UD Volleyball Takes 8th Seed in SCAC Tournament after Finishing Regular Season at TLU on Saturday
(Photo Courtesy of Trinity Athletics)
SEGUIN, Texas – The University of Dallas volleyball team concluded regular season at Texas Lutheran University on Saturday. The team's entered the day tied with Centenary College and Schreiner University with three wins. The Bulldogs grabbed a pair of sweeps to improve to 5-11, while Dallas dropped to 3-11.
After Saturday's results in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the tournament bracket was released and revealed that Dallas and Centenary College shared the same record of 3-11 for the final seed. After doing the tiebreaker scenarios, it was determined that UD gained the eighth seed due to a 1-1 record against the fifth seed University of St. Thomas.
The Crusaders will travel to play No. 1 Colorado College on Saturday, April 17 at 7 p.m. (CST) 6 p.m. (MST).
(Match 1 Set Scores: 19-25, 14-25, 20-25)
After falling behind with four points allowed through five serves, the Crusaders started rallying back. Kills by Isabel Garcia (San Antonio, Texas) sandwiched between a kill from Faith Daniels (San Antonio, Texas) cut the deficit to one and eventually an attack error tied things at eight. After fighting back-and-forth to a 13-all score, the Bulldogs scored three straight and used an 8-3 run to go up 1-0.
UD dropped the second set and then the third set was another early hole for the team to try dig out of. The Crusaders pulled within a point a couple occasions before TLU boasted a 6-0 run that included two Lexi Morris service aces and started with a kill by Paige Day. That Dallas point before that (12-11) had come on a block assist from Daniels and Cassie Dyoub (Frisco, Texas). Down five at 21-16, Dayjah Whyte (Round Rock, Texas) got a side-out with a kill. Fellow junior teammate Abigail Porras (El Paso, Texas) was on serve for the next three points and after back-to-back aces for the 2019 team leader, Dyoub put down a kill to make it a 21-20 score. The Bulldogs got the ball back on a service error and consecutive kills by Day and an ace by Hayden Smyers wrapped the first match up for Texas Lutheran.
The Crusaders reached double figures for kills in the first set with 13, but otherwise were shy of the mark with nine in the following two. Whyte and Daniels led the team in kills with seven each. Garcia had five. Nine different Crusaders contributed to the team's 31. Larissa Ramirez (San Antonio, Texas) dished 17 assists.
The Bulldogs hit .301 as a team led by Madison Weisinger with 11 kills, one error, and 18 total attempts for a 55.6 hitting percentage. Day also eclipsed double figures with 10 kills and one error in 28 attacks for a 32.1 hitting percentage. Kacie Hall and Adrienne Galaviz shared setting duties with 19 and 10 assists, respectively. The team came up with 11 blocks led by Weisinger with six. Keriann Kallus added four blocks.
(Match 2 Set Scores: 22-25, 13-25, 29-31)
This match had the opposite approach as UD played the first two sets subpar of the double-digit kills marker and then the last one being above. Whyte was the lone Crusader in double-digits for kills with 10. Porras was right behind with eight and then the next highest was four by Daniels. Ramirez totaled 25 assists and Ellise Anable (Phoenix, Ariz.) had a team-high 21 digs.
After taking a 1-0 lead, the Bulldogs jumped ahead 8-3. UD chipped away to get within a point at 11-10, but it took another two points for UD benefit from attack errors to get even at 13-all. The visitors had a 7-1 during this span to go up 17-14. A trio of attack errors for the Bulldogs tied things at 13. After a TLU point, Porras notched a kill to level the score and then Whyte and Ramirez teamed up for a block assists that made it 15-14 and was part of the last four points in that earlier mentioned surge. Dallas would lead as high as three at 17-14, but TLU used four-of-five points to knot things. After trading points until it was 22-21 with UD ahead, but the Bulldogs stuffed a block assist with Weisinger and Hall part of the go-ahead play. Tanyse Moehrig had the final two kills for points in that quarter.
Like set two in game one, this set second had things back-and-forth until a 12-3 run closed the set to lift the Bulldogs up by two in the sets won count.
With both teams rallying in the third set, it was a kill by Garcia to make it an 18-17 lead. Whyte had the next UD point on a kill and then after a TLU kill it was five straight points to expand the Dallas lead to 24-19. After Ramirez served an ace to bring the winning point up, the Bulldogs scored six in a row to get TLU up 25-24. Kills by Ramirez and Daniels switched the score to 26-25 and after that the Bulldogs got two points in a row to flip the momentum back. A solo block by Weisinger and then a kill from Cailey Young sealed the second straight set sweep of the day. Both teams had exactly 15 kills in the last frame.
Tanyse Moehrig led all players with 14 kills and had a .379 hitting percentage. Weisinger was another player in double figures for kills with 10 and also put up five blocks. Hall and Galaviz nearly split down the middle on total assists with 19 and 18, respectively.
Dallas closed the season by dropping three games in a row and will have to try to avoid ending the season with the same opponent it started against in late February.