Volleyball Swept On The Road At Tulane

Friday, September 21

New Orleans, La.

7:00 PM

UAB

Tulane

Casey Dent hit .412 with nine kills against the Green Wave.

Volleyball Swept On The Road At Tulane

9/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Sept. 21, 2007

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. - After nearly winning the opening game, the UAB volleyball team went on to lose, 3-0 (30-28, 30-17, 30-24), at Tulane Friday night. The Blazers had seven total blocks, but it wasn't enough to slow down the Green Wave offense. Tulane improves to 12-3 (2-0 C-USA) with the win, while UAB drops to 8-6 (0-2 C-USA).

Senior middle blocker Shaniquwa Cooper, junior middle blocker Casey Dent and junior setter Lilly Domingos each recorded three total blocks in the match, however; Tulane hit .373 and had three players with double figures in kills.

"Tulane is a great, great team," said UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith following the match. "They are very athletic and powerful which really gave us a hard time tonight."

Junior outside hitter Ivana Bozic led the Blazers with 10 kills and seven digs. She also had two service aces to tie her for seventh place on the Conference USA all-time career aces list with 158. Dent supplied a great deal of the team's offense as well, finishing with nine kills on .412 hitting.

Junior setter Nevena Stefanov returned to the floor for the Blazers after missing the team's last five matches with an injury. Stefanov had 11 assists in her return, while Domingos also finished with 11 helpers.

"We just seemed to be out of synch out there tonight," Messersmith said. "We've had to practice without Nevena for two weeks which may have played a role in that. Really I think it comes down to passing. Last year we were a great passing team and right now it's just not clicking. If we pass better than I think we can play with anyone."

Senior libero Brianna Galvin made eight digs in the contest to edge her closer to climbing up to fourth all-time at UAB in career digs. She now has 1,318 career digs and needs 16 more to move up the career chart.

The Green Wave was led by Ksenija Vlaskovic who had 19 kills on .353 hitting to go along with nine digs on the defensive end. Sara Radosevic was also impressive, going for 13 kills and eight digs.

UAB nearly won game one, holding a 24-21 lead after a kill by Bozic. However, a pair of Blazer service errors and three kills by Vlaskovic led the Green Wave to a come-from-behind, 30-28, victory in game one.

"That first game was so key in the match," Messersmith said. "If we hold on to that lead and take a 1-0 lead, that's a huge psychological change in the match. We made some mistakes and Tulane made some plays and took control of the momentum."

The Blazers will next be in action on Sunday when they host UTEP for their home opener in Bartow Arena at 1 p.m. Tickets for the match are $5 for adults and $3 for youth. The match can be followed live on Gametracker and viewed via a live web cast at UABsports.com.