Final Stats NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team came out swinging against the Tulane Green Wave in the team's finale of the Kathy Trosclair Memorial Tournament Saturday night, but after dropping the first set Tulane would go on to win the next two and take the final by just two points to defeat the Colonels in a five-set thriller.

After taking the first set 25-21, Nicholls (1-2) dropped the next two by identical 25-16 scores to the Green Wave (3-0) before battling back to take the fourth 25-21 and eventually falling in the deciding set 15-13.

Nicholls was once again led by the duo of Kayla Burling and Kayla Mashburn who each had 16 kills for the Colonels in the match to lead all players. For her efforts, Burling was named to the Kathy Trosclair Memorial All-Tournament team after hitting .202 on the weekend with 35 kills and 10 service aces.

Offensively, the Colonels hit just .122, getting a bulk of the production from Burling and Mashburn, while Tulane had three players finish with double-digit kills with a .243 hitting percentage as a group. Alyse Barclay served up a season-high 23 assists in the match followed by Ainsley Marroccoli's 12, as defensively Kalynn Egea had 16 digs with Kali Schwartz providing 10.

There were a total of 20 ties and 10 lead changes on Saturday night, with the first set providing plenty of fireworks with nine ties and five lead changes. Trailing the Green Wave since the game as knotted at 10, Nicholls kept pace with Tulane for much of the match, down by one forcing a Tulane time out. The break served as a detriment to the Green Wave's chances in the set as the Colonels scored the next three points to take the lead for good and eventually the set.

Leading by two in the second, up 14-12, Tulane rattled off the next four points to go up 16-14 and eventually outscore the Colonels 11-1 prompting two Nicholls timeouts that served little good as the Green Wave rolled to claim the second set. After the intermission, Tulane came back even stronger and broke five ties and fought through just one lead change to blow past the Colonels in the third to go up two sets to one.

The fourth set was the complete opposite as Nicholls broke a 1-1 tie and turned on the jets jumping out to as big as a five point lead during the set and held off a Green Wave rally late to force the critical fifth set.

The Colonels fell behind big early as Tulane scored the first four points and jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fifth. The lead got bigger increasing to 10-2 before a five-point swing brought the team within three points. Tulane eventually had five opportunities to close out the match at set point, but four straight points by Nicholls kept hope alive for a comeback, but not before the Green Wave finally got the last point on an attack error.

Nicholls will be back in action next weekend, participating in the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Tournament hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette.