UAB Loses A Heartbreaker To Rice In Five Sets

Sunday, October 15

Birmingham, Ala.

1:00 PM

UAB

9-14, 3-5

Rice

16-5, 5-1

RICE

UAB

UAB Loses A Heartbreaker To Rice In Five Sets

10/15/2017 4:53:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – UAB volleyball dropped a heartbreaker to Rice in five sets (25-21, 25-22, 17-25, 17-25, 12-15) Sunday afternoon in Bartow Arena.

The Blazers played a strong first two sets to take a 2-0 match lead into the break. Gabby Deshotel had seven kills and six digs in the first set and added six more kills and four digs in the second set.

UAB (9-14, 3-5 C-USA) also had strong performances from Erika Zembya who scored five kills and five digs in the second set. Perta Silic posted two kills and three blocks in the second as well to help the Green and Gold get a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Blazers out hit Rice in both the first and second sets, hitting .178 percent in the first and .182 in the second. The Owls hit just .132 and .122 in the first two sets.

Things started to shift after the break as Rice cut down on its errors and had a .355 hitting percentage in the third set. UAB committed seven attack errors in the third and dropped the set 17-25.

In the fourth the Blazers continued to struggle to find their rhythm and had 10 attacking errors while Rice only had five errors and hit .229.

UAB started the fifth and final set with three quick points and forced a Rice timeout. The Green and Gold couldn't sustain its fast start as the Owls bounced back and took a one-point lead before a UAB timeout.

Rice (16-5, 5-1) only committed one attack in the fifth set and hit at a .417 clip and took the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.

Deshotel earned her fourth double-double of the season with a season high 21 kills and 20 digs. Silic and Zembyla each totaled 11 kills. Freshman Shelby Holderfield had a career high 50 assists with four service aces, seven digs and one kill.

Emily Martinez led UAB with 27 digs while tallying four assists and one kill.

UAB returns to the court Wednesday, Oct. 18 against Florida A&M. First serve is set for 11:30 a.m.