Broncos Fall to Tulsa In 2012 Lid Lifter
Taking on an opponent that received a considerable number of votes in the first AVCA Coaches' Poll of the 2012 season, the Broncos battled with the Golden Hurricane but were eked out late in each set. The Broncos out-blocked Tulsa 4.0 to 3.0 and got a number of standout performances from individual players, but the Golden Hurricane hit .321 en route to the victory.
The Broncos did their offensive damage in the middle, with Jessica Brown adding 10 kills on 23 attempts with just two errors for a .348 hitting percentage, and sophomore Richelle Ranney adding career bests in kills (8) and hitting percentage (.412). Defensively, junior libero Lena Oliver tied the match-high with 17 digs, and classmate Gillian Asque notched eight kills.
The Broncos would begin the first set by trailing early, but tied the score at 9-9 on an Asque kill; Asque would add another on the next point to give the Broncos a lead, and Ali Gossen would contribute a kill one point later to cap the 3-0 run. The Broncos would have their largest lead of the half at 13-10, when Brown recorded a solo block against Tulsa's Diana Silva. Tulsa would take the lead at 16-15 and hold on for the rest of the set, though the Broncos would pull to within 23-21 on another kill from Asque.
After the Golden Hurricane took the second set with a coast-to-coast lead, the Broncos put together their best offensive set of the match in the third, hitting .282 as a team in the narrow loss. WMU overcame what was at one point a four-point deficit, coming back from being down 11-7 to tying the score at 16-16 on a kill from Ranney, and taking the 17-16 lead on a kill from Asque. Brown would record a kill to give the Broncos their largest lead of the set at 19-17, but Tulsa would score eight of the final 10 points of the match for the win.
