The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Alcorn State
UAB Volleyball Goes 1-1 On Day One At Magnolia Invitational
9/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2009
Box Score: UAB vs. Alcorn State | PDF Box Score 
Box Score: UAB vs. Akron | PDF Box Score
OXFORD, Miss. -- The UAB volleyball team split a pair of matches Friday on the first day of the Magnolia Invitational at Ole Miss. The Blazers swept Alcorn State, 3-0, in the first match of the day but fell to Akron in a five-setter in the evening session.
Senior outside hitter Andrea Lalic led the Blazers in kills in both matches, finishing with a combined total of 25. In the middle, the Blazers continued to get strong play from Patty Paniagua and Sam Serley as the duo joined with Lalic to combine for a .357 attack percentage on the day.
"We saw a lot of progress today, and I think we were happy overall," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We got the win this morning and then nearly beat a well-coached, experienced Akron team tonight.
"After tonight's match, we know even better what we need to work on. We'll take a lot of positives from today and get back after it against two more good teams tomorrow."
UAB (3-2) is back in action Saturday when the Blazers take the court against Wisconsin-Milwaukee at 2:30 p.m. and then battle host Ole Miss in the tournament finale at 7:00 p.m.
Live stats for all matches at the Magnolia Invitational are available online at www.olemisssports.com
UAB 3, Alcorn State 0
UAB opened the day with a decisive 3-0 (25-2, 25-15, 25-17) victory over Alcorn State. The Blazers dominated the opening set and cruised to the team's third win of the season in just 47 minutes.
After an Alcorn State attack error on the first point of the match, UAB's Alison Woods served 20 points in a row, including six aces. The Blazers hit .571 in the opening set and Lalic notched five of her match-high seven kills.
The attack percentage cooled over the next two sets, but UAB still won each handily. The tightest portion of the match was the middle of the third set with the teams locked in a 13-13 tie. But UAB closed the contest with 12 of the next 16 points and sealed the win with a Savannah Pegg kill.
Pegg finished with five kills in the match as did Aley Tallman and Kirsten Gallagher. MacKenzie Wilson saw the majority of work at setter and handed out 18 assists. All 14 players on the UAB roster saw action in the match.
In addition to the six aces from Woods, Whitney Hudson tallied four aces for the Blazers, which served up 16 as a team.
Kesha Roberson led Alcorn State with four kills, while Mariah Prince logged nine assists and Donna Kelly posted a match-best 10 digs. The Lady Braves also suffered a loss to Ole Miss in their second match Saturday to fall to 0-3 on the season.
Akron 3, UAB 2
Four Blazers posted double-figure kills Friday night against Akron, but UAB came up short in a 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 15-25, 15-12) loss.
Lalic led UAB with 18 kills, coming up one shy of her career-high. Three other players did manage career-bests in kills as Paniagua and Serley finished with 13, while Pegg recorded 12.
Woods, the Blazers' setter, logged her second double-double in the past three matches, finishing the contest with 12 digs and a career-best 53 assists.
In the decisive fifth set, UAB stormed out to a 6-1 lead on the strength of two Lalic kills, two blocks by Paniagua and Pegg, and a pair of Akron errors. But the Zips rallied to tie the score at 10-10 and force a UAB timeout. Coming out of the break, Akron continued its momentum with two kills from Brionna Patterson and a service ace to grab a lead it would not lose.
"After the fourth set, our girls were full of confidence," Messersmith said. "But Akron is an extremely emotional team, and they're tough to play when they get on a roll. They caught fire, and we couldn't stop them. It's unfortunate because we really thought we were going to pull it out."
Patterson led all players in the match with 20 kills as the Zips also put four players in double-figures. Akron setter Kara Smith matched Woods with 53 assists and also added 15 digs for a double-double.
UAB libero Heather Thomas led all players defensively with 18 digs, and Jordan McDonald added 12. Paniagua finished with five total blocks, while Lalic, Serley and Pegg each added three.
The late Akron rally spoiled what could have been a come-from-behind win for UAB. After dropping two of the first three sets, the Blazers dominated the fourth frame. The team led by as many as 12 points at 19-7 on its way to a 10-point set four victory.
With the quick start to the fifth frame, UAB had won 31 of the previous 47 points before the Akron comeback.
"We've got some girls playing pretty well," Messersmith said. "Now we need to have some kids step up and want to be the ones to put a match away. We're still relatively inexperienced, but we'll get there."
Akron also won its first match of the day, also in five sets, over Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is now 5-1 on the season.
