Volleyball drops two matches after record 12-game winning streak
After a loss to its first Southwest Conference opponent of the season, Texas A&M University, at College Station, Rice holds a respectable 12-5 season record.
In spite of a 30-kill game by senior swing hitter Sammy Waldron and a 16-kill effort by sophomore quick hitter Tiffany Carrethers, Rice still fell to A&M 15-9, 14-16, 15-6, 15-13.
Carrethers and Waldron also pitched in defensively with 16 and 13 digs respectively
Sophomore setter Carolyn Sarnecki quarterbacked the team with 57 assists.
The Lady Aggie offense proved to be too potent as A&M smacked 94 kills, by far the most kills an opponent has had against the Owls.
A&M also won the assist and dig game with 88 sets and 94 digs, the highest assist and dig totals allowed by Owls this season.
Rice countered with 60 assists and 75 digs.
Five Aggies collected double-digit kill totals, and six had double-digit dig totals.
A bright spot for the Owls was the hard-fought second game victory.
The setback against A&M dampened the fact that the Owls now have matched the total number of wins they had last season.
The season record of last season is 12-19, and 10 of the losses were against the SWC teams.
Rice went in last weekend's Kansas State Invitational on a nine-game winning streak and came out of the tournament with a 3-1 record and a second-place finish.
Last Friday the Owls swept both of their opponents.
The first victim, Creighton University, bowed to the Owls 7-15, 15-7, 15-6, 15-9.
Carrethers, the SWC's Player of the Week, led the way with 19 kills, a .567 hitting percentage and four blocks.
Waldron, Sarnecki and junior swing hitter Yuan Yuan Zhang rounded out the attack with 19 kills, 53 assists and 12 digs respectively.
Carrethers' second .500+ game in a row enabled Rice to claim the straight-set victory over the University of Northeastern Illinois 15-6, 15-13, 15-1.
Carrethers smashed 15 kills on 25 swings; on the defensive end, she made her presence felt with a team high of nine digs and two blocks.
Sarnecki's 23 assists contributed to Rice's 40-15 assist edge.
As a team, Rice had 48 kills, a .364 hitting percentage and 49 digs as opposed to the 22 kills, .024 hitting percentage and 37 digs by Northeastern Illinois.
Rice defeated Wichita State University the next day in three sets 15-10, 17-15, and 15-12 to gain the team record 12-game winning streak.
Carrethers again provided punch with 15 kills.
Waldron anchored the defense with 14 digs.
Junior quick hitter Darcy Cruikshank contributed four blocks and Sarnecki added 49 assists.
Rice's team hitting percentage overwhelmed Wichita State's .257-.030 with 55-31 kills edge.
The streak ended against Kansas State later that afternoon as Rice fell 1-15, 13-15, 15-10, 6-15.
The loss wasted Carrethers' third-straight 15-kill match and Waldron's 18 digs.
Junior quick hitter Jennifer Sloan also tacked on six blocks in a losing cause.
The 68 kills accumulated by Kansas State University were the second-most kills allowed by the Owls this season.
Overall, Kansas dominated in hitting percent, assists and digs.
The loss dropped Rice to 12-4 and gave the team second place in the tournament.
Carrethers and Waldron were named to their second-straight all-tournament team with respective selections to the Kansas State Invitational all-tourney squad.
The next game for the Owls is this Saturday against the top-20 ranked University of Texas.
The match begins at 7:30 p.m. in Autry Court.
This item appeared in the Sports section of the September 29, 1995 issue.
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