Oct. 11, 2006

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Memphis volleyball will experience on Friday in its Conference USA battle against Tulsa, as the Tigers' matchup with the Golden Hurricane will be televised on CSTV as one of five C-USA matches to be aired this year. First serve for the match contest is set for 7 p.m. at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. Jason Knapp and Anne Marie Anderson will call the play-by-play action. The match will be aired on CSTV on Sun., Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.

The contest pits the league's top two attacking teams against one another. Memphis, who hits .285, leads the league in hitting percentage, followed by Tulsa at .253. The Golden Hurricane leads the league in assists, kills and opponents hitting percentage. The contest will showcase 11 players that are ranked in the top-10 in C-USA statistics.

Picked to finish eighth in the league's preseason poll, Memphis enters the weekend with a 3-3 mark. The Tigers snapped a two-match losing streak and extended its home win streak to nine matches with a sweep of Belmont on Tuesday. Head coach Carrie Yerty captured her 200th career coaching victory as the Tigers improved to 17-4 on the year--eclipsing the program's win total from 2005. The U of M dropped each of its last two conference matches, 3-1 at Marshall and East Carolina. Despite defeating both teams in the majority of the statistical categories, the Tigers served up a combined 32 service errors to thwart their efforts.

Memphis ranks seventh nationally in service aces and 15th in hitting percentage. Shelby Burton leads the Tigers and C-USA, ranking 10th in the country with a .430 attacking clip. She also ranks 25th nationally in service aces. Burton's team-high 310 kills is followed by 251 kills from Sarah Bury. Bury is also second on the team with 189 digs. Junior Ashley Liford is the Tiger's third option and has downed 221 balls. Liford is just 108 kills shy of 1,000 career kills. Setter Laura Côté ranks 30th in the country in assists. Libero Christen Clayton leads Memphis and ranks third in C-USA with 377 defensive digs. Burton leads the squad with 91 blocks, while Côté is second with 50 rejects.

Tulsa, who was picked to finish fourth in the C-USA preseason poll, sits atop the league standings with 19-4 overall mark and 6-1 record in league play. The Golden Hurricane opened C-USA action with six-straight wins before being knocked off by Tulane on Sunday. TU has downed nearly 300 more kills than its opponents this year, including a plus-four clip in kills per game.

Tulsa is led by junior preseason All-C-USA selection Kassiana Urnau, who has put up 14 double-doubles and leads the team with 318 kills (4.08 kpg). In addition, the outside hitter leads the squad and ranks sixth in the league in service aces, while posting 4.72 points per game. Germana Hilario is second on the team with 277 kills (3.64 kpg). The offense is run by Julia Silva, who is fourth in C-USA in overall assist and leads the league in assists in conference matches. Silva is a three-time C-USA Setter of the Week selection this year.

Memphis leads the all-time series 7-2. Despite 17 kills from Burton and 23 digs from Clayton, Memphis was unable to hold off a 10-1 run by Tulsa in the deciding game of last year's match, as the Golden Hurricane sealed a 3-2 win with a 15-9 game-five triumph. Prior to last year's match, the Tigers had won five-straight against Tulsa.

Friday's match will not be the first time Memphis has welcomed a league front-runner into the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. The Tigers handed Marshall its first and only league loss last season when the Thundering Herd brought its 5-0 league mark to Memphis.