Volleyball Falls At SMU Friday

Friday, November 17

Dallas, Texas

7 pm CT

University of Memphis

9-20, 2-15AAC

SMU

20-8, 14-3AAC

Memphis

SMU

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Nov 17, 2017 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Memphis-SMU Boxscore Memphis Season Statistics (Overall Matches)Memphis Season Statistics (Conference Matches Only)

Bivins with 12 kills, eight digs pace the Tigers' effort.

DALLAS, Texas – University of Memphis junior Kelsea Bivins posted a team-high 12 kills and also added eight digs, but SMU came away with a 3-0 American Athletic Conference win over the Tigers Friday. The Mustangs won the match by scores of 25-16, 25-18 and 26-24.

With the setback, Memphis' record is now 9-20 overall and 2-15 in The American. SMU improved to 20-8 overall and 14-3 in the league. The victory gave the Mustangs a firm hold on second place in the league's regular-season standings.

Up Next
The Tigers continue their road trip Sunday, Nov. 19 when they travel to Tulsa, Okla., to face the Golden Hurricane. Match time is 1 p.m. (CT).

Head coach April Jauregui comments
"We started to get in a rhythm in the third set and put together a string of points. We have moments when things are clicking and we can contend with the top teams in the conference. We are continuing to build, and I hope the players can see that, while the result wasn't there, we are making progress. We battled through rallies tonight, and I saw our young kids step up and continue to grow. SMU is a very hard team to score against. They can extend rallies with their block and coverage, so we had to mix some things up to create some splits for our attackers to score."

Tigers Tidbits

Junior college transfer Kelsea Bivins logged double-digit kills (12) for the first time since Oct. 17 at Tulane (11).
Bivins' 12 kills were her most in a match since she downed 15 vs. UCF Sept. 29.
Freshman Kate Hoerdemann had her eighth-consecutive match with six or more digs (12 vs. SMU Friday). She is averaging 10.9 digs per match over that stretch.
Freshman Tia Gleason, one of the Tigers' primary setters, logged the first kill of her collegiate career Friday.
Gleason saw her first extended match action since Oct. 15. Her 12-assists performance Friday was her first double-figures match since Oct. 6 at Houston (10 assists).
Freshman Alyssa Kronberg collected double-digit digs for the 20^th time this season (12 vs. SMU). It was her seventh-straight match with double-figures digs.

Memphis vs. SMU Stats Leaders

Statistic	Memphis	SMU
Kills	Kelsea Bivins, 12 Brianna Kadiku, 9 Hannah Flowers, 8	Lauren Mills, 13 Brittany Adams, 11 Katie Hegarty, 9
Assists	Faith Myers, 22 Tia Gleason, 12	Kendall Patterson ,35
Digs	Kate Hoerdemann, 12 Alyssa Kronberg, 12	Montana Watts, 12 Brittany Adams, 11 Lauren Mills, 10
Total Blocks	Brianna Kadiku, 3	Meryn Kennedy, 4

How It Happened

Overall Match
- The match had 19 ties and 11 lead changes.
- With the win, SMU swept the season series over the Tigers.
Set One (SMU 25-16)
- The Tigers grabbed a quick 2-0 lead and held that advantage up to 7-5.
- Kelsea Bivins and Hannah Flowers each had kills, and Kate Hoerdemann added a solo block in the opening run.
- The Mustangs answered with a 14-4 spurt to take the lead for good at 19-11.
- Bivins posted three kills down the stretch, but it was too little, too late and SMU took the opening game.
Set Two (SMU 25-18)
- Much like the first set, Memphis took an early advantage and held it up to 6-4.
- Brianna Kadiku (2 kills) and Hoerdemann (1 kill) paced the Tigers' early effort.
- SMU, though, responded with a 12-3 run to take the lead at 16-9.
- The Tigers got no closer than five points at 18-13 the rest of the way.
Set Three (SMU 26-24)
- The third set was close throughout with 14 ties and seven lead changes.
- The set's largest lead was four points by SMU at 17-13.
- The set's first 20 points had seven ties.
- Kadiku (3 kills) and Bivins (2) helped keep the Tigers in step with the Mustangs early.
- The Tigers pushed out to a 12-10 advantage on a Flowers kill and a Mustangs' attack error.
- SMU had an answer with a 7-1 run to grab a 17-13 lead.
- The Mustangs remained in front at 19-16, and that's when Memphis made a run.
- Two Kadiku kills and another from Flowers ignited the Tigers' 5-0 run for a 21-19 lead.
- SMU tied the match at 21-all, and the two squads knotted the score three more times.
- The Mustangs downed the set's final two kills to take the match.