The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Bozic Tabbed CVU.com National Player Of The Week
10/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 21, 2008
IRVING, Texas -- Collegiate Volleyball Update (CVU.com) announced Tuesday it has selected UAB senior outside hitter Ivana Bozic as its National Player of the Week.
The award comes just one day after Bozic was chosen as the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season.
"Ivana was very good this weekend," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "She's been gradually gaining steam for the last few weeks, and she certainly played this weekend like we all know she is capable."
Bozic led UAB to conference victories over the weekend against Tulsa and SMU as the Blazers ran their winning streak to 12 matches. The senior tallied 5.17 kills per set and hit .426 for the weekend as UAB swept both the Golden Hurricane and the Mustangs.
In Friday's win over Tulsa, Bozic managed a match-best 14 kills and a .440 attack percentage to go along with eight digs. She followed that performance by posting a double-double and leading all players with 17 kills and 15 digs Sunday against SMU. Bozic also hit .417 against the Mustangs.
Sunday's double-double was the 11th of the season for Bozic. The senior is climbing the career charts in both the kills and digs categories at UAB. She ranks third in Blazer history with 1,692 kills and eighth in school annals with 1,208 digs. For the season, she leads UAB in both kills per set (3.26) and digs per set (3.34).
"Ever since we've gotten here, she's been the kind of player that could turn on a switch and take over a match both offensively and defensively," Messersmith said. "The reason she is successful is that she is so smart. She reads everything very well and is always in the right place."
UAB (18-3, 8-1 C-USA) looks to maintain the top spot in the league standings this weekend as the Blazers welcome a pair of conference foes to Bartow Arena. UAB hosts Southern Miss on Friday at 7 p.m. and UCF on Sunday at 1 p.m.
