Oct. 1, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Tulane held onto its first-place position in Conference USA volleyball standings and its flawless league record, 5-0, with straight-set wins over SMU and Tulsa last weekend. Sara Radosevic leads the Green Wave with a 4.26 kills per game average. She had her ninth double-double of the season when she landed 18 kills and had 10 digs against SMU Sunday.

Marshall, who sits in second-place at 4-0, picked up a pair of 3-0 road victories at Southern Miss and UCF. The Herd is lead by senior outside hitter and two-time C-USA Player of the Year Kelly-Anne Billingy.

Billingy ranks second in the league with 5.20 kills per game and seventh in hitting percentage with a .343 clip.

Rice upset Houston , 3-2, on Thursday, while Southern Miss took a five-game thriller from East Carolina for its first league win of the season Sunday.

CSTV MATCH: UAB 3, MEMPHIS 0
Hosting its first-ever nationally televised match in Bartow Arena Sunday afternoon, the UAB volleyball team avenged an early season loss to Memphis by shutting out the Tigers, 3-0 (30-20, 30-19, 30-20), in front of a raucous crowd. The Blazers improve to 11-6 (2-2 C-USA) with the win, while Memphis is now 12-7 (2-2 C-USA).

The match will be aired on tape-delay Tuesday at 7 p.m. on CSTV. Junior setter Nevena Stefanov stole the show in a matchup of two of the top setters in Conference USA. The Serbian finished with 41 assists, eight digs and five total blocks, while helping the Blazers hit .333 for the match, including a remarkable .545 hitting display in game three. Junior outside hitter Ivana Bozic paved the way with 18 kills on .378 hitting to go along with 12 digs and four block assists. The double-double was her 10th of the season.

Junior middle blocker Casey Dent finished with 12 kills on .500 hitting to go along with seven digs and three block assists. Senior middle blocker Shaniquwa Cooper led the Blazers with seven total blocks. UAB finished with 11 total blocks for the match.

Memphis was led by Ashley Liford and her 12 kills and eight digs. Tiger setter Laura Cote finished with 25 assists in a match Memphis hit just .016.

UAB jumped out front of Memphis early in game one, taking a 6-2 lead on a kill by Stefanov and then extending the advantage to 10-4 following three straight attack errors on Memphis' Shelby Burton.

A Bozic kill later made it 22-11 and then a Cooper kill closed out the opening game, 30-20.

The Blazers again took an early lead in game two as another Bozic kill gave UAB a 7-2 edge. UAB went on to take a 20-10 lead after three straight Memphis attack errors and then close out the frame, 30-19, on a kill by Bozic.

Game three may have been the most impressive game the Blazers played all day. After things remained close early on, UAB pulled away to take a 20-11 lead on a kill by Bozic before eventually closing out the game, 30-20, after an ace by Stefanov, followed by an error on Memphis.

WEEKEND ROUND-UP

EAST CAROLINA
East Carolina (11-8, 2-2 C-USA) went 1-1 with a sweep of UCF and a five-game loss at Southern Miss. Freshman Katie Koop notched a career-best 62 assists and knotted her fifth double-double of the year with 11 digs. Senior Kelley Wernert led the offense with 24 kills and completing a double-double with 15 digs. Sophomore Stephanie Turner also turned in a double-double, putting down 13 kills while adding a career-high 24 digs. ECU will play hosts to West division foes UTEP and Tulane this weekend.

HOUSTON
Houston (8-7, 3-1 C-USA) fell to Rice Thursday night at Fox Gym in five games, its fourth five-game match of the season. The Cougars are 3-1 in five-game matches. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for UH. Junior Justine Farmer led the way with 28 kills and 20 digs for her 10th double-double this season. Freshman Hannah Sullivan added 20 kills and 17 digs for her third double-double. The Cougars will continue conference play Friday at SMU and Sunday at Tulsa.

MARSHALL
Marshall (11-7, 4-0 C-USA) senior OH Kelly-Anne Billingy tallied a match-high 16 kills to help lift the Herd to a 3-0 sweep of UCF Sunday. Freshman setter Elizabeth Fleming tallied 29 assists and Kristin Marcum tallied a team-high 11 digs. Marshall extended its winning-streak to five matches. The Herd continues C-USA action with a five-match home-stand starting Friday against Tulane at the Cam Henderson Center.

MEMPHIS
Just 17 days after sweeping UAB in convincing fashion in Memphis, the Tigers were handed a 3-0 loss by the Blazers, who held them to just 59 scoring serves Sunday. Of the 10 offensive players for Memphis, three hit for a positive percentage. Ashley Liford led that group with a .150 clip. She was joined by Emily Underwood, who had two kills on four swings, and Laura Côté's .111 average. Côté dished out 25 assists. Christine Bach had 11 digs to lead Memphis' defense. Memphis (12-7, 2-2 C-USA), who dropped its third-straight match Sunday, returns to action on Tuesday when they wrap up the current three-match road trip against Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark.

RICE
Rice (8-8, 3-1 C-USA) picked-up a five-game thriller over city-rival Houston Thursday at Fox Gym. With the win, the Owls avenged a 3-0 loss to the Cougars on Sept. 13 and ties the teams in the league standings for third-place. Sophomore Natalie Bogan led the balanced attack with 14 kills. Sophomore Jennifer McClean was next with 12 kills and freshman Caroline Gill added 10. Leading the back court defense was freshman Tracey Lam who had a career-high 26 digs. Rice travels to SMU and Tulsa this weekend.

SMU
SMU (11-7, 1-3 C-USA) picked up a 3-1 win over UTEP Friday before suffered a 3-0 loss to league-leader Tulane Sunday. Candice Davis set a new career-high in digs for a four-game effort with 30 against the Miners. Davis averaged 6.71 dpg last week. Three Mustangs notched double-doubles in the match. Junior S Stefanie Kons recorded 50 assists and 15 digs (one kill shy of a triple-double), while senior Caitlin Rainbird tallied 15 kills, 16 digs and freshman Kathryn Wilkerson added another 12 kills and 18 digs. SMU plays host to Rice and Houston this weekend.

SOUTHERN MISS
Southern Miss (10-10, 1-3 C-USA) recorded its first conference win of the season with a 3-2 victory over East Carolina Sunday. The win also snapped a five-match losing streak against the Pirates. The 3-2 win was the Eagles first five-game match of the year. Six players recorded double-digit digs in that match. Setter Jillian Neave averaged 11.88 APG and recorded two double-doubles (assist/digs) last week. Southern Miss travels to Memphis and UAB for a weekend series, Oct. 5 and Oct. 7.

TULANE
Tulane swept SMU Sunday to remain unbeaten in C-USA action behind an 18 kill performance from junior OH Sara Radosevic. Radosevic added 10 digs for her ninth double-double of the season. Junior MB Lauren Boatwright added seven kills and five blocks. In her last four matches, Boatwright has 24 kills, hitting .419 with 14 blocks. Sophomore OH Ksenija Vlaskovic turned in a 15-kill, 12-dig effort as Tulane matches its win total from last season with 15. The Green Wave finished 15-11 overall in 2006 and now sits at 15-3 overall, 5-0 in C-USA. Tulane travels to Marshall Friday for a 6 p.m. CT match and top honors in C-USA standings.

TULSA
Tulsa (14-5, 2-2 C-USA) ended a two-game losing streak Sunday with a 3-0 victory at UTEP. Freshman Emma Ridley led the Hurricane attack with a season-high 18 kills, while seniors Fabiola Nepomuceno and Julia Silva contributed 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Silva posted her 16th double-double of the season with 39 assists as well. Junior Malorey Grove led TU with 17 digs, while freshman Nicole Boyle added 16 digs as well. Tulsa returns home Friday against Houston and Sunday versus Rice.

UAB
Casey Dent averaged a team-best 3.75 KPG per game on .426 hitting to help UAB (11-6, 2-2 C-USA) to a 2-0 record last week. Dent had 18 kills on .375 hitting against Mercer Tuesday before going for 12 kills on .500 hitting in the teams shutout victory against Memphis on Sunday. Setter Nevena Stefanov averaged 14.75 APG to go along with 2.88 DPG. Her 77 assists at Mercer were the sixth-highest single-match assist total in C-USA history. UAB will host UCF and Southern Miss Friday and Sunday, respectively.

UCF
UCF's OH Erin Campbell recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs despite the Knights dropping a 3-0 match to C-USA foe Marshall Sunday at the new UCF Arena. Campbell registered six of her 10 kills in the opening game. Sophomore S Andrea Youngblood registered 29 assists, seven digs and three kills in the match. The Knights (8-10, 0-4 C-USA) return to action Friday at UAB and Sunday at Memphis.

UTEP
Junior L Elsa Reyes posted 13 digs to total 1,001 for her career in UTEP's 3-0 loss to Tulsa on Sunday at Memorial Gym. Reyes needs 112 digs to add her name to the school's all-time career digs chart (1,113). Sophomore OH Amy Sanders slammed a team-high 23 kills in the 3-1 loss to SMU Friday, her third 20-plus match of the season. UTEP (6-10, 0-5 C-USA) hits the road for two weeks to play East Carolina and Marshall on Friday and Sunday then head to Houston, Texas, for a two-match series against Rice and Houston on Oct. 12 and 14, respectively.