The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Southern Miss
Oquendo Leads Blazers Past Southern Miss, 3-1
10/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 2, 2005
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Senior Isabel Oquendo put away a career-best 32 kills as the UAB volleyball team won its first Conference USA match of the season over Southern Miss Sunday afternoon at the Payne Center. The Blazers bounced back from a loss at UCF Friday night to improve their record to 10-2 and 1-1 in league play. The Golden Eagles fall to 4-6 overall, 0-3 in C-USA.
"It was nice to see the way we came back in this match after Friday's loss," said co-interim head coach Allison Magner. "The girls came out after the second intermission and decided to really play their game. It was a great match to watch and Isabel [Oquendo] really came through for us."
Oquendo also added 11 digs in the match, recording her second double-double of the weekend. Freshman Ivana Bozic was also outstanding for the Blazers, hitting .444 with a 20-kill, 12-dig double-double performance. Bozic now leads the team with seven double-doubles in UAB's 12 matches. Freshman setter Nevena Stefanov led all players with a career-best 68 assists in the contest. Jazzmien Stephens and Ashley Petrinec each had 15 kills for the Golden Eagles.
Both teams started out slowly, combining for 18 attacking errors in the opening game. But Southern Miss got five kills and a .556 hitting percentage from Petrinec and grabbed an early 1-0 advantage with a 30-26 win.
After dropping game one, UAB rebounded and held on for a 30-28 win in the second game. Despite the Golden Eagles' .393 hitting percentage, the Blazers went to Oquendo and she came through in a big way, putting away eight of her kills to lead her team and even the match at one game apiece.
After needing extra points to win a thrilling game three by a score of 34-32, the Blazers looked to finish off Southern Miss in the fourth contest. Oquendo again notched eight kills and Bozic added seven as UAB nudged the Golden Eagles, 33-31, to win the match and capture its first conference win of 2005.
The Blazers return to action Friday when they travel to Memphis for a showdown with the Tigers at 7 p.m. ET.
