HOUSTON | Abryanna Cannon recorded her second-straight match with double-digit kills, but it wasn't enough as Rice defeated South Alabama volleyball 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-21) on Thursday night on day one of the Rice II Invitational held at Tudor Fieldhouse.

Cannon led the Jags (1-2) with 11 kills and also added eight digs and a solo block. Sarah Gooch chipped in with six kills and a pair of blocks, while Briana Wilson had 11 digs. 

Rice improved to 3-1 on the year with the win and was paced offensively by Cindy Tchouangwa – 12 kills – and Samarah Hill and Kaitlyn Knobbe, who each had nine kills. Knobbe finished with a .533 hitting percentage on 15 attacks, and added three solo blocks. 

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the match: "Rice is a very physical team and they are a very disciplined squad. They play tremendous team defense. The out-of-system swings that they were able to get tonight were phenomenal. When the best teams in the country are in bad situations, they are still able to drive balls into the defense; that's a huge separator between the really good teams and the ones that aren't going to be there at the end of the year. Kudos to Rice, they were the better team tonight. 

"I liked how we matched up in the serve-receive (game). Rice played really well in the serve-receive as well. We were able to get after them early on, but we missed a few too many serves. That's part of us learning and getting better."

How It Happened 

Set 1 – RICE 25, SOUTH ALABAMA 20
•    Cannon's block tied the opening set up at 11-11, and the graduate senior later put the Jags back out in front (15-14) with a kill – one of her four in the set – to force a time out
•    Coming out of the time out, Hill – who also had four kills – posted back-to-back kills for the Owls and the home team then took a three-point advantage (19-16) after a Jaguar error 
•    South was able to pull within one (19-18) later in the frame, but Rice close out the set by taking six of the final eight points to pick up the 25-20 win

Set 2 – RICE 25, SOUTH ALABAMA 16
•    Trailing by three (7-4) early on in the second set, South Alabama answered back with three-straight points and tied the match back up after a kill from Erika Spankus
•    The Owls quickly regained momentum and the lead by taking seven of the next eight points
•    Knobbe put Rice up by six (14-8) after a solo block 
•    That was as close as the Jags were able to get as the Owls took a 2-0 match lead with a 25-16 win, which was clinched by a Knobbe kill
•    Serving errors proved to be costly in the second set as the Jags committed six of their ?? in the match during the frame

Set 3 – RICE 25, SOUTH ALABAMA 21
•    With the third set tied 7-7, the Owls pushed across three points to take a 10-7 advantage after a kill by Knobbe 
•    South pulled within a point (11-10) after a serving error, but Rice again rattled off three unanswered points to take a 14-10 lead after a kill by Hill
•    The Jags battled right back and tied the set back up (14-14) after a setting error and three Owl attack errors
•    After exchanging the next two points, Rice took the lead for good after kills by Nia McCardell, Thea Carter and Katrina Jenson, which put the home team up 18-15.
•    Carter later clinched the match (25-21) with her fifth kill of the final frame

Post-Match Notes
•    The meeting marked just the second in the all-time series between the two clubs and was the first since the 1982 season
•    The start marked the first of middle hitter Evie Taylor's Jaguar career
•    The match marked the second-straight and the 30th of Cannon's career that she has recorded 10 or more kills
•    Wilson finished one dig shy of matching her career best in the category
•    One of the key stat areas of the match came in the serve-receive game where Rice posted four service aces and committed just five serving errors, compared to no aces and 12 serving errors

Up Next
•    South Alabama will close out play at the Rice II Invitational on Friday when the Jags face UNLV at 1 p.m.

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