HOUSTON - The 2019 Conference USA Volleyball Championship opened Friday with No. 21 Rice hosting the postseason action at Tudor Fieldhouse. The league's top eight teams are competing in the three-day, single-elimination tournament for an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Four quarterfinal matches will be played on Friday with two semifinal meetings on Saturday. The weekend culminates in the conference championship on Sunday. All matches will be broadcast on ESPN+ with coverage available on conferenceusa.com and its Championship Central page.

C-USA Overall Stats
C-USA Championship Stats

Semifinal Match #2: (2) No. 21 Rice 3, (6) UTSA 1

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No. 21 Rice routed sixth-seeded UTSA 3-1 and the second-seeded Owls punched their ticket to the C-USA title match to battle the league's regular season champion No. 19 WKU. The conference's two nationally-ranked powers will duke it out at 12 p.m. CT Sunday at Rice's Tudor Fieldhouse with the match broadcast on ESPN+.

The reigning C-USA Champion improved to 26-2 on the year and advanced to see its second-straight appearance in the title game, on the hunt to defend the league crown. UTSA closed the books on its 2019 campaign with an overall record of 16-13. 

The defending C-USA Tournament MVP sophomore Anota Adekunle turned in a masterful performance with 19 kills at a clip of .548. Junior Nicole Lennon posted her second double-double of the weekend on 17 kills and 17 digs, which entered her career into Rice's 1,000-dig club. UTSA senior Brianna McCulloch led the Roadrunners with 13 kills and senior Emily Ramirez collected 15 digs.

UTSA stunned Rice in the opening set and held the Owls to just 12 points. The Roadrunners claimed the first three and the spurt was a catalyst for an 8-3 lead that sent the tournament host into an early timeout. McCulloch swung three kills in the series and totaled five on just six attempts in the frame. The Roadrunners kept pounding on the offensive side of the ball and defensively held Rice to a sub-.100 hitting clip, resulting in a comfortable 21-10 advantage. UTSA would reach the 25-point peak with four of the final five scores, including one stemming from its fifth service ace of the day.

Rice evened the match with a 25-22 victory before the break. The set was tied three times until Rice shifted into another gear and manufactured its largest lead, 23-14 on a Lee Ann Cunningham service ace. The Owls bolstered their advantage by way of an 8-2 run that saw Tori Woogk muscle a pair of kills and UTSA commit three offensive errors. The Roadrunners didn’t go quietly and responded with eight-consecutive points on two Courtney Walters aces and four team kills. McCulloch would force the fourth to make it a 23-22 affair but Adekunle would slam the door on the comeback with two kills of her own.

Adekunle set the tone the rest of the way and got the home crowd roaring with a kill and ace to start the third set. Her team-leading ninth swing of the day later handed Rice an 8-5 lead and Lennon found her 1,000^th career dig along the way. Landing nearly half of its swings for kills, Rice stayed hot and a consistent effort paced the squad to a 25-16 win.

Andekunle was unstoppable in the fourth frame and single-handedly forced UTSA to call a timeout after she tallied three kills in a row to put Rice in the driver’s seat again, 10-7. Rice increased its lead to nine, 19-10 on a six-point surge that ended with a block from Lennon. The Owls punched their title game ticket by rattling off the final five points of the set to cap the score at 25-12.

Semifinal Match #1: (1) No. 19 WKU 3, (5) Florida Atlantic 0

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No. 19 WKU became the nation's first team to reach the 30-win plateau this season, courtesy of its program-record 26th-consecutive victory found in the semifinals on Saturday. The top-seeded Lady Toppers swept (5) Florida Atlantic to advance to their fifth C-USA Championship final in six years. The title match is set for 12 p.m. CT Sunday on ESPN+.

WKU (30-1) picked up its NCAA-leading 22nd sweep, earning the 21st over (8) Middle Tennessee in Friday's quarterfinal round. The C-USA Regular Season Champion now awaits the winner of the second semifinal matchup between the two seed No. 21 Rice and sixth-seeded UTSA. Florida Atlantic earned its first conference tournament win since 2005 on Friday, a sweep of (4) Marshall, before seeing its season come to a close at 16-11.

The Lady Toppers put together a balanced effort, hitting .419 as a team and amassing eight blocks. C-USA Player of the Year Lauren Matthews found match highs with 14 kills on 23 attempts and three block assists. Junior Logan Kael posted 14 digs to lead the match, while senior Emma Kowalkowski earned her 1,000th career dig in the first set. Florida Atlantic was held to a .167 hitting clip with senior Massiel Matos being the only Owl to reach double-figure kills (12). C-USA Defensive Player of the Year Zuri Smith turned in two blocks and a team second-best eight kills. Junior Sydney Nemtuda led all players with four aces.

WKU raced out to a 25-20 first-set win fueled by a scorching .500 hitting percentage on 30 attacks. A kill from Paige Briggs ignited a 7-1 run for the Toppers that handed them an 11-6 lead. Katie Isenbarger contributed a kill and a split a pair of combo blocks in the stretch. The Owls registered four-straight points with the help of back-to-back service aces from Nemtuda to half a deficit that once ballooned to eight, but ran out of time to inch any further.

A Smith kill opened the second frame for the Owls before back-to-back attacks from Kayland Jackson quickly swung momentum in favor of the Tops. The top seed crafted a five-point advantage that shrunk to two with Matos' sixth kill of the day. A Florida Atlantic timeout allowed a shift in the scoring action as a 5-2 run that included two WKU errors brought the Owls within striking distance, 14-13. WKU was the first to 20 on Matthews' solo stuff and a final kill from the sophomore sealed the frame 25-20.

The third set mounted a closer battle with the Lady Toppers clinging to a one-point lead midway through after its own service error. Nemtuda struck another two aces to bring Florida Atlantic within one, 14-13 until Matthews drove a couple of kills to give WKU a four-point advantage and some room to breathe. The Toppers grabbed five of the last seven points to take the last set 25-18.