The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Murray State
UAB Volleyball Wins One, Loses One Saturday
9/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 12, 2009
Box Score: UAB vs. Valparaiso | PDF Box Score 
Box Score: UAB vs. Murray State | PDF Box Score
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The UAB volleyball team split a pair of matches Saturday on the final day of the Saluki Invitational at Southern Illinois.
The Blazers were on opposite ends of two sweeps, losing to Valparaiso, 3-0, in their morning match before bouncing back to close out the day with a 3-0 win over Murray State.
Andrea Lalic led the Blazers offensively in both matches, posting a total of 22 kills on the day, including 14 in the win over Murray State.
Libero Heather Thomas, who led UAB defensively with 15 digs in the victory over Murray State, was named to the all-tournament team. It was the second all-tournament recognition of the season for Thomas, who also earned the honor last weekend at the Magnolia Invitational hosted by Ole Miss.
UAB (5-5) returns to action Thursday with its Conference USA opener on the road at Memphis. The Blazers then remain in Memphis next weekend for the Tiger Invitational.
UAB 3, Murray State 0
UAB swept past Murray State, 3-0 (27-25, 25-23, 25-16), Saturday night to close out the Saluki Invitational with a win.
Lalic finished with 14 kills for UAB, and Jordan McDonald posted 11. Sam Serley added eight kills and hit for a match-high .533 percentage, while setter Alison Woods recorded 39 assists.
As a team, UAB tallied a .292 attack percentage. The Blazers did not hit worse than .257 in any set and finished above the .300 mark in both the first and third frames.
"We played better tonight than in our morning match, though we still have a lot to improve," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We were very out of synch in our previous match, but we tweaked our lineup a little bit and were more productive tonight."
Murray State (0-9) hit .223 for the match. Becca Lamb led the Racers with 13 kills, and Kayleah Sauer tied Thomas for match-high honors with 15 digs. Murray State setter Jade Guo finished with 34 assists.
Valparaiso 3, UAB 0
In the Saturday morning match, UAB suffered a 3-0 (25-19, 26-24, 25-20) loss to Valparaiso.
Lalic led the Blazers offensively with eight kills, while McDonald finished with six kills and a .417 attack percentage.
UAB's Michelle Uzoh, a junior transfer from Georgia Southern, turned in her best statistical match of the young season, hitting .500 with five kills in 10 attempts. Uzoh also tallied a career-high eight blocks in the loss as UAB out-blocked Valparaiso, 11-3.
The Crusaders, though, hit for a .203 percentage compared to .139 for the Blazers. They also totaled 52 kills to 27 for UAB.
Valparaiso's Katie Britton finished with a match-high 14 kills, and Kim Bukowski handed out 35 assists for the Crusaders (5-4).
"We weren't able to generate any offense against Valparaiso," Messersmith said. "We struggled all weekend passing the ball, which is completely different from last weekend when I thought we played well. We'll go back to practice this week and try to get ready for Thursday at Memphis."
