TCU Drops Nail-Biter to SMU

Saturday, September 18

Fort Worth, Texas

2 PM

TCU

6-4,0-0Big 12

SMU

4-6,0-0AAC

SMU

TCU

TCU Drops Nail-Biter to SMU

9/18/2021 6:25:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score TCU vs. SMU Box Score

The Horned Frogs end the non-conference season 6-4

FORT WORTH – TCU Volleyball (6-4) lost a hotly contested match, 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-17, 12-15) to SMU (4-6) on Saturday afternoon inside Schollmaier Arena. The match was tied 48 times from start to finish but the Horned Frogs fell just short for their second home loss of the 2021 season.

"First and foremost, thank you to all of our fans for coming out tonight for our biggest crowd of the year," head coach Jill Kramer said. "The effort was there from our team, we simply made too many errors. We needed to play cleaner volleyball. We had some good performances, MyKayla Myers was great for us in the middle and Cecily Bramschreiber had a great match too. We just need to play cleaner. The things that we need to work on are all solvable, and we have the culture to improve on them. The standards for our team are high and the standards that the players have for each other are high and when you have that, you can get a lot of things done."

TCU NOTABLES:

Madilyn Cole led the team with 7 blocks (1.4 blocks/set).
She has made at least three blocks in all 10 of her careers starts, the longest streak to start a career in program history.
McKenzie Nichols recorded her 20^th double-double as a Horned Frog, becoming just the 17^th player in program history to reach the 20 double-double plateau.
She recorded 50 assists, 13 digs and five blocks tonight, marking her eighth 50+ assist match.
She remains the nation's leader in blocks by a setter, averaging 1.06 Blk/S.
MyKayla Myers finished with 14 kills on .333 hitting and five blocks – her third match this season with 10+ kills, .300+ hitting and five or more blocks.
Cecily Bramschreiber delivered 21 digs, her highest tally of the season and her first-career 20+ dig match.
Julia Adams (17) and Myers (14) both set season-highs in kills.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
Set 1 (SMU, 25-21): The first set laid the foundation for the rest of the match, with long rallies, plenty of tie scores and both teams being held to low hitting percentages. There were 12 ties and four lead changes in the first with the turning point coming from a 7-2 SMU run which took a 16-16 score to an 18-23 deficit which would prove insurmountable. SMU made six service errors in the first set, but .097 hitting by the Horned Frogs couldn't take advantage as SMU took a one-set lead.

Set 2 (TCU, 25-23): Both teams traded points to open up the second, before a kill from Afedo Manyang and a block from Manyang and Myers helped TCU go on a 4-0 run, forcing an SMU timeout. After the timeout, the Mustangs fought back to tie the match, 16-16, and even jumped ahead, 20-22, but three kills from Adams sprang the Frogs on a 5-1 run, ending in a two-point set victory. Adams led the offense with five kills in the set, along with four early kills from Manyang. Manyang was effective at the net as well, leading the TCU blocking efforts with three.

Set 3 (SMU, 25-20): Early errors allowed for SMU to go in front in the third, 9-13, only for the Frogs to storm back with a pair of kills from Manyang and Myers to tie things back up, 14-14. Just a few points later, however, SMU rattled off a 5-0 run, going back in front, 21-16 and holding on for a one-set advantage. Manyang led the offense with five kills as Bramschreiber added six digs in the back row.

Set 4 (TCU, 25-17): After another back and forth start to the set, 9-9, TCU called a timeout. The Horned Frogs made adjustments and came out flying after the break, racking up kills and ending the set on a 10-3 scoring run. TCU hit .500 as a team in the fourth as Audrey Nalls, Myers and Adams accounted for 15 kills on 20 swings (.750 hitting). Nalls was excellent in serve-receive, passing all 10 serves sent her way, as the TCU back row of Bramschreiber, Dennison and Swafford made 11 combined digs, led by six from Bramschreiber. The Horned Frogs ended the set without committing a single unforced attacking error, showing the crowd of nearly 1,500 some high-quality volleyball from the home team.

Set 5 (SMU, 15-12): The errors returned in the fifth as the TCU offense struggled to regain its form from the set before. Blocking from Cole kept TCU in the set as the Horned Frogs went on a 4-0 run, erasing a 4-7 deficit to take the lead, 8-7. Strong blocking and defense from SMU resulted in a 4-1 Mustang run at the end of the set, taking an 11-11 score to a 12-15 loss. The Horned Frogs made three unforced attacking errors in the final set, which would prove to be the difference.

UP NEXT:
The Horned Frogs begin Big 12 conference action with a road trip to Iowa State. The first match of the series is set for Friday, Sept. 24 at 6:30 p.m. with the second match on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 4 p.m.

For more information on TCU Volleyball visit GoFrogs.com and follow @TCUVolleyball on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.