The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Volleyball Heads to Rice, Houston For C-USA Matches
11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 6, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- After six straight matches at Bartow Arena, the UAB volleyball team heads back to the road this weekend for a pair of Conference USA contests.
The Blazers (22-3, 12-1 C-USA) visit Rice for a 4 p.m. CT match on Friday and then close out the weekend Sunday with a 1 p.m. CT match at Houston.
Led by reigning C-USA Offensive Player of the Week Ivana Bozic, UAB enters Friday's contest riding a 16-match winning streak. The Blazers defeated East Carolina, 3-0, and Marshall, 3-1, last weekend and have now won 22 of their past 23 matches.
Setter Nevena Stefanov runs the UAB offense with 11.07 assists per set to rank second in the league. Middle blocker Casey Dent ranks 20th in the nation with a .395 hitting percentage. Dent, a senior from Helena, Ala., was named Thursday to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV First Team as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
While UAB currently holds down the top spot in the C-USA standings, Friday's opponent enters the match in third place. Rice is 19-5 overall and 10-3 in league matches. The contest also pits two teams in the RPI top 40 with UAB at 27 and Rice at 39.
Rice has won nine of their past 10 matches. The Owls are led offensively by Karyn Morgan's 3.28 kills per set and Meredith Schamun's 11.60 assists per set.
The Owls own a 6-3 advantage in the all-time series with UAB, including a 3-0 victory in Birmingham in 2007.
In Sunday's match, the Blazers face a Houston team that has defended its home court well. Houston is 15-11 overall and 7-6 in C-USA, but the Cougars have lost just one out of eight home matches.
Justine Farmer leads Houston offensively with 3.94 kills per set, and Kelsey King hands out 10.76 assists per set. Between King, Schamun and Stefanov, three of the top setters in the league will be on display this weekend in Houston.
UAB trails 14-2 in the all-time series with the Cougars, but the Blazers won a 3-2 decision last season in Birmingham.
As the conference season winds down, UAB could secure its position as one of the top two seeds in the league tournament with a win Friday against Rice. After Sunday's contest at Houston, the Blazers will have just one match remaining -- Nov. 16 at Memphis -- before the C-USA Tournament.
