The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
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Blazers Take Down UALR To Open Tiger Invitational
9/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 18, 2009
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Freshman setter Alison Woods piled up a career-best 55 assists in just four sets Friday as the UAB volleyball team defeated UALR, 3-1 (27-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-19), on the first day of the Tiger Invitational.
The Blazers hit for a.291 percentage as a team, their second best attacking performance of the season, and continued their theme of balance. Five Blazers recorded at least nine kills, led by Andrea Lalic and Sam Serley with 16 each. Jordan McDonald added 12, while Michelle Uzoh and Savannah Pegg both finished with nine.
McDonald, a junior attacker from Vestavia Hills High School in the Birmingham area, added 12 digs in the contest to post the first double-double of her career.
With the win, UAB improved to 7-5, while UALR fell to 5-4. The Blazers are back on the court twice on Saturday, facing New Orleans at 10 a.m. and Samford at 4:30 p.m. at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse on the campus of Memphis.
UAB ended Friday's match with six straight points to close out UALR and win the contest in four sets. With the fourth frame tied at 19-19, UAB managed back-to-back kills from Woods and Savannah Pegg to force a UALR timeout. Out of the huddle, the Blazers went on to take four more points on a kill from Serley and three Trojan errors to finish it off.
Uzoh, whose nine kills marked her UAB career-high, recorded a .571 attack percentage for the match and was one of three Blazers to hit at least .400, joining Serley (.406) and Lalic (.400).
"We played well both offensively and defensively tonight," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We got off to a really fast start, and we were very effective with our middles and right side attack."
With their strong offensive performance, the Blazers won two tightly contested sets to open the match. In the first set, UAB racked up 19 kills as a team, led by five from Serley. In the second frame, the Blazers hit a blistering .519, and Lalic posted six of her kills as UAB took a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
In the third set, UALR was the team with the hotter hand offensively. The Trojans hit .444 for the set, and Becky Mann tallied five of her team-high 16 kills. UALR led by as many as eight points on multiple occasions as the Trojans pushed the match to a fourth set.
Anita Bucur and Paige Gantar joined Mann in double-figures with 12 kills and 10 kills, respectively, for UALR. Setter Giuliana DeFrancesco finished with 46 assists, while Emily Pepperman led the Trojans in digs with 17.
UAB libero Heather Thomas finished with 25 digs, topping the 20-dig mark for the fifth match this season and the second in a row.
"UALR is a big team and a team that is going to be good," Messersmith said. "For Alison to have 55 assists and Heather to have 25 digs in four sets, those numbers are both incredibly high."
The Blazers have now won three straight matches, dating back to last Saturday's win over Murray State. UAB has responded from a three-match losing streak prior to the Murray State contest.
