Sept. 18, 2008

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -

Memphis (8-3)     25  25  14  25
UAB (6-3)         22  15  25  17

Memphis 3, UAB 1

Sophomore middle blocker Emily Underwood hammered 12 kills and made a match-high eight blocks to lead Memphis to a 3-1 road win over UAB in the Conference USA opener for both clubs on Thursday evening. The victory was the Tiger's first at UAB since the 2004 season.

"Tonight we had a good performance from Emily Underwood, who showed that she's one of the top blockers in the conference," said first-year head coach April Jauregui. "Christine Bach had a great match, as did Becky Shaffer. We stuck with our game plan and knew that if we served aggressive we would have a chance to win the match."

Underwood's solid all-around performance was supplemented offensively by stout outings from setter Laura Côté, Katlin Inglish and Rebekah Strickland. Côté set a match-high 46 assists, while Strickland and Inglish downed 14 and 12 kills, respectively. Strickland added five stuff blocks.

Sophomore libero Christine Bach led all players with 24 digs, while back row teammate Becky Shaffer picked up 18 digs.

The Tigers raced out to a commanding 2-0 lead after strong offensive performances in the first two sets. They hit .333 in the opener and .341 in set two.

A service ace by Bach broke a 4-4 tie and ignited a three-point push the put the Tigers up 7-4. From there it was all Memphis. With a 13-10 advantage, Strickland sandwiched two of her six first set kills around a termination by Underwood and Bach served up another ace to take control 17-10. UAB chipped away at the U of M cushion with a 7-2 rally the made it a two-point contest at 23-21. But Memphis got a much-needed kill from Lauren Thompson and Strickland connected with a kill to end the set, 25-22.

Set two saw Memphis hold the Blazers to just .086 hitting. The Tigers got out to a fast start and a termination by Underwood made it 9-4. They maintained the four-point advantage until getting a kill by Underwood, two consecutive strikes from Thompson and another by Casey Sines to make it 17-9. Memphis led by as many as nine points before finishing off the set with its largest lead, 25-15.

UAB reversed the fortunes in game three and force a fourth set by limiting Memphis to a lowly .086 average. The Blazers took a 12-8 lead on assisted blocks and used a 6-1 rally to put the period out of reach.

Memphis ended all thoughts of a fifth set early in the final frame after racing out to leads of 4-0 and 8-1. Underwood powered a five-point run with three kills and a block to give the Tigers a 13-3 cushion. Despite a UAB push that trimmed the U of M lead to 17-14, the victory was in sight. Memphis went on the score the next six points to finish the match with a 25-17 win.

Memphis will now prepare for the UAB/Samford Invitational this weekend. The Tigers will face co-host Samford tomorrow at 1 p.m.