Nov. 8, 2007
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -
With just two regular season matches remaining a top-four seed and first-round bye is still in sight for Head Coach Carrie Yerty and the University of Memphis volleyball team. The Tigers will host East Carolina and Marshall this weekend in effort to earn a top-four finish. Memphis will take on the ECU at 7 p.m. on Friday, before facing the league's top team Marshall in the regular season finale at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Memphis Volleyball will recognize it seniors in a Senior Day ceremony prior to Sunday's match.
Winners of five of its last six league matches, Memphis comes into the weekend with a 21-10 overall mark and a 10-4 record in C-USA play. The Tigers dropped a four-game contest to Tulsa in its last match to fall from a tie for third down to fifth in the league standings. With 10 wins, Memphis can fall no lower than fifth, but with a pair of wins (and some help), can catapult into a first-round bye.
Memphis is paced by seniors
Ashley Liford and
Shelby Burton. The San Antonio natives rank fourth and seventh, respectively on the UofM's all-time kills list. Offensively, the duo is one and two for the Tigers'. Liford leads the way with 443 kills, while Burton hits a team-high .387, and leads the team with 35 aces and 162 blocks. Burton's block totals rank third on Memphis single-season ledger. She has 478 career blocks--third all-time at Memphis. Junior
Sarah Bury has been a sizeable compliment to the senior duo, checking in with 364 kills. Bury has pounded over 800 career kills. Junior
Laura Cote ranks second in the league with 1,450 assists, one assist shy of her freshman total in 2005 and eighth on the Tigers' single season list.
Reigning Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week Christine Bach anchor the Tigers back line. The German native ranks in the top-10 in C-USA in digs after setting a new program record with 35 digs in a four-game win at SMU last week. A natural setter, Bach had picked up 442 digs this year. With at least three matches to go, she will land her name in the Memphis record books for one of the top three best defensive seasons in Tiger volleyball history.
East Carolina enters the weekend with a 6-8 league mark that places the Pirates seventh in the league standing. ECU has won three straight to improve to 15-14 on the year. They are led by senior Kelly Wernert. Wernert has hammered 565 kills and ranks 14th nationally with 5.09 kills per game. She ranks second in C-USA in kills and points. She has eclipsed the 30-kill plateau twice this year, including a 30-kill night vs. Memphis in Greenville, N.C. on Oct. 12. Freshman Katie Koop is one of the league's top four setters, dishing out 11.86 assists per game.
Memphis leads the all-time series 8-3, after taking a five-game thriller from the Pirates back in early October.
Marshall sits atop the league's standing at 13-1. The Herd is 20-8 overall. The boast perhaps the conferences best outside hitting duo in Kelly-Anne Billingy and Stephanie Cahill. Billingy is ranked 12th in the country with 5.08 kills per game. Cahill ranks sixth in the league in service aces. Freshman setter Elizabeth Fleming leads all league setters and ranks 22 in the nation with 12.87 assists per game.
Memphis is 1-4 all-time against Marshall after being swept in the 2006 season series and letting a 2-0 lead slip away in the Oct. 14, 2007 meeting between the two schools.
