The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
TULANE
Blazers Demonstrate Efficient Offense In 3-0 Sweep Of Tulane
10/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 29, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Paced by Sam Serley's 14 kills, the UAB volleyball team turned in its best offensive performance of the season Friday night in a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-14) sweep of Tulane at Bartow Arena.
The Blazers finished with 41 total kills and just nine errors on their way to a .344 attack percentage as a team. It was the highest percentage for UAB since posting a .348 mark Oct. 11, 2009 against East Carolina.
"Offensively, we're just doing so much more with the ball," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We couldn't get it going for a long time, but our last several outings have been good."
UAB (7-16, 4-7 C-USA) has now put together back-to-back wins and will carry some momentum into Sunday's 1 p.m. home contest with Southern Miss. Tulane (7-17, 4-8 C-USA) heads to Memphis next.
Sunday's contest with Southern Miss will serve as the second annual UAB Fall Festival with games and activities for kids and families. Fans will receive free admission by donating designated paper or plastic items for Birmingham's Ronald McDonald House (RMH). Click here for full details. The Blazers will also be collecting pop tabs from aluminum soda cans for recycling Sunday to benefit RMH.
Serley tallied her sixth-straight double-digit kill performance in Friday's win. The sophomore middle blocker committed just two errors in her 24 attempts, hitting for a .500 percentage. She also led all players with seven blocks.
Over its past three matches, UAB is hitting for a .284 percentage as a team, and Serley is hitting .538 with 4.08 kills per set.
"Sam just continues to shine individually," Messersmith said, "and we've been improving every week as a team. I think a lot of the credit for that goes to (setter) Alison (Woods)."
Jordan McDonald had eight kills without an error and Michelle Uzoh was also error-less with seven kills as Woods continued to run a balanced Blazer offense. The sophomore setter posted a match-best 34 assists.
The Blazers cruised to comfortable wins in the first and third sets, holding double-digit leads on occasion in both.
They were really only challenged in the second frame. UAB led by four multiple times, including at 24-20, before Tulane tried to rally. Two consecutive blocks by the Green Wave closed the gap to two, but Serley finished it off with a kill on the third set point.
UAB libero Heather Thomas led all players with 14 digs, while Nikki Osuna reached double-digits for Tulane with 10. Thomas, only a junior, climbed another spot to seventh on UAB's all-time digs list with 1,342 for her career.
Izabela Grot led the Green Wave offensive attack with 10 kills, followed by Cori Martone with nine.
Led by three aces from Woods, UAB also had one of its best serving nights with more aces (six) than service errors (four). Tulane, on the other hand, finished with seven service errors to just one ace.
