Nov. 7, 2008
Box Score
EL PASO, Texas – The UTEP volleyball team fell, 3-1, to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane Friday night at Memorial Gym.
“A lot of times a match is decided by which outside hitters perform better and Tulsa’s outside hitters had a great performance tonight,” head coach Ken Murphy said. “It took us until the third set for our outside hitters to begin playing the way they are capable of playing offensively.
“Our middles, especially Daidre (Mendenhall), were really good on offense and took a lot of pressure off the other hitters. When we were able to block against Tulsa we were able to score points and have some success.”
Down two sets to one, the Miners rebounded to outhit the Golden Hurricane .273 to .143 to force a fourth set. Tulsa took an early lead to begin set number four and never trailed. The Golden Hurricane used a .395 hitting percentage in the final set to down the Miners 25-15 and improve to 21-8 for the season and 8-6 in Conference USA games. UTEP fell to 6-21 and 2-11 in league play.
Outside hitter Amy Sanders led the Miners with 14 kills, nine digs and four serving aces. The junior moved into fifth place in UTEP record books in career kills with 1,039. She needs eight more to tie fourth place Stacy Zimmerman’s 1,047 kills. Mendenhall finished the night with ten kills, five digs and two blocks.
UTEP will next face SMU on Sunday at Memorial Gym. That match is scheduled for noon.
