Jessica Oldenburg had 11 kills on .320 hitting, adding four service aces. |
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Charlotte Falls in C-USA Tournament
Nov. 19, 2004
Louisville, Ky. - The Charlotte volleyball team dropped its opening-round match at the ChevronTexaco Conference USA volleyball tournament on Friday night at Louisville's Cardinal Arena. The 49ers fell to Tulane, 3-1 (28-30, 32-30, 30-25, 30-20) to end their season with a 19-14 record overall.
Sarah Weiland set a new C-USA Tournament record with seven service aces to pace Tulane (17-9), who had 11 aces overall in the victory. She also led all players with 17 kills, while Lindsey Norman had 14 for the Green Wave.
"We mentally broke down a few times," said head coach Lisa Marston following the match. "Sarah Weiland did a great job serving and took us out of the match. Tulane played consistent tonight; they were never up and never down, and that did it for them. That was good enough to beat us tonight."
For Charlotte (19-14), sophomore middle hitter Jessica Oldenburg had 11 kills on .320 hitting, adding four service aces. Outside hitter Abbey Szlanfucht had team highs with 14 kills and 15 digs, while Lisa Newell (10) also broke double-figures. Charlotte had 17 service errors and 37 attack errors in the match.
The loss ends the 2004 campaign for Charlotte, which was still a dramatic turnaround from a year ago. The 49ers failed to qualify for the C-USA Tournament last season.
"For the season, it was definitely a good turnaround," Marston said, "but obviously we're disappointed with going out in the first round."
By winning 19 matches this season, Charlotte posted its highest win total since going 22-13 in 1994. This year also marked the highest number of wins under Marston's leadership, and was more than double the team's output from last season.
Juniors Szlanfucht and Newell ranked among the C-USA leaders in multiple categories this year, while senior setter Molly McDonald was second among the conference leaders in assists per game. McDonald, playing in her final season, posted the second-best single-season assist total in school history and finishes her career in third on the school's all-time assists chart.
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