Despite Hurricane Ike forcing a last-second schedule change, the OU volleyball team landed an early conference victory and reached a coaching milestone en route to a three-match sweep of the Red Raider Round Up in Lubbock, Texas, over the weekend.

The Sooners completed their most impressive stretch of the season thus far with a 3-1 victory over the New Orleans Privateers on Sunday morning (21-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-21).

Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Francie Ekwerekwu, who dealt a very well-rounded performance on the weekend, finished with 12 kills and five block assists.

Her 41 total kills, along with 18 total blocks, netted the Arlington, Texas, native honors as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Freshman Brianne Barker totaled 129 assists and along with a pair of double-doubles, received the Best Setter Award.

The victory over New Orleans pushed the Sooners past the .500 mark, as they move to 5-4 on the season and currently ride a four-match winning streak.

Despite the unsettling trend of dropping the opening set in each match, the Sooners were near-perfect afterwards, going 9-1 following the first set.

Fifth-year head coach Santiago Restrepo — who has already broken over 40 records in his tenure at OU — notched his 200th career victory Saturday morning. In that match, the Sooners rebounded from a slow start to defeat TCU 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-17).

After dropping a close opening set, the Sooners surrendered a lead only two times for the remainder of the match, out-killing the Horned Frogs 43-31 in the process.

Freshman outside hitter Caitlin Higgins, who posted a pair of double-doubles in the tournament, led the way with team highs in kills (14) and digs (11). Higgins totaled a team-high 42 kills on the weekend and was named to all-tournament team.

In a weekend highlighted by stellar freshman play, the Sooners introduced a new face to the fold, in the form of right side hitter Suzy Boulavsky. The Houston, Texas, native compiled 26 kills on the weekend.

The Sooners opened tournament action by getting a head start on Big 12 conference play Friday evening, as they edged out the hosting Texas Tech Red Raiders in five sets (15-25, 25-20, 27-25, 17-25, 15-10).

The Sooners were originally supposed to play in the Ladyjack Invitational in Nacogdoches, Texas.

However, the tournament was canceled because of Hurricane Ike, which forced the Sooners to look for replacement games.

They joined the Red Raider Round Up at the last minute, which will end up changing some games further along in the season as well.

Big 12 play was not supposed to have started yet, but OU’s match against Texas Tech will count as a conference game.

It will replace the OU/Tech match originally scheduled for Nov. 15.

Despite the previously-unexpected early start on conference play, Restrepo said it felt good to make the best out of a last-minute opportunity.

“It was a good win for us,” Restrepo said to SoonerSports.com. “We finally settled down in the fifth set and played very well.”

Ekwerekwu and sophomore middle blocker Christy Disarro were on display up front, and accounted for 14 of the team’s 24 total blocks.

Disarro tallied 18 blocks for the tournament – two block solos and 16 block assists – and also earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

The Sooners return home for a short rest, as the squad welcomes Missouri on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. showdown at McCasland Field House.