Oct. 23, 2006

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - For the second time this year, Memphis setter Laura Côté was named Conference USA's Setter of the Week, the Conference office announced Monday afternoon. Côté guided Memphis to conference wins against UCF and Southern Miss over the weekend as the Tigers improved to 21-4 overall and 7-3 in C-USA.

Côté led the Memphis offense to a pair of dominating performances against UCF and Southern Miss as the Tigers extended their home win streak to 13-straight matches. For the week, the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native hit .231 with 10 kills, 12 digs, five blocks and 84 assists. She led the Memphis offense to .329 hitting clip in the two wins and averaged 14.00 assists per game. Under Côté's leadership, Memphis posted 35 more kills than the opposition. The sophomore got the week started by handing out a match-high 37 assists and leading the Tiger offense to a 50-30 advantage in the kills department en route to a sweep of UCF. Côté then led Memphis to its fifth-straight win with 47 assists and eight digs on Sunday. In addition, she hit .400 with four kills and no errors on 10 swings.

The honor is the fourth in Côté's career. She garnered Setter of the Week accolades twice in 2005, and was honored for the third time in her career on August 28 after leading Memphis to the Evansville Aces Invitational title in the opening weekend of the season.

"Laura is doing a great job running our offense," said head coach Carrie Yerty. "She has done a good job keeping all of our attackers involved in the offense."

Côté is currently ranked second in the league in assists. She is just the third Memphis setter ever to post over 1,000 assists in multiple seasons. Her 2,609 career assists ranks sixth all-time at Memphis.

At 21-4 Memphis holds C-USA's highest winning percentage. The Tigers, who are ranked third in C-USA standings, are off to the program's second-best 25-match start ever. Only the 2003 team that went 30-6 got off to a better start through 25 matches, going 23-2. Memphis has now eclipsed 20 wins in three of the last four years.

The Tigers will take their five-match win streak on the road for the next three matches, beginning with a contest at Ole Miss, Tuesday evening. First serve is set for 7 p.m.