The University of Memphis Volleyball (11-1) team had a thrilling weekend at the Beale Street Challenge. They did reach to the best start in program’s history, but they also got their first taste of defeat.
North Alabama
With an electric crowd on hand, the Tigers delivered a great performance winning the match in straight sets 3-0.
“A win is a win right now, and we’ll take it,” Burdette said when speaking with the media. “We knew they were going to throw some different things at us. We may have let up a little bit after that second set, but credit them for coming out swinging and firing.”
The player of the game for Memphis was Hannah Flowers as she had 13 kills to go along with 15.5 points. Meredith Wallace contributed with 13 kills, and Kaitlyn Gehler had 18 digs in the early Friday morning matchup.
In the first set, both teams were firing at each other as neither could gain a lead, until Memphis out-hustled the Lions and ended the set on a 14-8 run. The Tigers won the set 25-14.
In the second set, Memphis led throughout most of the set until the late when the Lions started to make a run and eventually tied the set at 21. The Tigers would end the match on a 4-1 run and win 25-21.
In the third set and final set, both teams showed heart, but Memphis was determined to finish this one. The score went past the 25 and the home team won 31-28 to close out the game. There were 14 ties in this set.
Toledo
In the Friday night showdown with the Toledo Rockets, the Tigers managed to come away with a 3-1 win over the Rockets.
The player of the game was Flowers yet again who ended with 18 kills, four aces and four blocks.
In the first set, both teams started with a back-and-forth type of game. After the home team took a 15-19 lead, the Rockets fought back and made it a 20-21 game thanks to Toledo’s kills and two Memphis errors. Ultimately, the Tigers closed the set out winning 25-22.
Memphis was outplayed in the second set. Toledo jumped out to an early lead and scored 20 points before the home team could even get to 10. Rockets’ Ryann Jaqua and Emma Swope led the charge for the visitors with three kills each in the set. Memphis lost 15-25, making it just their seventh losing set all year.
The third set was all Memphis. Gigi Crescenzo dominated the set with her kills and three big blocks gaining the crowd’s interest. Flowers ended the set with four kills to lead the Tigers to a 25-19 set win.
In the final set, the Tigers closed the match in dominating fashion.
Toledo did have a middle-to-late surge to close the gap, bur eventually the Tigers won the set 25-21 to secure the best start in program’s history. Burdette spoke with the media after the win.
“This was a barnburner,” Burdette said. “They made some adjustments, and we countered with our adjustments. It just came down to execution.”
Southeast Missouri
As the tournament came to a close, the Tigers played Southeast Missouri on Saturday and ended their best start in program history. The player of the game was freshman Gigi Crescenzo, who ended with 13 kills and eight digs.
In the opening set, Memphis trailed early due to the Redhawks showing early fight with their spikes and blocks at the net. The Tigers found their groove until they gave up a three-point lead to trail by that many late. They lost 21-25 to the visitors due to late errors.
The second set was filled with errors from Memphis even though the score stayed close throughout. The Tigers took a timeout down 6-7 and came out of the break energized and went on a 7-3 run to take the lead.
The Redhawks came back storming after they took a timeout of their own to get back into the set and took the lead 24-21. Memphis only surrendered one point after that mark. Sabria Cooper and Crescenzo led the charge down the stretch to give the home team their first set win of the day by the socre 27-25.
In the third set, both teams traded points until the 9-9 mark, but the SEMO took the lead and kept it to win 25-18.
After losing the third set, Memphis was down 2-1 in the game. They needed an answer from someone on the team and it did not happen. The Redhawks defeated the Tigers 25-13 and won the game 3-1 to knock off Memphis’ undefeated streak to 11 games.
Wrap-up
Memphis had a great Friday, but Saturday was disappointing. There were a lot of errors and the team was outplayed at the net throughout the entire game. One bright spot from the weekend was the play by Crescenzo as he had 25 kills on the weekend despite 13 of them coming from Saturday’s loss.
The Memphis Tigers now move on to conference play against Tulane on the road Friday night at 7 p.m. The Tigers will be on the road for the first two matches of conference play before coming back home.
Gigi Crescenzo reaches high to keep the rally going. The Memphis Tigers Volleyball team had a program best 11-0 start to the season before falling to Southeast Missouri this past Saturday 3-1.
Kaitlyn Gehler goes for the serve. Gehler collected a game-high 17 digs in the 3-1 win over Toledo Friday night in the Beale Street Challenge.
Meredith Wallace rebounding the ball. Wallace had her third double-double of the season in the 3-1 defeat to Southeast Missouri this past Saturday.
