Volleyball Set for Final Road Trip of the Season
11/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 11, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The volleyball team (10-15, 2-13 SEC) will travel to take on South Carolina (5-20, 2-13 SEC) and No. 1 Florida (22-1, 15-0 SEC) this weekend for the Crimson Tide's final road trip of the season. The match against the Gamecocks is slated to begin at 6 p.m. CT on Friday, Nov. 12, while Sunday's match against the top-ranked Gators will begin at noon CT on Sunday, Nov. 14.
"Until Sunday, I would say our best performance in the conference was when we played Florida at home," Alabama head coach Judy Green said. "We played extremely well. They are a very good volleyball team. We followed that match up with a win over South Carolina. We are both fighting to get ourselves out of the bottom of the conference. We know we will get their best and need to not overlook any opportunities. This should be a fun trip for us, and we are looking forward to getting back out there any playing."
Last weekend, Alabama split a pair of home matches, losing to No. 22 Tennessee 3-0 before climbing out of a two-set hole to win Sunday's match against Kentucky 3-2. Against the Lady Volunteers, the Tide had two players record double-digit kills with sophomore Kayla Fitterer leading the team with 11 and senior Alyssa Meuth adding 10 more. Senior Mary Catherine Aune recorded a season-high 14 digs, while junior Stephanie Riley and senior Kayla Schmidt combined for 28 assists in the contest. On Sunday against the Wildcats, Fitterer set career-high marks for kills (34) and digs (24). Her 34 kills are the highest mark by any player in the SEC this season. Meuth (11) and freshman Brianne Vande Griend (10) joined Fitterer in double-digit kills, and Schmidt recorded a double-double with 32 assists and 17 digs.
Over the weekend, South Carolina fell 3-0 to both the Auburn Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs. Freshman Juliette Thevenin leads the Gamecocks with 3.60 kills per set and has collected 277 kills so far this season. Sophomore Taylor Bruns ranks seventh in the conference in assists with 7.36 assists per set. Alabama won the first match against South Carolina this season, 3-0, on Oct. 10, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and leads the overall series 21-15.
Florida traveled to Athens, Ga., on Friday and swept Georgia, 3-0, before escaping Auburn with a 3-2 victory on Sunday. In Friday's match against the Bulldogs, the Gators collected 13 team blocks as they cruised to the win. On Sunday, blocks again helped lead the team to victory as they tallied 17 total team blocks, while senior Callie Rivers had a season-high 15 kills in the five-set match. Three Gators rank in the top-10 in the conference in hitting percentage this season with junior Kelly Murphy at No. 5 (.372), senior Lauren Bledsoe at No. 6 (.368) and junior Cassandra Anderson at No. 7 (.356). Florida is either first or second in the conference in several categories including hitting percentage (second, .286), opponent hitting percentage (second, .166), blocks (first, 2.76 per set) and service aces (first, 1.68 per set). Florida won the first contest against Alabama this year, 3-0, on Oct. 8, in a match that was decided by only 11 points. The Gators lead the series with the Tide 33-5.
