Volleyball Closes Out Senior Night With Win Over UTSA

Friday, November 4

Birmingham, Ala.

7 p.m.

UAB

-1212,75 CUSA

UTSA

-717,210 CUSA

UTSA

UAB

Volleyball Closes Out Senior Night With Win Over UTSA

11/5/2022 12:03:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Game Book: UAB v. UTSA

BIRMINGHAM – The UAB Volleyball team (12-12, 7-5 C-USA) concluded their home campaign over the UTSA Roadrunners with a 3-1 victory in Bartow Arena Friday night.

"This win was impactful for several reasons. First, it allowed us to send our seniors out of Bartow on a high note," said head coach Betsy Freeburg. "Second, it secured our trip to the conference tournament for the third straight season."

The Blazers, who celebrated five seniors on their accomplishments over the years at their final home match, have a light week with this match being the sole match for the week.

IN THE SETS
After the celebratory accolades before the first serve, the Blazers jumped on the board first, before the Roadrunners responded with a series to tie the score at four. The score tied once more at six before the Blazers went on two 2-0 runs to advance to a 10-7 lead. UAB's defensive efforts would hold UTSA to ten points before going on a 7-0 run to put them up 20-10. The .391 hitting percentage proved favorable to push the Green and Gold to a 25-12 win in the first.

A six-point run in favor of the Blazers started the second set but would be halted by a service error. The Blazers maintained their lead, with a kill from senior Kiana Mack to push the Green and Gold out to eight points. UAB remained in cruise control, with UTSA in tow, but a 3-0 run put the Roadrunners within two points. The Roadrunners then went on a scoring run to get within a point of the Blazers before accelerating to set point. UTSA responded with a 3-0 run to halt the Blazers' set point, but Chloe Rodriguez delivered a kill to put UAB up 2-0.

The third set shifted in favor of UTSA. Despite the Blazers replicating what was seen in the previous two sets, jumping out to a 7-4 lead over the Roadrunners. But UTSA responded with a 7-0 run to jump in front of the Blazers, 11 to eight. Once the Roadrunners took the lead, they never looked back, capitalizing off UAB's 11 errors to UTSA's zero to take the third set 25-20.

The fourth and final set saw UAB immediately strike first, taking a 3-1 lead, but the Roadrunners responded, eventually tying the score at five apiece before advancing to a 10-5 lead. UAB responded with two runs to get within a point before taking the lead back with a service ace from Maia Rackel. The Blazers continued to push through with runs to gradually grow closer to set point. The final point came from a dump from Lidya Canturk to give UAB the win.

IN THE BOX
The Blazers outperformed UTSA in attacking in three of the four sets, with the highest hitting percentage coming from set one with .391. The Blazers tallied a total of 58 kills to the Roadrunners' 36. UAB out-dug UTSA with 82 to the Roadrunners' 69.

Stat leaders for the Blazers include Maia Rackel and Alex Kells, who both led the team in kills with 16. Chloe Rodriguez led the team in blocks with six. Erin Powers closed out the night with 30 digs, with Rackel and Kells following with 16 and 14 respectively. Both Kells and Rackel finished the night with double-doubles.

QUOTES FROM BETSY FREEBURG
"In set one, we were elite in the side-out phase of the game and combined solid passing with good setting choices and attacking acumen. Grace Koper was also great from the service line and gave us great opportunities to score."

"In sets two and three, we got careless on our attack and made ten and 11 errors. We were able to dial in those errors and that helped us turn it around in set four."

UP NEXT
The Blazers travel to the Lone Star State to take on the Mean Green of UNT on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 6 p.m.

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