The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Ivana Bozic Tabbed C-USA Offensive Player Of The Week
10/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 6, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- For the second time in as many weeks, a UAB volleyball player has been named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week.
Senior outside hitter Ivana Bozic earned the honor Monday, as announced by the league office. Teammate Casey Dent took home the award for the Blazers last Monday.
In three matches last week, Bozic averaged 3.75 kills per set. The senior tallied a .310 hitting percentage with 45 kills and six errors in 126 attempts as she guided the Blazers to wins over Tennessee State, UTEP and Tulane.
Sunday against the Green Wave, the preseason C-USA favorite, Bozic turned in a strong all-around performance with 14 kills and 18 digs, propelling the Blazers to a win and into first place in the C-USA standings. She posted a double-double in all three matches last week and now owns nine double-doubles on the season.
"Ivana played well all the way around, offensively and defensively, this week," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "She has really found her groove recently, and we believe she will continue her strong play for the rest of the season."
With her 21 kills last Tuesday at Tennessee State, Bozic moved into a tie for third place on UAB's career kills list. After tallying 10 kills against UTEP and 14 against Tulane, she now stands in third place by herself with 1,640 kills in her career.
Bozic became the third Blazer to take home a weekly C-USA honor this season. In addition to the offensive player of the week honor last week for Dent, teammate Nevena Stefanov was named the league's setter of the week on Sept. 15.
As a team, UAB has won eight matches in a row and 14 of its past 15. The Blazers are 14-3 overall and tied with UCF for first place in the C-USA standings at 4-1 in league play.
UAB has started to gain national recognition, receiving votes in the latest CBS College Sports/AVCA Coaches Poll, released Monday.
The Blazers continue conference play this weekend with a pair of road matches. UAB travels to Southern Miss for a 7 p.m. contest on Friday before heading to UCF for a Noon CT first serve on Sunday.
