Crimson Tide Concludes Spring Volleyball Action
3/31/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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TUSCALOOSA – The University of Alabama volleyball team completed play in their spring scrimmage season this past weekend with a home tournament. The Tide earned two victories in three matches on Saturday and posted an impressive 6-3 record in games played.
The Crimson Tide hosted a day-long tournament that featured three game matches for the six teams involved in the event. The first two games of each match were played to 30 with game three being a 15-point affair. UA faced Memphis, Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi. Mississippi State and UAB rounded out the list of tournament participants.
Alabama started the day with a 3-0 sweep of Memphis capturing the match by the counts of 30-22, 30-25 and 15-6. Erin Heffner paced the Tide offense in the match recording 12 kills and an ace. Kory Tull was one kill shy of a double-double posting nine kills and a team-high 10 digs. A healthy Kenna Milner tallied 24 assists and six digs in the victory.
In the match against Ole Miss, the Tide took the first two games (30-20, 31-29) before dropping the final game (11-15). Heffner again led the Bama offense finishing with 15 kills. The two-time All-SEC outside hitter also recorded two blocks, two aces and seven digs against the Lady Rebels. Jennifer Bibber added nine kills and six digs for UA while freshman Kelley Potter chipped in five kills and team-best nine digs. Milner handed out 38 assists in the contest.
UA met Southern Mississippi in the day’s final match with USM earning a hard-fought 2-1 victory. The Golden Eagles captured the first two games (32-30, 30-27) but lost the final game 15-9 to the Tide. Junior Erin Price was the standout for Alabama against USM posting 15 kills, two blocks and seven digs. Heffner finished the event with her third straight double-digit kill performance tallying 13. She also recorded 14 digs to lead the team and earn a double-double in the match.
“This is without question our best spring season in terms of improvement and performance since I came to Alabama,” said seventh-year head coach Judy Green. “We set goals to improve our ball control and our overall consistency and we really did those things well this spring. I believe that we played a challenging spring schedule in terms of competition and I like the way we sustained a very high level of play throughout the spring. My staff and I are thrilled with our strong and steady play this spring season.”
The Crimson Tide will now spend the next several months working out on their own before returning to campus in August to begin pre-season workouts for the 2003 season. Alabama opens the 2003 campaign at the Georgia Tech Invitational on Aug. 29-30 in Atlanta. Bama will be in search of its fifth consecutive winning season.
