NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The Omaha volleyball team dropped both matches on the final day of the New Orleans Invitational to Murray State and Houston on Saturday, Aug. 25.
Omaha fell 3-0 (21-25, 20-25, 20-25) to Murray State in its second match of the season, and lost 3-0 (31-33, 19-25, 23-25) against Houston to cap off the tournament.
Match 2 -- MURRAY STATE 3, OMAHA 0
Leaders For Omaha
Freshman setter Sydney Case led the way for the Mavericks with 28 assists and two blocks. Outside hitter Claire Leonard paced Omaha in kills for the second straight match, as she had nine. Isabella Sade followed with eight kills on .667 hitting.
Leaders for Murray State
The duo of Rachel Guistino (15) and Dacia Brown (11) combined for 26 of the team's 41 kills for the match. Callie Anderton tallied 33 assists.
Inside Set 1
Omaha found itself in a 6-0 deficit to start the match, but was able to cut the Murray State lead to three (10-7) after a pair of points off a kill by Leonard and a Racer error. After being down seven, the Mavericks rattled off four straight points, with three of them courtesy of kills by Sade to dwindle Murray State's lead at 22-19. The late run was not enough, however, as the Racers took the first set 25-21.
Inside Set 2
The Mavericks saw themselves in an early 7-2 hole in the opening of the second set, but were able to even it at 10-all after an Abby Bergsten kill. From there, a pair of 3-0 spurts by Murray State proved to be too much for Omaha to close the gap, as the Racers went up 2-0 in the match off a 25-20 second set victory.
Inside Set 3
Both Murray State and Omaha exchanged points in the early-going of the third set with the score tied at 6-6. A 5-0 run by the Racers increased the gap of Omaha's deficit to 11-6. The Mavericks bounced back and only trailed by two (14-12) off a pair of consecutive kills, and eventually cut it to one (21-20) with a kill from Sadie Limback. The momentum fell short as Murray State scored four straight to take the final set 25-20 and sweep the Mavericks in the match.
Match 3 -- HOUSTON 3, OMAHA 0
Leaders for Omaha
Case out-performed her previous best of 28 assists with a new career-high of 32 to go with five digs. Bergsten and Limback both had eight kills apiece, while Leonard totaled seven kills and Sade added six.
Leaders for Houston
Megan Duncan and Kendall Haywood both recorded double-digit kills for the match. Duncan finished with a match-high of 16, followed by Haywood who had 10 on .471 hitting.
Inside Set 1
A hard-fought set saw a combined 64 points between both teams, as Houston took the first set 33-31. Neither team could control the lead at the start of the match with the score tied at 5-5. Omaha led by as many as three when the score was 19-16, but the Cougars did not go away. The Mavericks had the set point on four different occasions, but Houston was able secure the 1-0 lead off the 33-31 set victory.
Inside Set 2
Houston jumped out to a four point lead in the second, but Omaha came back to tie it up at 14 apiece. A kill by Limback from a Case assist gave the Mavericks a 17-16 advantage, but the Cougars closed out the set on a 9-2 run to go up 2-0 in the match.
Inside Set 3
A quick spark helped Omaha gain a 5-1 lead in the third. Omaha never relinquished the lead until the final three points of the match. After leading 22-19, the Mavericks were outscored 6-1 in the final stages of the set to fall 3-0 overall in the match.
Up next
The Mavericks return to Baxter Arena for the annual Omaha Challenge tournament from Aug. 31-Sept. 1. This year, the team welcomes UIC, UMKC and UTEP. The tournament opens at 10 a.m. next Friday with UIC vs. UTEP. Omaha begins its play with a 12:30 matchup against UMKC following the first match. Live stats, live stream and audio will be available on OMavs.com.
