the year with a 3-0 sweep of the host Broncos (2-1).

Oklahoma will be back in action on Tuesday night when it hosts Arkansas at McCasland Field House at 7:00 pm.

McLaurin led the attack for OU in the weekend finale with a team-high 12 kills. For the weekend she averaged 4.10 kills per set and hit .456 with 11 blocks. McLaurin now has 954 kills in her career.

The Sooners lost just one set all weekend as they dispatched WMU 25-20, 25-19 and 25-21.

Sophomore outside hitter Kierra Holst (Coppell, Texas) recorded 10 kills for Oklahoma, while Western Michigan's Stephanee Yancy led all players with 18.

For the second straight match, seniors Keila Rodriguez (Gurabo, Puerto Rico) and Eden Williams (Amarillo, Texas) both notched double-digit digs with 16 and 12, respectively.

As a team, the Sooners hit .295 for the match, while holding the Broncos to a .164 hitting percentage.

Sophomore setter Julia Doyle (Plymouth, Minn.) picked up 28 assists on her way to an All-Tournament Team honor. She averaged 9.6 assists per set on the weekend. Joining McLaurin and Doyle on the All-Tournament Team was Holst, who averaged 3.00 kills per set and hit .264.

ORU Sweeps

Oral Roberts University continued their dominating run at the TSU Invitational by earning two more 3-0 victories on Saturday at the season-opening event. ORU swept Prairie View A&M in the morning match before returning two hours later to score the sweep over Southern.

Jenks native Sara Pope, who on Friday tallied 19 kills without an error in her ORU debut, was named Tournament MVP. The junior racked up nine kills in each of Saturday's wins.

With the victories, ORU improves to 3-0 for the first time since 2009.

ORU 3, PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 0

The Golden Eagles had no problem with the early 9 am start time, besting the Panthers by scores of 25-11, 25-15 and 25-15. Pope and Jessica Pancratz each led the way with nine kills, with the senior committing just one attack error and hitting .727 for the match.

As a team, ORU hit .429 to Prairie View's .025 mark.

Magda Zietek led the Panthers (1-1) with seven kills.

ORU racked up 10 blocks in the three-set triumph, with Pancratz (one solo) notching four and Pope (two solo) and Luara Rosa (one solo) recording three each.

Bruna Silva led the way with eight digs, and Kylie Johnson added six.

With the win, ORU improves to 2-0 all-time against Prairie View.

ORU 3, SOUTHERN 0

The afternoon contest was over in less than an hour, with ORU taking the match by scores of 25-10, 25-13 and 25-10. Pope and Jovana Poljasevic had nine kills each, with the Bosnia native reaching the mark on only 10 attempts.

ORU bettered their efficiency for the third consecutive match, hitting a staggering .519 in the victory.

Nika Mostahinic added eight kills in her ORU debut, while Silva led the defensive charge with 10 digs

Southern (0-3) was paced by Deyshia Burden, who had five kills. The Jaguars hit just .098

Four Golden Eagles saw their first collegiate action in the win, including Mostahinic. Caroline Arnould had four kills and a pair of solo blocks, while Sofia Redden chipped in two digs and Lauren Winslow had one.

ORU returns to the court on Tuesday night for a matchup with crosstown rival Tulsa. First serve at the Reynolds Center on the TU campus is scheduled for 7 p.m.

TU Sweeps Missouri State

The University of Tulsa volleyball team won both matches Saturday at the Frericks Center at the Dayton Invitational.

Tulsa swept Missouri State on Saturday morning 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 29-27) and then defeated Northeastern Saturday afternoon 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 14-25, 15-9).

Three players recorded double-doubles against NU. Senior outside hitter Kellie Culbertson recorded her 36th career double-double with 14 kills and 19 digs. The Long Beach, Calif., native also notched a double-double against MSU with 12 kills and 10 digs.

Junior setter Bailey Clampitt had her first double-double of the season with 27 assists and 17 digs, while freshman setter Genesis Viera had her first career double-double with 20 assists and 15 digs. Clampitt led the team with 23 assists against MSU and Viera had 17 assists.

Junior transfer Valerie El Houssine just missed a double-double with 10 kills and nine digs, but had a double-double against MSU with 12 kills and 18 digs.

Senior middle blocker Miriele Gobbo led the team with a .400 hitting percentage (7-1-15) against MSU and had a .385 hitting percentage (6-1-13) against NU.

Junior middle blocker Carly Boatwright led the team with a .409 hitting percentage (11-2-22) against NU and was second on the team with 11 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Ashley Hooper had a .400 hitting percentage (8-2-15) against the Huskies.

Sophomore Nicole Newton had a .364 hitting percentage (5-1-11) against MSU.

Freshman libero Brooke Berryhill recorded double-digit dig performances in both matches Saturday. The Waco, Texas native had 17 digs against NU and 10 digs against MSU.

The Golden Hurricane begins the 2013 home campaign on Tuesday against cross-town rival Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. in Donald W. Reynolds Center.

OU Tops Northwestern

The University of Oklahoma volleyball team picked up a 3-1 win over Northwestern at the Holiday Inn West Invitational, hosted by Western Michigan, Saturday morning. The Sooners improved to 2-0 on the young season and continue tournament play Saturday night against the host Broncos at 6:00 pm.

The first set was back-and-forth, but was ultimately won by Oklahoma, 26-24. The Sooners faced set-point when Stephanie Holthus connected for a kill to put the Wildcats up, 24-22. OU tied the score at 24 with a kill from sophomore setter Julia Doyle (Plymouth, Minn.), took the lead on a kill by senior middle blocker Sallie McLaurin (Midwest City, Okla.) and went on to win the set on a NU attack error.

The Sooners took the second set, 25-19, hitting a collective .375 behind five kills from sophomore outside hitter Kierra Holst (Coppell, Texas).

Northwestern bounced back to win the third, 25-17, before Oklahoma closed out the match with a 25-21 win in the fourth.

"We responded very well to the pressure [Northwestern] applied in the third set," said Head Coach Santiago Restrepo. "We gave away too many errors, but we really concentrated on the fourth set and came through, making only two errors. It was good to see us answer a challenge against a good Big Ten opponent."

McLaurin led the Sooners with 12 kills and hit .440 to go with five blocks. After recording double-digit kills in in back-to-back matches, she now has 942 career kills. Holst finished second on the squad with 11 kills.

Holthus led the way for the Wildcats with a match-best 18 kills, while teammate Caroline Niedospial recorded a match-best 23 digs.

Seniors Eden Williams (Amarillo, Texas) and Keila Rodriguez (Gurabo, Puerto Rico) both reached double figures in digs for OU with 22 and 12, respectively.

Doyle commanded the Sooner offense and dished out 38 assists, tallied nine digs and six kills, while hitting .750.

Oklahoma is now 18-17-2 all-time against Big Ten teams and 3-3 under Restrepo. The Sooners lone match-up against Northwestern, prior to Saturday, was a 3-0 loss on September 19, 1999. OU last defeated a Big Ten opponent in the 2008 season opener, a 3-1 victory over Michigan State.

"Usually, the Pac-12, Big Ten and Big 12's RPIs are one, two and three throughout the year," continued Restrepo. "Obviously, [Northwestern] is a team that is going to be playing against some very good teams, beating some good teams, and that's going to help us in the RPI, because our conferences are so equal it helps us get a little one-up on them."