Women's volleyball survives scare

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by Jun Yang

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What should have been an easy sweep turned into an adventure as Rice fended off Baylor University in three games with nail-biting scores of 15-11, 16-14, 16-14 on Wednesday.

The win propelled Rice to 18-7 for the season and 4-3 against the rest of the Southwest Conference; Baylor dropped to 4-19 and 0-8 in the SWC.

The last time Rice volleyball won 18 games was in 1987, when it finished 20-11. The last time Rice had four wins against SWC teams was 1988, when the Owls collected a 4-6 record.

It was a night of comebacks and they were not quiet ones. Rice engineered a great come-from-behind victory in game two and left Baylor with many almosts and not-quites.

In game two, Rice trailed 1-6, 3-9, 9-12, 10-14 before reeling off six unanswered points to pull out the game.

Baylor had its version of comeback in the third game. Starting the game down 0-2, 1-5 and 3-5, Baylor saw Rice score nine points in a row.

At 3-14, the Baylor team ignited and pulled even at 14 with 11 unanswered points. Owls eventually put an end to the thriller with an ace by Sarnecki.

Coach Chen was the first to admit that the match left more to be desired.

"It was not pretty, but we got the job done," he said. "It was an emotional match, considering we just came off the real tough UT game [on last Wednesday]."

Sophomore quick hitter Tiffany Carrethers, senior swing hitter Sammy Waldron and junior quick hitter Rebecca Case led the offense with 18, 15 and 12 kills respectively.

Freshman Lisa Sweeney and sophomore Monika Bickert provided spark off the bench.

Sweeney had nine kills as opposed to only one error while Bickert contributed strong serves.

Waldron led the team with 20 digs while junior Jennifer Sloan added 15 digs of her own.

Sophomore setter Carolyn Sarnecki quarterbacked the team with 50 assists.

Coach Chen was in general pleased with the team's performance.

"We had a balanced offense, we emphasized offense distribution and came through with that," he said.

"We played well defensively, dug balls, made things happen. We dug over 20 balls per game[22.3], which is exceptional. In game 2, we played hard to come from behind. We are mentally tough. In the third game, we stopped playing aggressively. We played not-to-lose as opposed to play-to-win."

Coach Chen was worried about the possible results of having the game television, but concluded that it helped the team overall.

"These TV matches are dangerous because the opponent get hyped about it, but I think the TV had a positive effect on us," he said.

Carrethers, who had 12 kills and 3 blocks to lead the team, attributed the team's successes to the maturity of the team.

"We came in the game knowing we can win," she said. "We have matured and grown up a lot since last year. We know each other well and know each other's moves."

During and after the midterm break, Rice faced three other opponents. Rice claimed victory over its first foe Drake University 15-12, 13-15, 15-11, 15-11. Waldron's all-around performance -- 20 kills, 4 service aces, 21 digs, 7 total blocks -- keyed Rice's win.

Carrethers added 20 kills to the attack. Sloan continued her success at the net with seven total blocks.

On last Monday, Owls won at Lamar University 15-7, 14-16, 15-4, and 15-7. Waldron smashed 30 or more kills for the fifth match of the season with 32 kills, tied for her and Rice's highest total of kills in a game this season.

She also anchored the defense with 19 digs while Sloan blocked another seven.

The next game for the Owls will be against George Mason University at 12 noon Sunday at Autry Court.

Chen was concerned about the Patriots.He called it "a big match, a tremendous match. They are number two in their district and we will find out how good we really are when we play them."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the October 27, 1995 issue.

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