The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
SMU
Volleyball Drops Match To SMU Mustangs, 3-0
10/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 16, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- Becca Howard posted a double-double and Ally Slaughter rocketed 10 kills, but the SMU Mustangs walked away with a 3-0 (19-25, 17-25, 23-25) victory on Sunday afternoon in Conference USA volleyball action at Bartow Arena. The Blazers return to action on Friday, Oct. 21 with a trip to Houston, Texas to play the UH Cougars before hosting the Rice Owls on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. CT.
UAB (17-4, 7-2 C-USA) fell behind early in the first frame, 7-1, forcing head coach Kerry Messersmith to burn a timeout. The team responded after the pep talk, using a 9-0 run, highlighted by four sizzling service aces from libero Heather Thomas. Later, SMU (8-13, 4-5) would battle back and take the lead at 16-15, and hold on to capture the first stanza, 25-19.
Down 2-0 entering the third set, UAB showed signs of breaking through against the Mustangs as Slaughter nailed down five of her team-high 10 kills in the frame. A Michele Simmons kill knotted the score at 22, and later Slaughter evened the score at 23, but SMU used put aways from Dana Powell and Caroline Young to claim the set and the match.
UAB received a solid outing off the bench from middle blocker Kiriana Hirini. The Tauranga, New Zealand native hit .471, by tallying four kills on seven attacks without committing a miscue. She also added two block assists to her stat line.
Slaughter hit .391 (10K-1E-23TA) for the match, while Thomas topped the team in digs with 11 to go along with her four aces.
At the setter position, Howard dished out 11 helpers with 10 digs for her fifth double-double of the season, while Alison Woods collected 19 assists and nine digs in the loss.
SMU was led by Young's 11 kills and libero Sidney Stewart produced a match-best 27 digs in the Mustangs' back row.
