Volleyball Falls to No. 21 Rice

Sunday, October 13

Houston, Texas

1:00 PM CT

Middle Tennessee

7-12, 1-4

Rice

16-1, 5-0

Middle Tennessee

No. 21 Rice

10/13/2019 3:03:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

By: @MTAthletics

HOUSTON, Texas—The Middle Tennessee volleyball team fell to No. 21 Rice Sunday afternoon in three sets by scores of 18-25, 17-25, 10-25. The Blue Raiders fall to 7-12 overall and 1-4 in the conference, while the Owls improve to 16-1 on the season and 5-0 in the league.

Dora Peonia led the attacks for the Blue Raiders, finishing with a total 11 kills on the match. Taylor Hammill dished out 24 assists in the three sets, and Bri Tankesley tallied six kills. Tankesley is now 14 digs away from 1,000 career-digs.

Set-By-Set
The Owls got to a 4-0 lead to start off set one, but a service error broke up the run. They then continued to take a bigger 16-8 lead, until the Blue Raiders went on a 3-0 run that included a Urte Neimantaite kill and back-to-back Amalie Jorgensen aces to come within five. MT continued to fight, but the Owls claimed set one, 25-18. Neimantaite led the attacks in the first set with six total.

Rice scored the first point in set two, but MT took a 2-1 lead after two Rice attacking errors. The Owls then tied it up, 2-2 with a kill, and continued on a 3-0 run to take a 5-2 lead. The Blue Raiders trailed closely and came within two at 17-15 after an attacking error made by Rice, but the Owls continued the lead and took the set, 25-17.

In the third set, Rice jumped to a 3-0 lead before a kill from Neimantaite gave the Blue Raiders a point, but the Owls went on an 8-0 run to take an 11-1 lead. MT then went on a 3-0 run with kills from Samira Lawson Body and Peonia, and a service ace to bring it to 11-4. From there, the Owls continued to lead and claimed the set, 25-10 and the match.

Team Notes

Dora Peonia has led the team attacks on seven occasions and has recorded nine double-doubles on the season.
Urte Neimantaite tallied a career-high 19 kills on two occasions, against Tennessee Tech and Marshall. She has one double-double on the season and has led the team attacks on seven occasions.
Taylor Hammill recorded her 2,000^th career-assist against Marshall on October 11. She has also recorded eight double-doubles this season. Hammill is ranked 20^th in the nation for total assists and third in the conference for assists per set.
Hammill has a season-high 52 assists and 18 digs.
Bri Tankesley is 14 digs away from the 1,000 digs mark with 986 total. She also recorded a career-high four aces against Alabama A&M and a season-high 26 digs against Marshall. Tankesley co-leads the team in aces with a total 18 on the season.
Kayla Henley has recorded four double-doubles on the season. She also tallied a career-high 19 digs against Western Illinois.
Marley Banton has a total 18 aces on the year and an average 0.41 aces per set.
Mikaela Weidmann leads the team in blocks with 56.0.

Up Next
The Blue Raiders return home to face WKU at 6 p.m. Friday at Alumni Memorial Gym. Live stats will be available and the match will stream live on ESPN+.

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