Sooners Advance To NCAA Second Round With Five-Set Win

The Sooners won a five-set thriller over Arizona State to advance to play BYU in the NCAA second round.

Friday, November 30th 2012, 11:53 pm

By: News 9


The University of Oklahoma volleyball team advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a thrilling 3-2 (20-25, 25-19, 25-18, 19-25, 15-13) win over Arizona State Friday night.

The Sooners will take on host and No. 12 national seed BYU, which swept New Mexico State in the second game Friday night, at 8 p.m. CT on Saturday.

"This was a big battle between a Pac 12 and Big 12 team," remarked head coach Santiago Restrepo. "We happened to come through on the fifth set – our team fought like champions."

Oklahoma advances to the second round for the fourth time in seven years and fourth time under the helm of Restrepo after tonight's victory.

"I thought Arizona State did a great job fighting throughout every point – every single point," Restrepo said. "Jason Watson has done a terrific job with that team and getting them to where they are today and into the NCAA Tournament; hats off to Arizona State."

Four Sooners combined to have double-digit kills, with senior outside hitter Morgan Reynolds leading the way with a career-best 21 kills. Junior Sallie McLaurin totaled 15, while sophomore Tara Dunn added 14 of her own. Freshman Kierra Holst added 10 to round out OU's offensive efforts.

"I couldn't do this without this team. I couldn't do it without Julia [Doyle], our passers and everything else," Reynolds said about her performance. "Everything kind of came together at the right time and it just worked well for me. Obviously, I give the credit to my team."

Along with their presence on the front line, both Reynolds and McLaurin broke an OU NCAA individual match record with six block assists a piece against Arizona State.

Doyle also had a career performance with 51 assists – the first of her career – to ink the ninth 40-or-more assist match of her freshman campaign.

"She played today, the best she has played all season," said Restrepo "She was consistent, and just did a great job."

Doyle also added two assists and eight digs in the Sooners efforts.

Senior libero Maria Fernanda added 27 digs for the 10th 20-plus dig performance of her senior season.

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