Not much attention is given to some of the minor college sports but this week, the folks at the University of Tulsa have something to celebrate. The Golden Hurricane women’s volleyball team won the 2025 American Conference Volleyball Championship as the No. 3 seed after defeating No. 1 seed Rice in four sets at the USF Corral on Sunday, winning 25-18, 33-35, 25-23, 25-21 to bring home the program’s seventh conference title and first-ever American crown.
The Golden Hurricane (25-6, 12-4 AAC) will represent the American Conference in the 2025 NCAA Volleyball Championship beginning Dec. 4, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. It’ll be their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2012. That season, the Golden Hurricane advanced after winning the Conference USA tournament.
Tulsa senior setter Brayden Hipp was named the AAC Setter of the Year, and Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Joining her on the All-Tournament Team were junior outside hitter Olivia Vance and American Freshman of the Year Jill Hanson.
“This team is so special,” said Vance. “This team deserves nothing less than this. Having these teammates by my side, I woke up this morning and looked at Milee [Jackson] and said ‘We’re winning.’ There was just no doubt about it in my mind.”
Vance led Tulsa with a career-high 20 kills, while Hipp had a double-double with 53 assists and a career-high 22 digs to secure the championship victory.
Tulsa is not ranked in the AVCA Top 25, but they are ranked No. 54 on the RPI list.
TU WBB IS 5-0
The Tulsa women’s basketball team defeated previously undefeated Missouri State (5-1), 73-57, Saturday in the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Tulsa improved to 5-0 on the season for just the second time in program history.
The Golden Hurricane dominated on the boards with a 45-31 rebounding edge.
“Really proud of our team today,” head coach Angie Nelp said. “I’m really proud of the way that we prepared for this game and proud of the way that we played on the floor. I felt like we had a really balanced attack, and we had great teamwork this game. One of the things that I felt was a major contributing factor to us winning was the rebounding that we had and that rebounding came from every single one of our players. [Dora Toman] ended up one shy of a double-double with nine of them. She did a great job for us, defensively and offensively this game.”
Tulsa has defeated New Orleans, Prairie View A&M, Houston Christian, and they got past ORU in an overtime nail-biter, 78-69.
“I think that our team is continuing to grow and continuing to be more connected on the floor, and we’re really excited about this momentum that we have going into next week,” Nelp said.
Tulsa is taking part in the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship in The Bahamas this weekend, along with Kent State, Houston and Arkansas State.
TULSA BEACON RADIO
Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, this week we have a best of show, and my guests will be Tracy Trost from “Mercy Ships” and Teresa Knox, owner of The Church Studio. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.