Oct. 12, 2008

IRVING, Texas - UAB managed a 3-1 (25-13, 24-26, 25-23, 25-10) victory over UCF Sunday in Orlando, Fla., in a battle of the top two teams in the league. Both teams entered the contest with matching 5-1 records in conference play, and, with the win, UAB takes over sole possession of first place at 6-1. The Blazers have now won 10 matches in a row to improve their overall record to 16-3. Senior setter Nevena Stefanov led all players with a season-high 57 assists. Stefanov has now posted at least 50 assists in five of her past seven matches. Andrea Lalic led four Blazers in double-digit kills with 16, followed by Casey Dent with 15, Ivana Bozic with 13 and Lilly Domingos with 12. Domingos also recorded a season-high eight blocks, giving her 16 over the Blazers' two matches this weekend. As a team, UAB posted a .394 attack percentage for the match, led by Dent, who notched a .519 percentage. UCF junior Erin Campbell posted her seventh-consecutive double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs, despite the UCF (13-7, 5-2 C-USA) volleyball team falling to UAB, 3-1 (13-25, 26-24, 23-25, 10-25), Sunday afternoon in the battle for the top spot in Conference USA at The Venue at UCF. With the loss the Knights dropped to second place in the league with a 5-2 record behind the Blazers (16-3, 6-1 C-USA), who hold a 6-1 mark. Senior Stephanie Serna had 11 kills and two block assists in the loss, registering her 11th-straight match with 10 or more kills. Janine Williams, Jenny Heppert and Lauren Williams added eight, seven and six kills, respectively, for the Knights' offense, with Lauren Williams hitting a match-best .667.

Sun., Oct. 12
UAB 3, UCF 1
Rice 3, East Carolina 0
Marshall 3, Houston 0
Southern Miss 3, Memphis 1
Tulane 3, SMU 0
Tulsa 3, UTEP 1

Fri., Oct. 10
Rice 3, at Marshall 0
UCF 3, Memphis 1
Houston 3, East Carolina 0
SMU 3, UTEP 2
UAB 3, Southern Miss 1
*Tulane 3, Tulsa 1

TULANE 3, SMU 0
Tulane swept SMU Sunday at Moody Coliseum with game scores of 25-16,25-18 and25-14. Tulane hit a season-best .469 with 52 kills and just seven errors in 96 swings. Senior middle blocker Jen Linder connected at a .909 clip for the match after posting 10 kills and not committing an error in 11 swings. She also added a service ace, a solo block and one block assist to finish the day with 12.5 points. Senior right-side hitter Bridget Wells led Tulane (13-5, 5-1 C-USA) with a match-high 13 kills while Radosevic and junior right-side hitter Ksenija Vlaskovic each tallied nine. Sara Radosevic paced the Tulane defense with 13 digs while senior setter Luna Rebrovic led the squad with 28 of their 48 assists. SMU junior Kendra Kahanek led the Mustangs offensively with nine kills and a .417 hitting percentage. Senior setter Stefanie Kons also had a solid performance recording three kills and 13 assists. Defensively, senior Natalie Peters had three solo blocks, while junior Carly Bergquist registered a team-high seven digs.

TULSA 3, UTEP 1
Senior Malorey Grove recorded a match-high 23 digs, while sophomore Hannah Stout had 13 kills and junior Jennifer Eichler added 10 to lead Tulsa to a 3-1 Conference USA victory over UTEP (25-14, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23) Sunday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The win is Tulsa's (17-5, 4-3 C-USA) fifth straight against the Miners. UTEP (5-14, 1-6 C-USA) senior Casey McAnelly tallied a match-high 18 kills for a .268 hitting percentage and added three block assists, while junior Amy Sanders finished the day with 15 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the weekend. The Golden Hurricane returns to action next weekend when it begins a four-match C-USA road trip with a match at UAB on Friday at 7 p.m. TU also plays Sunday at Memphis in a 2 p.m. match scheduled to be televised by CBS College Sports on a tape delay basis. That match will air Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. CT.

SOUTHERN MISS 3, MEMPHIS 1
Southern Miss knocked off Memphis in Conference USA volleyball action, 3-1 (25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21), snapping a seven-match losing streak to the Tigers. The streak dates back to the 2003 season. Angela Hlavaty paced the Golden Eagles (13-7, 3-4 C-USA) with a match-high 17 kills followed by Sarah Jane Bowden with 14 and Lauren Sears added 11. Maia Ivanova recorded her fourth match with 20 or more digs. The loss was Memphis' first to Southern Miss since 2003 and marked the first time the Tigers have been swept in league play since 2005. Emily Underwood led the Tigers (12-9, 3-4 C-USA) with 12 and Rebekah Strickland chipped in 10 kills. Christine Bach tallied a match-high 24 digs.

MARSHALL 3, HOUSTON 0
Marshall's Jalicia Ross blasted a team-high 12 kills and Elizabeth Fleming distributed a match-best 33 assists to propel the Thundering Herd to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-14) sweep of Houston in Sunday afternoon's Conference USA volleyball match at the Cam Henderson Center. With the win, Marshall snaps its four-match losing skid to improve to 9-8 overall, 2-5 in league action. Houston saw its four-match winning streak snapped, and falls to 11-8 on the season, 3-3 in conference play. Senior Justine Farmer had a game-high 13 kills in the match. Senior Kelsey King added 28 assists and sophomore Amanda Carson had 14 digs.

RICE 3, EAST CAROLINA 0
Rice (13-4, 4-2 C-USA) took care of business on Sunday by easily dispatching East Carolina Pirates sink to (11-11,1-6 in C-USA) 3-0 in only 59 minutes of work. Game scores were 25-19, 25-20, and 25-17. For the match, the Owls sported a .326 hitting percentage (44 kills) with Ashleigh McCord leading the way with 11 kills. Jessica Holderness (.529) and Karyn Morgan also had 9 kills apiece. Natalie Bogan had 8 kills and a .500 attack percentage. Owl setter Meredith Schamun had 36 assists and Tracey Lam led all defenders with 11 digs. ECU Erica Banning tallied nine kills in the match to lead the offense and Stephanie Turner collected seven and Lizzy Bruin six kills. Trish Monroe finished with nine digs and Amanda Lutzow seven, while Banning led the blocking with three.