Nov. 18, 2002

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - When the University of Memphis volleyball team (19-14, 4-9 C-USA) gathers for practice Monday afternoon in preparation for the Conference USA Championship Tournament, the Tigers will begin preparations to face No. 6 seeded Charlotte (17-14, 7-6 C-USA). The Tigers are seeded 11th out of the 12 participating teams at the tournament and will face the 49ers at 3 p.m., Friday, in first round action. Of the 14 C-USA teams, host DePaul and East Carolina did not qualify for the league tournament.

The Tigers will be looking for another successful outing against the 49ers, after downing Charlotte 3-2 in the Fieldhouse just two weeks ago. In that match, four Tigers tallied double-digit kills, led by 19 from junior Brittany Barnett (Dallas, Texas/Lake Highlands). Barnett is already emerging as one of the Tigers' best-ever offensive players, with her 509 kills so far this season already ranking her third in single season history. Barnett picked up her 800th career kill at Southern Mississippi, and has already surpassed the 800-career dig mark. Her 1,302 total attacks for this season is also third in school history.

"In order to beat Charlotte, we're going to have to stop their middles and get our middles and our right sides more incorporated into our offense than we did last weekend," Yerty said. Against Charlotte in the first meeting, the Tiger middle hitters combined for 17 kills and seven total blocks.

Sophomore Tiara Gilkey (St. Louis, Mo./Pattonsville) also downed 15 kills in the previous meeting against Charlotte. Gilkey, who is second on the team with 407 kills, is just 20 kills shy of also posting a single season mark that ranks in the top 10 in single season school history. Memphis has not had two players post single season top 10 kill outings since Becky Tigert and Shoni Hodges both posted top 10 single season marks in 1997.

In the first meeting with Charlotte, the Tigers keyed on stopping the middles early, allowing 49er freshman Abbey Szlanfucht to put up 17 kills while fellow outside Courtney Burg led all players with 22 kills. But as the Tiger blocking game shifted to slow down the 49er outsides, they opened the door for middle Lisa Newell to step up with 13 kills and seven total blocks, while Jessica Kelly added six kills and two block assists.

In that last game against Charlotte, the Tigers got some help off the bench when freshman outside Nan Kimbrell stepped in and downed 12 kills, her second-best offensive career outing as a Tiger. Memphis will be looking for contributions from everyone again in hopes of advancing to the second round of the tournament to face No. 3 seeded Cincinnati.

"I think the team is confident that we can beat Charlotte again, but we'll have to have everyone ready to play their best game and be ready to contribute wherever we ask them to," Yerty said.

If the Tiger offense has to be on its top game, so will the Tiger defense. Charlotte hit .162 in the last meeting, but hit a game-high .333 when they downed 20 kills on 42 attacks with just six errors. Charlotte had 42 attacks in the second, third and fourth games, and had 36 in game one. A pair of Tigers kept the attacks from converting to kills as freshman libero Lauren Berg (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) and sophomore setter Heather Watts (Salt Lake City, Utah/Skyline) each had 20 or more digs in the win. Berg had 21 digs, while Watts added 20 digs and led the team with 51 assists.

Memphis advanced to the league tournament last year, defeating Tulane, 3-0, before being eliminated by top-seeded Cincinnati, 3-0, in the second round.