Oct. 28, 2007

Box Score

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - UAB went five games with Southern Miss for the second time this season on Sunday in Hattiesburg and for the second time the Blazers came out on top, beating the Golden Eagles, 3-2 (24-30, 30-20, 30-14, 34-36, 15-12). Sophomore Andrea Lalic set a career-high with 14 kills to help the Blazers improve to 19-7 (9-3 C-USA).

"Andrea came in and did a great job today," said UAB head coach Kerry Messersmith. "She got a lot of swings today and got the job done for us, I'm really happy with her confidence out there today."

The Blazers are now within just one win of turning in their first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 1992-93. The win also improves the team to 6-0 in five-game matches this season.

Five Blazers finished in double-figures in kills with senior Fernanda Domingos leading the way with 22. Junior Casey Dent had 13 kills, while junior Lilly Domingos had 13 kills to go along with a team-high seven total blocks.

"I give credit to Southern Miss, they came out with a lot of fire and were ready to go," Messersmith said. "We were making error after error there for awhile so I wasn't pleased with the mistakes, but I was happy with how well we spread the ball around"

Junior Aleksandra Vujovic finished with 10 kills en route to recording her sixth double-double of the season.

On the defensive end, senior Brianna Galvin led the Blazers with a match-high 23 digs, which moves her to within eight digs of moving up to second all-time at UAB in career digs. Sophomore Haylee Adkins was active on the defensive end as well, finishing with 14 digs.

"Brianna had a really nice match in both passing and defense," Messersmith said.

Junior Nevena Stefanov posted her seventh double-double of the season with 60 assists and 11 digs.

Southern Miss, which falls to 10-18 (1-11 C-USA), was led by Ashley Petrinec who finished with 17 kills and 15 digs. Morgan Johnson had 11 kills and eight total blocks.

After losing the opening game of the match, 30-24, UAB came back to run away with games two and three, 30-20 and 30-14, respectively.

UAB led 15-11 early in game four and seemed to be pulling away with the fourth frame, however a 5-0 Southern Miss run gave the Golden Eagles a 25-22 advantage. UAB then came back to earn a game point on a Vujovic kill, 30-29.

Southern Miss fought off the game point to stay alive in the match and went on to erase a total of four game points and sneak out a 36-34 victory on a service ace by Mari Ruddick to force a fifth game.

The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 6-2 lead in game five, only to have the Blazers come back and tie the game, 9-9, on an attack error by Johnson.

Still tied at 12-12, an attack error on Southern Miss gave the Blazers a one-point edge and then Fernanda stepped to the service line and landed back-to-back service aces to close out the 15-12 game five victory for the Blazers.

UAB will travel to play Tulsa on Friday at 7:00 p.m.