Rice loses to Western Kentucky in final
Owls force fifth set but can’t finish rally in C-USA title match
Rice battled back from the brink in the fourth set but couldn’t orchestrate a fifth-set comeback in Sunday’s Conference USA Tournament. Nineteenth-ranked Western Kentucky defeated No. 21 Rice 25-17, 18-25, 29-27, 24-26, 15-9 at Tudor Fieldhouse to sweep the regular season and tournament titles.
“I wonder if we played them 10 times if we wouldn’t end up in a fifth set every time,” Western Kentucky coach Travis Hudson said of Rice. “Our kids just made the plays at the end to get us over the top.”
Neither team led by more than three points in the fourth set, but Western Kentucky (31-1, 14-0 CUSA) grabbed a 24-21 lead, bringing up match point.
The crowd of 1,015 roared in support, and Rice (26-3, 13-1) responded.
Ellie Bichelmeyer started the surge with a kill. Following a WKU attack error and a Carly Graham kill, Bichelmeyer added one more to flip the advantage in Rice’s favor 25-24.
Two-time first team All-Conference USA outside hitter Nicole Lennon completed the 5-0 run with a match-winning kill to force a fifth set. Rice registered 20 kills to WKU’s 14 in the frame.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that in that situation,” Rice coach Genny Volpe said. “We can bring that experience with us into the NCAA Tournament. It’s going to help us a lot.”
In the first set, a 4-0 Rice lead deteriorated into a 17-13 deficit by the time Volpe called her first timeout. The Lady Toppers won the set 25-17 on a Katie Isenbarger kill. Rice committed 10 errors to WKU’s one in the first frame.
The Owls pushed ahead by seven amid a 4-0 run in the second set. They’d equal that set-high lead four times before closing it out 25-18 to even the match.
The Lady Toppers captured a tightly contested third set that featured five set points. C-USA Player of the Year Lauren Matthews’ seventh kill of the frame sealed the 29-27 advantage. Western Kentucky
produced 25 kills to Rice’s 16 — despite just one Owls error to WKU’s seven — in the set.
But in the final frame, the regular-season champions dominated, earning 10 kills to one error (.500 hitting percentage). Rice struggled to defend the attack, committing five errors to four kills (-.071 hitting percentage).
The contest was a rematch of a five-set battle, the first between two Top 25 teams in C-USA, which
Western Kentucky won Nov. 10. That win helped secure WKU’s regular-season title, which Rice won last season. Sunday’s win dethroned the Owls as reigning tournament champions.
The win also extends the Lady Toppers’ winning streak to 27 matches.
Three Owls were named to the all-tournament team — Lennon, Anota Adekunle, and Grace Morgan. Matthews earned tournament MVP honors.
“I just said, ‘You’ve made Rice very proud,’ ” Volpe said of her postgame message to the team. “The team wishes more than anything that we could’ve brought that championship home for Rice, but one or two points go in the wrong direction, and it just wasn’t for us today.”