Memphis, led by Conference USA Player of the Week Amie Hamilton, is off to their best start since 1997. Read about the Tigers and all 14 C-USA Volleyball teams in this week's notebook.


NATIONAL POLLS
Here is a look at the Sept. 3 AVCA/USA Today Poll.
1 Nebraska
2 Long Beach State
3 Wisconsin
4 Penn State
5 Arizona
6 USC
7 UCLA
8 Pacific
9 Stanford
10 Hawai'i
11 Florida
12 Colorado State
13 UC Santa Barbara
14 Minnesota
15 Pepperdine
16 BYU
17 Ohio State
18 Texas A&M
19 Utah
20 Notre Dame
21 South Carolina
22 Kansas State
23 Colorado
24 Santa Clara
25 Texas

Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Washington State (60), Michigan State (60), Georgia Tech (41), Louisville (35), North Carolina (27), Loyola Marymount (23), Northern Iowa (10), Baylor (6), San Jose State (6), Missouri (6), Cal Poly (3).

IMPRESSIVE SHOWINGS
Several Conference USA teams turned in strong performances during the second week of the regular season.

Louisville upset No. 19 Utah, 3-0 in the Arizona Wildcat Classic in Tucson. Charlotte won the War Eagle Invitational in Auburn, Ala., as KATHLEEN RAMOS had a career-high and school record 31 kills against the host Tigers. DePaul and Memphis remain C-USA's only unbeaten teams, as each won its second straight tournament title. DePaul swept the Powerade Panther Invitational, while Memphis captured the Kent State Tournament title. This is the Tigers' best start since 1997.

Marquette's MEHGAN DEVINE hit .531 on the week to lead the Golden Eagles to first place in the Marquette Challenge, and UAB took home the Hurricane Invitational crown in Miami, Fla.

WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
Here are some of the top individual performers in C-USA from Sept. 4-9:

KATHLEEN RAMOS, CHA: Set a school record for a four-game match with a career-high 31 kills against Auburn.

LARA MARKS, DPU: Was MVP of the Powerade Panther Invitational by recording 32 kills and 12 block assists in three matches.

JENNIFER WITTENBURG, HOU: Paced the Cougars to a third-place showing at the Kansas State Wildcat Classic. She averaged 5.2 kills and 3.8 digs per game.

SONJA PERCAN, LOU: Named to the Arizona Wildcat Classic All-Tournament team after posting 27 kills in two matches, leading the Cardinals to an upset of No. 19 Utah.

MEHGAN DEVINE, MAR: The MVP of the Marquette Challenge hit .531 on the weekend with 37 kills and 19 digs. She is now eighth on the school's all-time career kills list with 821.

MICHELLE COLLIER, USF: She hit .429 with a season-high 28 kills against Loyola-Chicago. She was named to the Loyola-Chicago All-Tournament team for her efforts.

KELLY TRIBBLE, USM: Led her team in kills in four of her team's five matches last week. She had a career-high 26 kills against Tennessee-Martin, which helped her to the Magnolia Invitational All-Tournament team.

ALLISON LYNCH, TCU: Lynch posted her first career double-double with 18 kills and 11 digs against Indiana State.

BRITNEY HURST, TUL: Hurst tallied 74 kills, 50 digs, six blocks and six service aces to help lead the Green Wave to a 4-1 record last week.

KRISTI LEE, UAB: Helped lead the Blazers to a perfect 4-0 record and the Hurricane Invitational title in Miami, Fla.

GAME REC0RDS
School 3 4 5 Total
Charlotte 1-1 3-1 1-0 5-2
Cincinnati 1-2 1-0 0-1 2-3
DePaul 3-0 2-0 1-0 6-0
East Carolina 0-4 0-1 1-0 1-5
Houston 0-2 1-2 2-0 3-4
Louisville 3-1 1-0 0-0 4-1
Marquette 5-0 0-1 0-1 5-2
Memphis 5-0 1-0 1-0 7-0
Saint Louis 2-2 0-2 0-1 2-5
South Florida 4-3 0-0 0-0 4-3
Southern Miss 2-1 2-1 1-1 5-3
TCU 0-5 0-1 1-0 1-6
Tulane 3-2 2-1 0-1 5-4
UAB 1-0 3-1 2-0 6-1

AGAINST CONFERENCES
America East 1-1
ACC 0-1
Atlantic Sun 4-0
Atlantic 10 1-1
Big East 3-2
Big Sky 1-1
Big South 2-0
Big Ten 0-4
Big 12 0-5
Big West 0-1
CAA `0-1
Horizon League 4-1
Independent 2-1
Ivy 1-0
Mid-American 4-2
Mid-Continent 2-0
Mid-Eastern 0-0
Missouri Valley 4-1
Mountain West 3-1
Northeast 3-0
Ohio Valley 7-1
Pac-10 0-4
Southeastern 2-5
Southern 0-0
Southland 3-1
SWAC 2-0
Sun Belt 2-3
WAC 2-1
WCC 2-1
Non Division I 0-0
TOTAL 56-39 (.589)

COACHES RECORDS
Coach School Career
Lisa Marston, CHA 19-20 104-99
Reed Sunahara, CIN 26-13 45-53
Dawn Dockstader, DPU 66-69 66-69
Colleen Farrell, ECU 18-18 18-18
Bill Walton, HOU 323-180 533-235
Leonid Yelin, LOU 120-43 234-79
Laura Farina, MAR 32-38 32-38
Carrie Yerty, MEM 74-99 74-99
Marilyn Nolen, SLU 149-100 768-317-12
Nancy Mueller, USF 47-27 47-27
Santiago Restrepo, USM 5-3 80-35
Sandy Troudt, TCU 51-114 245-275
Betsy Becker, TUL 35-38 113-96
Melinda Claiborne, UAB 12-25 12-25

C-USA NOTEBOOK

CHARLOTTE: Charlotte won the War Eagle Invitational at Auburn, going undefeated for the week with wins over Jacksonville, Syracuse and Auburn. KATHLEEN RAMOS, COURTNEY BURG and ASHLEY FERRIS were all named to the all-tournament squad. They are the second straight all-tourney nods for Ramos and Burg. Ramos' 31 kills against Auburn on Sunday is a career-best and a school record for a four-game match. Charlotte plays at Winthrop Tuesday before heading to Knoxville for the Tennessee Toyota Classic.

CINCINNATI: Cincinnati lost three matches at the Aston Imua Classic in Honolulu. The Bearcats lost to No. 6 USC and No. 10 Hawaii. Junior TRISH LADUSAW is now third on the Cincinnati career digs list with 1,156. BECKY STAHL was named to the all-tournament team. The freshman from Austin, Texas amassed 36 kills and a .218 hitting percentage in the three matches. Cincinnati returns from its 10-day road trip to open the home portion of its season on Tuesday when it hosts (17) Ohio State.

DE PAUL: DePaul ran its record to 6-0 with three victories and the tournament title at the Powerade Panther Invitational in Milwaukee. LARA MARKS was the MVP after hitting .328 with 32 kills in the three matches. She had 14 kills in the Blue Demons' 3-1 victory over Drake.

EAST CAROLINA: East Carolina posted its first win of the season with a 3-2 triumph over Maryland-Baltimore County at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Senior CHRISSY McPHEETERS and junior DESTINEE RICHIE led the Pirates in kills with 14 each, while senior AMANDA RUDOLPH and junior ROBYN DREWES pitched in 10 and 13, respectively. Senior LISA DONOVAN led the Pirate offense with 39 assists.

HOUSTON: After dropping matches to nationally-ranked Kansas State (No. 22) and Washington State (No. 26) at the K-State Wildcat Classic, Houston defeated SEC power Arkansas for third place. It was UH's second-straight win over the Razorbacks dating back to last season. In addition to all-tournament selection JENNIFER WITTENBURG, the Cougars got solid performances from juniors JENNY TANNEBERGER and JANE ANNE KARASEK. Karasek averaged 3.58 kills and 2.29 defensive digs per game while Tannenberger averaged 3.08 kills and 1.08 blocks per game

LOUISVILLE: Louisville upset No. 19 Utah, 3-0 but lost to No. 5 Arizona, 3-0 in Tucson. SONJA PERCAN was named to the all-tournament team after recording 27 kills, six digs and two blocks on the weekend. Louisville hosts Kentucky on Tuesday.

MARQUETTE: MEHGAN DEVINE hit .531 to earn MVP honors and lead MU to its own Marquette Challenge title. Devine is now eighth on the school's all-time list with 821 career kills. As a team, the Golden Eagles hit .374 in the three matches. Marquette also dished out 18 service aces in the final match against Central Michigan.

MEMPHIS: With its second straight tournament title (Kent State Tournament), Memphis is now 7-0 for the first time since 1997. This is also the first time since 1997 that the Tigers have won two regular season tournaments in the same year. AMIE HAMILTON is fourth in school history with 165 service aces, sixth with 1,162 digs and eighth with 1,398 assists.

SAINT LOUIS: Saint Louis competed at the Wisconsin Invitational. Wisconsin, ranked No. 3, was the highest-ranked team the Billikens have ever played in volleyball. COLLEEN HUNTER had a streak of 28 straight matches in double-digit kills end against Northern Iowa. Her last match without at least 10 kills was on Sept. 9, 2000, against Sacramento State.

SOUTH FLORIDA: South Florida competed at the Loyola-Chicago Invitational last week. MICHELLE COLLIER had 28 kills and hit .429 against the host Ramblers. The preseason league Player of the Year was named to the all-tournament team for her efforts.

SOUTHERN MISS: Southern Miss defeated Tennessee-Martin and Samford but lost to Ole Miss and Arkansas State at the Magnolia Invitational in Oxford, Miss. BRYAN OLSSON had 25 digs against the Rebels, while freshman LISA DOWNEY had nine service aces on the week. The loss to Ole Miss snapped USM's four-match winning streak.

TCU: TCU posted its first win of the season with a 3-2 victory over Indiana State at the Mizuno Holiday Inn Classic. ALLISON LYNCH had her first career double-double (18 kills, 11 digs) against the Sycamores. Lynch also had 10 kills and four digs in a loss to Denver.

TULANE: Tulane went 4-1 last week, including 3-1 at its own Kathy Trosclair Invitational. BRITNEY HURST had 17 kills and 15 digs at Jackson State and 11 kills and 14 digs at San Diego State. This is the second straight week that Hurst has earned all-tournament honors.

UAB: UAB has now won five straight matches after capturing the Hurricane Invitational championship in Miami, Fla. KRISTI LEE, SHELLY GREENE and KAREN BOYD were each named to the all-tournament team. Lee led the Blazers in kills in two of the three matches and recorded double-digit kill performances in all three matches.