Volleyball plays Aggies for third

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by Jun Yang

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Only 203 people came out to Autry Court on Wednesday night to watch the volleyball team fall to Texas Tech University 5-15, 15-8, 9-15, 9-15.

This loss dropped Rice to 4-5 in the Southwest Conference and 19-9 overall; Tech moved to 4-6 in the SWC and 17-10 overall after its win.

This meant that the SWC could have a three-way tie for third place, pending the result of Rice's match against Texas A&M University tomorrow night.

If Rice fights off the tough Aggies, the Owls will be in third place all by itself and will claim the number three seed for the SWC Championship tournament, which takes place Nov. 18-20.

However, like the fan support, the Rice Owls came short.

The Red Raiders were able to run off groups of consecutive points to dispose of Rice in four games.

In the first game, Tech had a couple of five-point streaks to jump ahead 10-2; in the third, it pulled out a 15-9 win by scoring the final six points of the game.

In the final game, Tech again used its streaks to build up an insurmountable 11-2 lead.

As is usually the case whenever these two teams clash, it was a defensive struggle with neither team hitting over .200 and usually collecting more digs than kills.

Although Tech played well, some of the damage was Rice's own doing. Rice had 12 service errors as opposed to one service ace; Tech collected eight aces against its 13 errors.

Rice also committed 10 more hitting errors than Tech did, leading to their inadequate .162 hitting percentage.

Junior swing hitter Rebecca Case was Rice's most consistent weapon, collecting 15 kills and a .370 hitting percentage.

Senior swing hitter Sammy Waldron and sophomore quick hitter Tiffany Carrethers tacked on 20 and 13 kills, respectively, in the losing effort.

Rounding out the offense, sophomore setter Carolyn Sarnecki quarterbacked the team with 52 sets. Defensively, juniors Jennifer Sloan (12), Darcy Cruikshank (11) and Yuan Yuan Zhang (10) all posted double digit digs; Waldron provided presence at the net with 5 total blocks.

The Lady Red Raiders were sparked offensively by Jennifer Cohn who had 16 kills with only one error in 24 attempts for an outstanding .625 percentage. Defensively, she was a force at the net turning back five Owl attacks.

Setter Lisa Hilgers contributed 50 assists and 13 digs.

Coach Chen felt disappointed after the match and pointed to some mistakes by the Owls.

"It was a tough and disappointing loss," he said. "We didn't play well. We didn't get the job done. We let them take big runs, especially in game four."

He also noted the strong play of Tech.

"They were a determined team and played very well," he said.

"They ran good offenses and were tremendous at digging the balls. A lot of the balls they dug should have been kills. They also did a heck of a job blocking us."

Chen blamed himself for the problems with the service errors.

"I have to take responsibility for the service errors," he said.

"I told them to serve tough, and it didn't work out -- we made only one ace. But we have to take chances. It just happens that tonight it didn't work out."

Chen also expressed his disappointment in attendance levels.

"I would like to see more fans out there. Up until about the [University of] Houston game, attendance was great," he said.

"We're in the hunt for the playoffs. I know people are busy and all, but they're missing out on a lot of exciting volleyball."

Despite the current two-match losing skid to Houston last Wednesday and to Texas Tech, Chen remained optimistic about the A&M game tomorrow.

"The talk we had [after the match] was very positive," he said.

"We are not used to losing, so we'll come out fired up for the A&M game."

In Chen's mind, the season still has a way to go.

The suggestion is clear: Rice might go deep into the playoffs.

However, if the fans continue to fade out, the run might be cut short.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the November 10, 1995 issue.

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