UAB Falls to WKU in Four Sets on Senior Night

Thursday, November 8

Birmingham / Bartow Arena

7:00 PM

UAB

-1315, 59 CUSA

WKU

-199, 124 CUSA

WKU

UAB

UAB Falls to WKU in Four Sets on Senior Night

11/8/2018 11:18:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score UAB vs WKU Box Score Season Stats

BIRMINGHAM – The UAB volleyball team's season ended on Thursday night as the Blazers fell to WKU, 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 18-25, 21-25), at Bartow Arena.

Emma Mitchell paced the offense against WKU with 15 kills off of .275 hitting, two digs and two blocks. Alex Kells was close behind with 12 kills and three blocks for UAB while Abby Carlile rounded things out, scoring 10 kills and a career high 16 digs.

Sophomore setter Shelby Holderfield picked up 47 assists and broke the 1,000 assists mark, netting 1,041 for the season. She averaged 10.4 assists per set.

UAB (13-15, 5-9 C-USA) finished the season with its best record since 2013 under first-year head coach Amy Pauly. The Blazers will return three of their top five kills leaders from this season in Carlile, Mitchell and Kells who are all returning for their junior, redshirt junior and redshirt sophomore years, respectively, in 2019.

Carlile finished the season as the UAB leader in kills at 286, hitting .250 for the year. Mitchell closed out the campaign second on the team with 231 kills and Kells finished fourth, registering 198 kills.

Along with those three, the Green and Gold will return a total of 11 players in 2019, with four of the returners being starters.

"Overall I'm really happy with how the season went," Pauly said. "Our main goals were to play better volleyball, learn the game better, give better effort and I believe we checked all the boxes. The biggest thing for us was changing a culture in a positive way and learning to play hard all the time. They didn't just meet those expectations, they exceeded those expectations and you can see that with some of the wins we had this year, some of the comebacks we've made and overall I'm happy with the progress we had this season."

WKU (19-9, 10-3) was lead by a quartet of players beginning with Rachel Anderson who scored 15 kills and hit .481 on the night. Lauren Matthews posted 14 kills on .323 hitting, Kayland Jackson had 11 kills and hit .346 and Sophia Cerino picked up 10 kills.

Set One: UAB 22, WKU 25
The Blazers fell behind early, trailing 8-3, but after a timeout, UAB rallied to cut the Lady Toppers advantage to one, 9-8. The Blazers rallied to take their second lead of the set at 19-18 before WKU came back to claim a 23-22 advantage. The Lady Toppers took the final six points to claim the set 25-22. WKU hit .161 while holding UAB to .098 hitting.

Set Two: UAB 25, WKU 20
The set was tightly contested early, with six ties before either team reached double-digits. UAB took an 11-10 lead on a service ace by Emily Martinez and never looked back, staying in front for the remainder of the set. The Blazers hit .345, while the Lady Toppers recorded a .241 hitting percentage.

Set Three: UAB 18, WKU 25
UAB fell behind, 9-6, after a close early portion of the set and WKU extended its lead to six, 16-10 midway through the set before the Blazers closed the gap and cut their deficit to three, 17-14. WKU took control from that point forward and won the set by a seven-point margin. WKU recorded a .515 hitting percentage, while the Blazers hit .235.

Set Four: UAB 21, WKU 25
UAB took the lead early, but WKU tied the set at three, leading to six ties before either team reached double-digits in points in a mirror image of the second set. The Lady Toppers looked to pull away but UAB remained within two before tying the set at 17. WKU took a three-point lead, its largest of the set up to that point at 21-18 before pulling away to win the set by four, 25-21. WKU hit .231 while holding UAB to .179.

The Seniors:

UAB will say farewell for now to Victoria Young, Emily Martinez, Jillian Tinglin and Emily Rudolph as each of them has played their final match for UAB.

"I'm really thankful for four great seniors who embraced change and embraced being challenged in a way I don't think they have ever been challenged before and they have set the tone and the expectations for everyone who follows them," Pauly said.