Volleyball Falls in Championship Game at Georgia

Saturday, August 29

Athens, Ga.

10:00 AM ET

University of Memphis

2-0

Wofford

0-2

Wofford

Memphis

Oluchi Agomuo (above) and Veronica Zimmerman were named to the All-Tournament team at Georgia.

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Aug 29, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Agomuo and Zimmerman named to all-tournament team.

By: Tammy DeGroff

ATHENS, Ga. – The University of Memphis volleyball team (2-1) started its Saturday morning with a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 25-10, 25-20) of Wofford (0-2) to advance to the championship game of the Georgia Benson Hospitality Tournament, but faced a strong-blocking Bulldog (3-0) squad in a 3-0 loss (25-23, 25-22, 25-19) Saturday night.

"We got to be tested early," Head Coach April Jauregui said. "We saw glimpses of some really great things. Tonight, we simply erred ourselves out of an opportunity to win. That just comes down to confidence and maintaining poise in key situations. But this was, overall, a great experience for our team."

To start the night, Memphis found itself up 20-16 in set one before Georgia came back to tie it up at 21-all. Georgia then used a kill from Jasmine Eatmon and a service ace to pull ahead 24-21. Facing set point, Memphis' Catlin Lilly downed back-to-back kills to pull Memphis to 24-23 down, forcing a Georgia timeout. But Memphis netted a serve facing the third match point out of the timeout, and the Bulldogs snuck out, 25-23.

The second set started a bit slow for the Tigers after the first set loss, and the offense found a wall of Georgia blockers waiting. Down 15-13, the Tigers made a run behind kills from Oluchi Agomuo and Summer Morgan, knotting the score at 16-all. The two teams traded service errors before a Catlin Lilly kill put the Tigers back up, 19-18. Freshman Kelsey Walter then put down a kill to push the Memphis lead to 20-18, forcing a Georgia timeout. In all, the two teams would tie eight times in the second set, but errors snuck in again, as two Memphis attack errors allowed Georgia to tie it back up at 20-all. Eatmon then soloed up a block for a 21-20 Georgia lead. In total, Georgia would out-block Memphis 10-1 on the night, posting seven of their blocks in the second set alone, holding the Tiger offense to a .162 clip.

Lilly answered back with a kill to tie it up again, but Georgia's Megan Spencer downed a kill of her own to retake the lead, then the Bulldogs aced the Tigers' serve-receive game for a 23-21 lead and closed out the set, 25-22.

Memphis trailed again to start the third set, and this time, could not get to the home team to apply any pressure. The closest Memphis could get was the 25-19 final score.

Senior setter Veronica Zimmerman and sophomore outside hitter Oluchi Agomuo were both named to the all-tournament team. Agomuo finished Saturday night with 11 kills, while Zimmerman dished out 33 assists. Freshman libero Mady Ruhlman put together back-to-back double-digit dig performances Saturday, finishing with 15 in the loss, Saturday.

Memphis will use the upcoming week to prepare for another three-match, non-conference tournament next weekend. Memphis will face UTEP, Friday, at 10 a.m. and South Alabama, Friday, at 3:30 p.m. at the Belmont tournament. The Tigers will wrap up that tournament against host Belmont, Saturday, at 2:00 p.m.

MEMPHIS 3, WOFFORD 0
Memphis (2-0) used a strong service game to shut out Wofford (0-2), Saturday morning at the Georgia Benson Hospitality Invitational, 3-0 (25-20, 25-10, 25-20). The Tigers served up 12 aces in the win over Wofford, with McKenzie Hayes and Catlin Lilly each landing four. Lindsey Purvis added a pair of aces in the win.

Hayes also led the team with nine kills in the morning match. Freshman libero Mady Ruhlman posted her first career double-digit dig outing, finishing with 13 digs, while Lilly added 11. Sophomore setter Faith Myers led the team with 12 assists in the three-set win.