The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
10-14, 3-5
Florida A&M
7-11, 4-1
Blazers Get Win Over Florida A&M In Four Sets
10/18/2017 3:39:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The UAB volleyball team improved to 10-14 on the year as it defeated Florida A&M 3-1 (25-15, 25-22, 13-25, 25-18) on Wednesday at Bartow Arena.
The Blazers got a big performance from senior Petra Silic who scored a team high 11 kills in the win over the Rattlers. Silic hit .333 with nine total blocks and two digs. Her nine blocks are a season high. She also had two solo blocks and seven assisted blocks.
Gabby Deshotel and Victoria Young had nine kills each as Deshotel racked up 15 digs and Young scored two service aces. Freshman Shelby Holderfield tallied 45 assists and led UAB with three service aces.
Haley Jared added eight kills, nine digs and scored a service ace in the win.
"We've had a couple tough games but the girls have continued to play hard and we came out on the right side of things today," head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We played a strong opening two sets and then fell apart a little bit in the third with all the errors. I like how we cleaned things up in the fourth and took care of business to get the win."
UAB cruised through the opening set winning 25-15. Deshotel and Jared played strong in the opening set, posting four kills apiece. The Green and Gold hit .321 percent and only committed four errors.
Florida A&M (7-11) surged ahead in the second set going up 8-2 early before the Blazers began slowly chipping away at the lead with the help of an 8-1 scoring run. UAB used the run to take the lead and then pushed out to a 20-15 lead.
UAB finished the set with two big kills from Young and Silic to win 25-22 and take a two set lead.
Errors struck the Blazers hard in the third set as they committed 10 attack errors to Florida A&M's three. The Rattlers dominated the third throughout, winning 25-13.
Abby Carlile stepped up for UAB in the fourth with four kills while the Blazers cut down on the errors and blocked eight attacks in the fourth to win 25-18 and take the match 3-1.
UAB returns to the court on Sunday, Oct. 22 as it takes on Middle Tennessee for the second time this season. In the pairs first matchup, the Green and Gold came away victorious on the road. First serve is set for 1 p.m.
