NEW ORLEANS, La. — In their first ever contest as a member of Conference USA, UTSA put a halt to Tulane’s best start in program history with a come-from-behind, four-set victory (22-25, 25-16, 25-11, 27-25) on Friday night at the Devlin Fieldhouse.
Preseason C-USA Player of the Year McKenzie Adams had a match-high 27 kills and added 12 digs for UTSA (9-6, 1-0 C-USA). Freshman Dajana Boskovic joined Adams in double figures with 10 winners and senior setter Brandy Huskey chipped in with 29 assists.
Tulane (13-2, 0-1 C-USA), the league leader in hitting percentage coming into the match, used that strength to take the early lead. The Green Wave, led by Annie Schurtz’s seven kills and Mel Mandelbaum’s 19 assists, connected for a .317 hitting percentage.
The tide turned in the second stanza with Adams erupting for a set-high seven winners, as UTSA hit .385 and held Tulane to .097. Dempsey Thornton added four kills to help the Roadrunners find their footing.
UTSA kept the momentum rolling in the pivotal third set by netting the stanza's first four points and never looking back. The Birds hit a blistering .444 with Adams and Boskovic tallying four and three winners, respectively. Tulane had nine attack errors compared to only seven kills, which led to a -.059 hitting percentage.
The Green Wave had two opportunities to send the match to a fifth set. An attack error by Tea Juric was followed by a block by Boskovic and Lauren Muenchow to draw the set to a 24-all. After trading points, Tulane committed back-to-back attack errors, which clinched the match for the Roadrunners. Adams continued her offensive assault with another nine kills in the decidng set.
UTSA will continue its conference-opening weekend road trip with a 1 p.m. matchup at Louisiana Tech (6-10, 0-1 C-USA) on Sunday.