The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
SMU
Blazers Drop C-USA Volleyball Contest At SMU, 3-0
10/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 28, 2011
DALLAS, Texas -- Libero Heather Thomas posted 19 digs in just three sets Friday night to move into sixth on the Conference USA all-time list, but the UAB volleyball team suffered a 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-22) setback at SMU.
The Blazers, currently third in the conference standings, dropped to 18-6 (8-4 C-USA) on the year, while the Mustangs improved to 10-14 (6-6 C-USA). UAB continues its road weekend Sunday with a 1 p.m. CT contest at league-leading Tulsa.
SMU managed 46 kills as a team Friday night with all of them coming from a group of five players. Dana Powell, Jessica Oliver and Caroline Young finished with 10 kills each, while Courtney Manning added nine and Savannah Myklebust had seven.
UAB had eight different players record a kill, but Rachel Fairbanks and Thais Soares paced the squad with six each.
"I was disappointed with the way we played tonight," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "Rachel and Thais did a fantastic job coming off the bench and providing a spark for us, but we just didn't get the contributions for everyone across the board that we needed."
The Mustangs also had the upper hand defensively, finishing with nine total blocks to UAB's four and 61 total digs to the Blazers' 44. SMU libero Sidney Stewart led all players with 23 digs.
Thomas, UAB's all-time digs leader, now owns 1,956 digs in her career and is 31 shy of cracking the top five in C-USA history.
After SMU led wire-to-wire in the first two sets of the night, UAB came out stronger in the third frame. The Blazers held an early lead at 8-5 in the back-and-forth set and found themselves tied as late as 17-17. But four straight kills by SMU, including three from Manning, gave the Mustangs control. UAB again clawed back to within one point at 23-22 before another Manning kill and a service ace finished off the match.
SMU finished the night hitting for a .315 attack percentage as a team, while UAB checked in with a .123 percentage.
UAB setters combined for 33 assists as Alison Woods posted 16 and Becca Howard added 13. SMU setter Kelli Becerra led all players with 23 assists and Kendrick Koch also had 13 for the Mustangs.
