TULSA, OK – The University of the Incarnate Word volleyball team opened the 2016 campaign on Friday afternoon with two matches in the Hurricane Classic. In the first match of the day, Tulsa defeated the Cardinals 3-1: 25-18, 25-19, 23-25, 25-17 with UIW winning the third set. In the final match of the day, UIW went up against South Dakota where they were defeated 3-0: 25-16, 27-25, 25-16 dropping the Cardinals to 0-2 to start the season.

The opening match of the tournament against Tulsa went four sets as the Cardinals dropped the first match of the season 3-1. In the first set, attacking errors proved to be the achilles heel for the Cardinals as they had more errors than kills. The set started out well for the team and they had a 16-15 lead midway through the set mainly because the Hurricanes had 10 errors early in the contest. However, Tulsa would go on a 10-2 run to finish off the opening set victory to give Tulsa the early 1-0 advantage.

In the second set, the Hurricanes jumped out to an early 11-5 lead highlighted by two kills from Rebecca Reeve and Jaime Rahilly. However, UIW would battle back too 22-19 behind three kills from Maddie Slaughter (San Antonio, TX/ Madison) forcing the Hurricanes to call a timeout. After the timeout, Tulsa made a three point run to finish out the 25-19 set victory giving the Hurricanes a 2-0 match lead.  Slaughter had a team high four kills for the second set and the team had 12 kills and only five errors while the Hurricanes had 14 kills and only four errors.

The third set was the best of the match for the Cardinals. After falling behind early in the set, UIW battled back to tie the set at 15-15. Shortly after, the Cardinals used two errors by the Hurricanes to take a 17-15 lead. Just when it seemed like the Cardinals were going to pull away from Tulsa, the Hurricanes used a four-point run to take a late 21-20 advantage. Autumn Lockley (Leander, TX/ Leander) tied the set at 21-21 with a kill and Tulsa responded with two kills of their own to take a 23-21 lead. Needing to win the set to avoid the match loss, the Cardinals used a four-point run to win the set and Lockley clinched the 25-23 set victory with the game-winning kill.

The Cardinals started the fourth set with a 3-1 advantage but the Hurricanes caught fire midway through the set with an eight point run to give Tulsa a commanding 19-9 lead. UIW was able to break the run with a kill by Lockley but the deficit was too large for a comeback. The Hurricanes would go on to win the set 25-17 and win the match 3-1.

For the match, Lockley led the Cardinals with 11 kills and also added 15 digs. Slaughter had nine kills and Madison Williams (New Braunfels, TX/ Canyon) led the team with 32 assists. Brittany Muller (San Antonio, TX/ Johnson) led the Cardinals with 19 digs defensively. Erica Bohannon led the Hurricanes with 13 kills and Rebecca Reeve added 11 kills while Brooke Berryhill led the team with 20 digs.

In the second game of the day against South Dakota, UIW struggled getting into a rhythm throughout match. In the first set of the match, the Coyotes took control early with a five-point run to take an early 9-3 lead. The Cardinals never recovered from the early run and would end up dropping the first set 25-16. For UIW, Lockley led the team with five kills in the set and the team had eight kills and seven errors for the set with a .023 attacking percentage.

The second set was the closest of the match for the Cardinals. After falling behind early, the Cardinals battled back to tie the set at 22-22. After going back and forth with the Coyotes, UIW would again tie the set at 25-25. However, South Dakota would score the final two points to win the set 27-25 and take a 2-0-set lead.

During the third set, UIW started out well by taking a 6-4 lead as the Coyotes had five attacking errors. However, much like the first two sets, South Dakota would go on a mid set run and take control of the set. The Coyotes would win the set 25-16 and they scored nine out of the last 14 points to win the set and the match.

Lockley led the Cardinals with nine kills for the match and Sarea Alexander (San Antonio, TX/ McAarthur) added seven. Williams led the team with 19 assists and Shaina Garza (San Antonio, TX/ Warren) had a team high 18 digs. Hayley Dotseth led the Coyotes with 13 kills and Audrey Reeg added 12 kills. For the match, the Cardinals had 31 kills and 22 errors which led to a .070 attacking percentage.

The Cardinals will return to action tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. as they take on the University of Alabama in the final match of the Hurricane Classic. Live stats will be available HERE.