Volleyball Closes Spring Strong

April 28, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. - The Oklahoma volleyball team closed out its spring season after playing in three tournaments over the course of the semester.

The squad opened the spring at the Wichita St. Tournament where it dropped matches to Kansas State (14-25, 21-25, 18-25, 16-25, 10-15) and Wichita State (25-19, 19-25, 18-25, 26-28, 12-15).

The Sooners followed that with the Texas Tornados Tournament in Houston as they notched victories over West Point (25-17, 23-25, 5-15) and Texas State (16-25, 25-22, 17-15) while also dropping a close match to Notre Dame (25-27, 25-19, 13-15). The Sooners also faced reigning national champion Penn State (14-25, 6-25) as well as New Mexico State (17-25, 16-25, 17-25).

Oklahoma had its best performance of the season at the UT-Arlington Tournament as it swept SMU (27-25, 27-25) and split with Houston (26-24, 16-25), Louisiana Tech (18-25, 25-21) and Rice (13-25, 25-14). With a 5-3 record in total games played, Oklahoma finished second in the tournament.

"I was really impressed with how we improved in each practice and each tournament throughout the spring," head coach Santiago Restrepo said. "It was a great opportunity for our players to develop their skills more. Also, I thought we had really good results from a lot of sophomores and freshmen that didn't get to see much action during the fall. Those players are going to see a lot of playing time this fall and will be relied upon heavily so it was really important in preparing them for the fall."

The Sooners will be aiming for their third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament when they open the season in the fall of 2008. Oklahoma will kick off the year with the OU Invitational (Aug. 29-30) as the Sooners will face Michigan State, Wichita State and Cal Poly in the four-team tournament at the McCasland Field House.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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