Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
*Tulsa
Volleyball Upends Tulsa
9/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 27, 2003
FRESNO, Calif. - The mindset of the Fresno State volleyball team and that of Tulsa were quite different in the first two games of the Western Athletic Conference match up this afternoon.
However, the final stanza ended up proving to be one-sided as the Bulldogs recorded their fourth sweep of the year with a 32-30, 34-32 and 30-11 victory.
Neither team could break each other's spirit in the first two games as Tulsa was pounding away a strong statement and Fresno State played toe-to-toe while getting a key kill and/or dig to snag the first two wins.
The difference was a dominating performance by junior outside hitter Kristen Fenton who, after one game had four kills, sprung for 18 kills in the final two, including a 15-kill performance in the second game.
Hitting a phenomenal .636 (15-1-22) in the middle game, Fenton tallied her 11th 20-kill match of the season while picking up her 10th double-double of the year as she totaled a match-high 22 kills and a team-high 12 digs.
Tulsa's Nathalia Araujo posted a team-high 12 kills and a match-high 14 digs while teammate Brie Penaluna had 11 kills and hit .308 (11-3-26) for the Golden Hurricane.
Fresno State, which had one more kill (52-51) and one fewer dig (58-59), held the league's toughest serving team to just four service aces while dominating the net in blocks (13-2).
In game one, Fresno State was subdued statistically by the Golden Hurricane but the Bulldogs came out on top. With Penaluna and Kristin Bailey combining for 10 kills for Tulsa, the 'Dogs Fenton and Hartt were held to eight collectively. Game one, which featured 21 ties and nine lead changes, was sealed on a Hartt kill for the 31st point before a hitting error by Bailey gave Fresno State a two-point win, 32-30.
In game two, Fenton spearheaded the Bulldogs' offense as she accounted for 15 of the team's 25 kills. Tulsa didn't step down from the challenge as Lindsay Eaves and Araujo combined for 12 kills to try to equalize Fenton's outburst. However, the Bulldogs' blocking game also became a factor as they shutout TU, 4-0, and hit .400 (25-5-50) collectively.
In game three, Fresno State was perfect from the floor as it hit .556 (15-0-27) with freshman outside hitter Tuli Peters leading the charge with five kills and a .714 hitting effiency (7-0-14). Junior outside hitter Tiffany Bishop came on strong with five blocks to lead the Bulldogs' as they totaled six blocks in the final stanza.
"We came out a little flat but we kept working at it," head coach Lindy Vivas said. "We know that we can come back when we're down but we still have to work on eliminating errors. We switched the line up so that everyone on the team could get comfortable on the court. However, we had to sub quite a bit in the first two games in order to find a line up that had more energy.
"Kristen (Fenton) was on fire -- 15 kills in a game has to be a record of some type. Tuli (Peters) came back strong and Tiffany (Bishop) really helped us in blocking."
Fresno State (12-3, 2-0 WAC) goes back on the road until mid-October. The Bulldogs travel to No. 2 Hawai'i (Oct. 2) and San Jose State (Oct. 4) next week.
