Tulane University
UAB
Volleyball Road Woes Continue, Fall At UAB 3-1
Nov 9, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 9, 2001
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Sophomore middle hitter Lauren Jones-McClain had 11 kills and tallied a match-high .391 attack percentage, but it was not enough as the Tulane University volleyball team fell to Conference USA foe UAB, 3-1, Friday afternoon in Bartow Arena.
Tulane had a rough day in the service game, committing seven service errors and giving up 12 service aces, as the Green Wave fell to 16-12 on the year and 7-8 in C-USA play. The loss was the fifth straight league road loss for the Green Wave dating back to Oct. 5 when Tulane defeated conference rival Southern Miss in five games.
"We had a case of volleyball amnesia," head coach Betsy Becker said. "LJ (Jones-McClain) is the only player on the court to play well tonight, and one player can't play against a team of six. We simply forgot how to play volleyball, but give a lot of credit to UAB. They were in their system 80 to 85 percent of the time, and this may be their break-out match.
"We couldn't handle their top spin serves, and every time we got a little momentum, we would make an error. I felt like we were the Bad News Bears in Birmingham."
Junior outside hitter Britney Hurst and redshirt-freshman outside hitter Anastasia Kenon joined Jones-McClain in the double-digit kills category with totals of 11 and 10, respectively. Kenon and sophomore defensive specialist Karlyn Daly tied for team-high defensive honors with 13 digs.
Tulane got off to a rocky start as UAB raced out to an 8-4 lead. The Green Wave would respond, though, and tie things up at 10-all. UAB retook the lead at 15-12, but one again, Tulane had an answer with an 11-6 rally to take a 23-21 advantage. While Tulane would go on to lead 27-24 and hold game point at 29-28, the Green Wave could never put the Blazers away and the home team went on to win the stanza, 32-30.
It was a game of runs early on in game two. UAB opened the stanza with a 2-0 run, followed by a 5-0 streak by the Green Wave and then a 5-1 rally by the home team to give the Blazers a 7-6 lead. From there, neither team could gain control of the contest. But with UAB leading 17-16, the Green Wave kicked it up a notch and outscored the Blazers 14-5 the rest of the way to take the contest, 30-22, and tie the match at one game a piece.
UAB grabbed the early lead again in game three as the Blazers rolled out to a 7-2 lead. The Green Wave called a timeout to stop the Blazer's momentum as UAB increased its lead to nine at 13-4. Tulane cut the lead to seven at 16-9, but that was as close as the Green Wave could get the rest of the way. The lead was back to nine at 18-9, forcing the Tulane to call its final timeout, but it was all UAB the rest of the way as the Blazers went on to win 30-15.
It was a similar story in game four as UAB scored the first four points of the stanza and held a 10-5 early on. Once again, the Green Wave called timeout to regroup, but the results were the same as in game three as the Blazer lead grew to six at 12-6. The two teams would trade points throughout the middle portion of the match, but with the score 15-9 in favor of UAB, the Blazers went on a 3-0 run to take an 18-10 lead and never looked back as they would go on to take the game, 30-20.
Shelly Green led four Blazers with double-digit kill totals with 19, followed by Martina Shields with 16, Kristi Lee 15 and Allison Magner with 13. As a team, UAB hit .241 and held the Green Wave to a .194 clip. Lee led the UAB defense with 16 digs.
The Green Wave will look to halt their current road skid and when they return to action on Sunday, Nov. 11 when the team travels to Tampa, Fla., against South Florida at 1 p.m. in The Corral. The USF contest marks the season finale for the Green Wave and Tulane will be fighting for higher seeding in the C-USA Tournament next week in Houston, Texas.
