The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
SMU
Blazers Defeat SMU, 3-0
10/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 19, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB volleyball team hit .365 as a team Sunday as the Blazers picked up their second sweep of the weekend with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-16) victory over SMU.
UAB's strong performance followed on the heels of a .446 hitting percentage in Friday's win over Tulsa. Over the two matches this weekend, the Blazers hit .401 as a team.
UAB has now won 12 consecutive matches to improve its overall record to 18-3. The team leads Conference USA with an 8-1 record in league play.
"Our girls are playing smart volleyball right now," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We're playing well both offensively and defensively, and that is a real key for our team."
In Sunday's match, Ivana Bozic led UAB with her 11th double-double of the season, posting match-highs with 17 kills and 15 digs. Her .417 attack percentage was the highest for any player with at least 10 attempts.
Three other Blazers joined Bozic in double figure digs. Aleksandra Vujovic tallied 11, while MacKenzie Wilson and Hether Thomas managed 10 each. As a team, the Blazers recorded 62 digs in the match.
After handing out 39 assists Friday against Tulsa, Nevena Stefanov tallied 45 more in Sunday's win. For the weekend, she averaged 14 assists per set.
"We're pleased with the wins, but we have a long conference season left," Messersmith said. "We have some very tough matches ahead of us, and that's our immediate focus."
UAB led wire-to-wire in the opening set Sunday and held an advantage of as many as 10 points on the way to an eight-point final margin.
In the second set, however, the Blazers found themselves playing from behind. UAB trailed 18-14 before making a late run. Three kills apiece down the stretch by Dent and Bozic helped UAB score 11 of the final 15 points to secure the second set.
In the third, it was the Blazers again pulling away in the second half of the set. An SMU error broke the final tie of the match, giving UAB a 12-11 third-set lead. UAB opened up a five-point lead at 20-15 on a kill by Patty Paniagua and cruised to a 25-16 win, putting an exclamation point on the match with Bozic's 17th kill of the day.
Paniagua came off the bench for UAB in the final set to tally five kills in just six attempts.
UAB continues a stretch of home matches with a pair of C-USA contests next weekend. The Blazers host Southern Miss on Friday at 7 p.m. and UCF on Sunday at 1 p.m.
