Sept. 2, 2011

DALLAS, Texas - The TCU volleyball team improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2008 with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 25-20, 25-21) win over SMU Friday night. Sarah Joeckel led a solid defensive game for the Horned Frogs with a career-high 30 digs.

Joeckel became just the fourth Frog in school history to post a 30-dig match, helping TCU to 91 total digs in the victory. Jordan Raines posted her first double-double of the season with a team-high 15 kills and 18 digs. Megan Munce notched her second double-double of the season with 40 assists and 10 digs. She added eight kills and three service aces to her line.

Yvonne Igodan finished the night with 11 kills and a team-high three blocks. Stephanie Holland tallied nine kills and a block. Kristen Hester posted eight kills, while Sloane Sunstrum had 14 digs to go along with five kills. Megan Horio finished with 12 digs.

The Horned Frogs stormed out of the gate in the first set en route to an early 13-9 lead. Raines was key to the strong opening push as she blasted three kills in the early run. A kill in the middle by Igodan capped the rally and prompted a Mustang timeout.

TCU continued to build its lead, pushing the score to 20-14 on an ace by Horio that forced the Mustangs to use their final timeout of the set. The break was all SMU needed as it rallied with an 11-3 run to take the first set, 25-23.

The Frogs bounced back in the second set as they built another early lead. Raines, Munce and Hester keyed the early push for TCU. A kill by Holland gave TCU its largest lead at seven, 12-5.

SMU rallied to pull back with three, but a kill off a scramble by Igodan squelched the rally and spurred the Frogs on a 7-5 run that made it a 19-14 TCU lead. The Frogs continued to push as Igodan gave them a 20-17 lead. She teamed with Holland on a block to make it 23-18. Holland gave the Frogs set point and Raines evened things with her 10th kill of the match to lock up the 25-18 set two win.

In the third set, both teams battled to get control of the match, but it was TCU that finally put together a run to open up a comfortable lead. Tied at 14, an attacking error by the Mustangs put the Frogs in front for good. Two more errors forced an SMU timeout.

TCU continued to take advantage of Mustang mistakes and kills by Holland and Emily Kirby gave the Frogs a 20-16 advantage. Three hitting errors by the Mustangs gave the Frogs a 25-20 set three win and a 2-1 match lead.

SMU flew out to a 10-5 lead in the fourth set as it tried to even the match. After the Frogs called a timeout, they put together a 9-4 run to tie the set at 14. Munce was a key cog in the run as she blasted back-to-back kills that tied the set, prompting a Mustang timeout.

The Frogs built an 18-15 lead only to see the Mustangs rally to tie the set at 18. Igodan found her spot in the middle of the court and smoked a kill to the back of the court for a 19-18 lead. Munce took over the service line and pushed the set to 24-19 with two aces and a block from Igodan and Holland. Igodan finished off the 25-22 set four victory with her 11th kill of the night.

TCU (4-0) returns to the court Saturday morning at 10 a.m. when it continues play in the SMU Doubletree Invitational. The Horned Frogs will take on Alabama (4-1) at Moody Coliseum. They will wrap up tournament play Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. against Lamar.

Printer-friendly format	Email this article