The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
East Carolina
UAB Wins Five-Setter Friday At East Carolina
9/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2008
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The UAB volleyball team rallied from behind to pull out a hard-fought victory Friday night in Conference USA action on the road at East Carolina.
The Blazers won the first set, dropped the next two and then took the final two on the way to a 3-2 (25-20, 17-25, 18-25, 25-19, 19-17) victory.
With the win, UAB improves to 10-3 (1-1 C-USA) on the season, while East Carolina falls to 11-6 (1-1 C-USA). The Blazers continue league action Sunday with another road contest scheduled for Noon CT at Marshall.
"It doesn't get much closer than our match tonight," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "I'm really proud of our girls that we were able to come in here and win a close one."
In Friday's win, right side hitter Casey Dent continued her strong play for UAB. The senior set a career-high with 21 kills in the match and also led all players with a .559 hitting percentage. Blazer teammate Ivana Bozic posted a double-double in the match with 15 kills and 13 digs.
"Casey is just such a smart player," Messersmith said. "She's so tough to stop. Opposing teams have seen her for four years now, and they still have a hard time stopping her."
Dent and Bozic were both the beneficiaries of an impressive performance by UAB setter Nevena Stefanov, who matched her season-high with 54 assists. Stefanov now owns 4,869 career assists and is three shy of moving into second place all-time at UAB.
UAB and East Carolina were tight for the entire match Friday. Both teams finished with the same .213 attack percentage.
In the fifth and final set, East Carolina jumped out to an 8-3 lead. UAB clawed back and eventually tied the score at 12-12 on a Pirate attack error.
The Blazers faced a match point, down 14-13, but a kill by Savannah Pegg evened the score at 14-14. East Carolina then fought off three match points of its own. Finally, a Bozic kill gave the Blazers a fourth match point, and an East Carolina error gave UAB a 19-17 set five win.
With the victory, UAB improved to 3-0 on the season in five-set matches. The Blazers have now won two of those fifth sets by 19-17 scores and one by a score of 16-14.
