Oct. 26, 2008

Final Stats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB volleyball team made a little history Sunday afternoon, setting a program record with its 14th consecutive victory.

The Blazers handled UCF, 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-20), at Bartow Arena to reach the 20-win plateau for the third season in a row. UAB improved to 20-3 overall and 10-1 in Conference USA action.

It has been more than a month since UAB last tasted defeat in a Sept. 18 loss to Memphis. The current 14-match streak tops the previous school record of 13, set during the 2006 season.

"That makes for a good headline, but we realize we still have a lot of work ahead of us," UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith said. "We have five more conference matches against good teams. So we celebrated for a moment, but we're thinking about the future rather than what we've done."

What UAB did Sunday was jump on UCF early. Casey Dent recorded a kill for the Blazers on the opening play, and UAB never trailed at any point in the match.

After earning a 25-16 win in the first set, UAB put UCF in an even bigger hole to start set two. Heather Thomas served the first eight points as the Blazers opened up an 8-0 lead on three kills from Ivana Bozic and five UCF errors. UAB continued to roll, opening up its largest lead of the set at 17-2 before the Knights made a late run to cut the final margin to 25-13.

In the third and final set, the Blazers again came out of the gate quickly to lead 5-1. UAB led by as many as 10 points at 18-8 and cruised to a 25-20 win the the final set.

"Overall, I thought our girls were very focused early in each set, but we seemed to lose a little focus down the stretch," Messersmith said. "Our blocking was great. The kids certainly answered that challenge and blocked well today."

UAB totaled 11 blocks as a team, led by Dent with six. The Blazers out-hit UCF .290 to .042 for the match.

Bozic tallied a match-high 13 kills, and Casey Dent joined her in double figures with 11, while posting a .524 attack percentage. Nevena Stefanov handed out a match-best 36 assists, while Thomas led all players with 12 digs.

For UCF (13-12, 5-6 C-USA), Erin Campbell led the Knights with 12 kills, and Lauren Rosenthal notched a team-best 21 assists.

UAB wraps up its six-match homestand next weekend with a pair of C-USA contests. The Blazers host East Carolina for Senior Night on Friday at 7 p.m. On Sunday, Marshall visits Bartow Arena for a 1 p.m. first serve.