The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
UCF
Volleyball Wins Ninth-Straight to Close Out Regular Season
11/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 12, 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. - Junior libero Brianna Galvin averaged 7.0 digs per game to become UAB's record holder in single-season digs on Sunday to help lead the Blazer volleyball team to a 3-0 (30-16, 30-27, 30-23) victory at UCF in its regular season finale. The Blazers are now 23-9 (10-6 C-USA) on the year, marking the highest single-season win total for the program since 1991 when the team had a school record 33 victories.
Sophomore outside hitter Ivana Bozic had a match-high 17 kills on .314 hitting to lead UAB's offensive output, while sophomore middle blocker Casey Dent was impressive as well, finishing with eight kills on .350 hitting. The Blazers are now 17-1 this season when Dent hits .300 or better.
Galvin led UAB defensively with her 21 digs to go along with serving three aces, making her the school's single-season record holder with 497 digs, ousting the previous best set by Danielle Reaves who had 476 in 1990.
Junior outside hitter Aleksandra Vujovic had an outstanding day serving as well, finishing with seven aces.
Sophomore setter Nevena Stefanov again ran a great offense, finishing with 27 assists, while helping five players to hitting better than .300 for the day, including junior outside hitter Fernanda Domingos who had six kills on .333 hitting.
UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith pulls within three wins of reaching the 500-win milestone for her career with her team's triumph on Sunday as she is now 497-261 (.656) in her 19 seasons as a head coach.
Following Sunday's match, Messersmith said she was thrilled with how her team has finished the season but says the team must now focus on the Conference USA Tournament, which begins Thursday, Nov. 16 in Houston, Texas.
"We came out and played a hard match and executed very well I thought," Messersmith said. "This was a great way to end the regular season and now we need to go home and get ourselves prepared for next week's Conference USA Tournament."
Schanell Neiderworder led UCF with 12 kills on .478 hitting, while Stephanie Serna finished with 10 kills. The Golden Knights drop to 5-23 (1-15 C-USA) with the loss.
UAB began the match just as it hoped, taking an 11-5 lead after back-to-back kills by Dent and then went on to go up 21-11 after back-to-back kills by junior middle blocker Shaniquwa Cooper. The Blazers closed out game one, 30-16.
In game two, UCF came back to take a 13-10 lead after a kill by Serna, however the Blazers were quick to respond, as eight-straight points behind stellar serving by Vujovic put UAB back on top, 18-13. Vujovic had four aces in the run.
UAB went on to close out game two, 30-27, on a kill by Bozic to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
Game three remained close throughout the early stages until UAB made a run on Galvin's serve, with an ace giving the Blazers a 21-17 lead. After UCF got a couple points back, the Blazers made another run, this time on Domingos' serve, with a kill by Stefanov capping off a five-point run to put the Blazers ahead, 26-19.
UAB eventually closed out the third game, 30-23, after back-to-back errors on the Golden Knights.
The Blazers have concluded their regular season schedule with a 13-3 non-conference record and a 10-6 mark in C-USA play to combine for a 23-9 record. The team will next be in action on Thursday, Nov. 16 when the Conference USA Tournament begins in Houston.
