The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Centenary
Blazers Split A Pair Of Matches At Tiger Classic
8/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 29, 2003
BATON ROUGE, La. - UAB (1-1) split a pair of matches, defeating Centenary 3-0 and falling to Virginia 3-0 in volleyball action Friday at the Tiger Classic hosted at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the campus of LSU.
UAB defeated Centenary 31-29, 30-25, 30-18 in the Blazers' second match of the day.
UAB struggled, hitting only .172, but took advantage of Centenary's .025 attack percentage to run away with the victory.
Senior middle blocker Karen Boyd led the Blazers with 18.5 points on 12 kills, three service aces and three block assists. Sophomore Breanne Swenson had a match-high 13 kills while sophomore outside/right side hitter Lindsay Carnohan posted 12 kills and six digs. Freshman setters Jenna Link and Bilun Gunal added 25 assists and 17 assists respectively.
Centenary (0-2) failed to hit better than .185 in any of the three games, as sophomore middle blocker Tracee Byrd and freshman outside hitter/middle blocker Ashley Templer led the Ladies with seven kills each. Centenary looked to have had game one in hand late, but UAB came from behind to take control of the match.
Behind 12 kills and a .706 attack percentage by junior co-captain Shannon Boyle, Virginia won the opening match of the Tiger Classic with a 30-24, 30-24, 31-29 victory over UAB in the morning session. The Cavaliers (1-0) took dominating leads in the first two games of the match before coming from behind to win the third game.
UAB was held to a .139 attack percentage (49-30/137).
Boyle's 12 kills in 17 attempts came without an error, as the scored 12.5 points to lead the Cavaliers. Teammate Alexis Geocaris added 12.0 points with nine kills in 22 attempts and three blocks. Libero Whitney Ashcraft had a match-high 19 digs.
UAB was led by three players with 13.0 points, including senior outside hitter Martina Shields, Boyd and Carnohan. Boyd hit .417 (12-2/24) and tied a team-high with 12 kills. Jenna Link added 25 assists while Bilun Gunal contributed 14 assists for the Blazers.
"It was good to play our first matches today," said UAB head coach Melinda Claiborne. "I think we finally settled down a little and did some good things. It was good to get a win today, However, we do have a few things we need to work on."
UAB will play the final match of the tournament Saturday against LSU at 1 p.m.
