Alabama
Jacksonville State
Alabama Volleyball Falls on Final Day of Bama Bash
9/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 5, 2009
Game 1 Stats | Game 2 Stats | Photo Gallery 
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama volleyball squad dropped both matches in the second day of action at the Bama Bash falling 3-1 to both Jacksonville State and McNeese State. The Crimson Tide wrapped up the two-day event with a 1-2 record after downing SMU on the tournament's first day.
Junior Alyssa Meuth, who was named to the Bama Bash all-tournament team, led Alabama with 30 kills on the day including a career-high 18 in the loss to JSU. Sophomore Ashley Frazier added 28 kills for the Tide in the two losses.
"I thought we could have played more inspired and more disciplined today," UA head coach Judy Green said. "We only played with energy in spurts and you can't beat anyone doing that. We also had to use some different lineups and couldn't find any continuity from our starters. We're six games into the season and this team has not played enough volleyball together yet and we've got to get back to practice and work on building that continuity."
In the evening contest against McNeese State, Alabama (2-5) dropped the first two sets 25-23 and 25-17 before rallying back to claim the third set, 25-18. However, McNeese (6-1) proved to be too much, earning the 3-1 win with a 25-21 score in the final set.
Frazier led Alabama against McNeese with 17 kills with Meuth adding 12. The Cowgirls' Chanel Tyler had 18 kills while teammate Sarah Cartie led all players with 45 assists.
Alabama led for much of the first set against McNeese until the Cowgirls closed the set with a 9-3 run, using three Alabama service errors, two kills from Tyler and a pair of Priscilla Massengale aces to take a 1-0 lead. In the second set, Alabama never got closer than five after the opening volleys and trailed by as many as 12 points, allowing McNeese to cruise to a 25-17 victory. The Tide responded by never trailing in the third game and hitting 46.2 as Frazier posted five of her kills in the set.
The fourth set was much tighter until five straight kills from three different Cowgirls and a UA error gave McNeese a four-point, 18-14, advantage that it would maintain for the 25-21 set win to take the match from the Tide.
The Tide fell 3-1 to Jacksonville State in its first game of the day despite Meuth's career-high 18 kills. In the first set, Alabama ran out to a 7-4 lead before JSU went on a 12-4 run with the serving of Brooke Schumacher and Lauren Harkins giving the Gamecocks a 16-11 lead. Four unforced errors by JSU allowed the Tide to tie the game at 23-all, but a pair of kills from Stephanie Koontz gave JSU the first-set win. Koontz finished the game as one of three Gamecocks with 13 kills.
The second set went back-and-forth for the first 22 points until Koontz' serving and a pair of UA errors allowed JSU to take a 16-22 lead. Again, the Tide clawed its way back and tied the game at 21-21 but came up short as JSU took four of the last five points of the set, three of them off of UA errors, to head into intermission with a 2-0 lead. Alabama staved off defeat in the third set despite trailing 15-8 at one point before drawing even with JSU at 22-22. The final points were highly contested with neither team being able to build a two-point lead until a pair of kills from Meuth and the game winner from Ashley Frazier forced a fourth set with the Gamecocks.
However, the Tide wasn't able to maintain the momentum from the third set as it fell behind early again and trailed by as many as seven, 24-17, at match point but three straight kills, two of them from Meuth, pulled UA within four points before Brittney Whitten tacked on her 17th kill of the night for the victory. Setter Brooke Schumacher led all players with 54 assists for the Gamecocks.
Alabama returns to the CAVE September 11 to host the Georgia Bulldogs after next weekend's Hornet Invitational in Sacramento, Calif.
Final Bama Bash Standings
Jacksonville State (2-1)
McNeese State (2-1)
Alabama (1-2)
SMU (1-2)
All-Tournament Team
Kara Slater (JSU) MVP
Stephanie Koontz (JSU)
Brittney Whitten (JSU)
Sarah Cartie (McNeese State)
Chanel Tyler (McNeese State)
Alyssa Meuth (Alabama)
Kendra Kahanek (SMU)
