Crimson Tide to Host Bama Bash
9/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
TUSCALOOSA ?? The Alabama volleyball team looks for its second tournament title in as many outings this weekend when the team hosts the 2006 Hampton Inn Bama Bash in Tuscaloosa. Ball State, UW-Milwaukee and Mercer make up the remainder of the tournament field.
Alabama will play its first match against Mercer at 12:30 p.m. in the CAVE on Friday. The nightcap will be at 7 p.m. when UA takes on Ball State, a team that beat Alabama in the regular season finale a year ago. The Tide’s final match of the weekend will be on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. when Alabama meets UW-Milwaukee.
“It will be an exciting tourney field again with some different styles of teams than we faced last weekend,” head coach Judy Green said. “Ball State and UWM are well established winning programs who are well coached. Mercer seems to be much improved from a season ago and poised to make a run for the A-Sun title.”
The Tide won its own Academy Sports Invitational last weekend with wins over Kansas and Alabama A&M after an opening night loss to Miami (Fla.).
“I thought we had a solid week of practice and we were able to address some areas that we as a coaching staff thought needed more work after being tested last weekend,” Green said. “I think our blocking continues to improve and our wing defenders made progress too. Now we need to be able to sustain a consistent aggressive level of play as we move through our non-conference schedule.”
Alabama will play its third and final regular season tournament of the 2006 campaign next weekend when the Tide travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa to compete in the Northern Iowa Invitational along with nationally-ranked programs from Kansas State and Notre Dame.
