The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Houston
UAB Goes Five Again, Wins Again
10/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 19, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In a matchup of two teams tied for third place in the Conference USA standings, the UAB Blazers outlasted the Houston Cougars, 3-2 (23-30, 30-26, 32-34, 30-22, 15-12), Friday night in Bartow Arena.
UAB, which finished with 108 digs in the match, improves to 17-6 (7-2 C-USA) and has now won nine straight overall and 11 in a row in Bartow Arena, a streak that dates back to the 2006 season. Houston falls to 11-9 (6-3 C-USA) with the loss.
Junior Ivana Bozic finished with a match-high 25 digs to go along with 24 kills offensively, while senior libero Brianna Galvin recorded 21 digs to help UAB's strong defensive showing.
In all, six Blazers finished with double-figures in digs.
"I was really impressed with our defense tonight," said UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith. "We had a ton of digs tonight and I thought Aleksandra (Vujovic) stepped in and played great for us."
Vujovic finished with 17 digs and 15 kills on .324 hitting.
Senior Fernanda Domingos had 16 kills, 11 digs and four blocks and junior Casey Dent had 12 kills.
Junior Nevena Stefanov finished with 68 assists to mark her second-highest single-match total of the season. The setter also contributed 13 digs on the defensive end.
Junior Lilly Domingos finished with nine total blocks and seven kills.
"To me, it just seems like we come out flat when we're at home for some reason," Messersmith said. "It seemed like we did it again tonight, where we come out flat and dig ourselves in a hole and again we were fortunate to make our way back into the match and then played with great emotion in the fifth game. I'd just like to see us figure out how to come out with the emotion in game one, that we always seem to show in game five."
Houston was led by Justine Farmer and her match-high 34 kills. Hannah Sullivan also had a strong night, posting 14 kills and 21 digs.
After two hours of play, the two teams were all tied at two games apiece. UAB was 4-0 in previous five-game matches this season, but that streak was in jeopardy near the midway point of the fifth game as an attack error on Dent gave the Cougars a 7-4 advantage, forcing Messersmith to call a timeout.
Out of the break, UAB went on a 7-1 run to take an 11-8 lead following a kill by Bozic. The Blazers later extended their lead to four, 13-9, on a kill by Fernanda.
Houston managed to cut the deficit to two, 14-12, following a service error on Bozic, but again it was Fernanda with the big shot as she put away her third kill of the fifth game to close out the game, 15-12, and the match, 3-2.
The Blazers will return to action on Sunday when they host Rice at 1:00 p.m.
