Volleyball Hosts Annual Bama Bash this Weekend
9/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The volleyball team will continue its season this week at home as it hosts the Bama Bash Sept. 3-4. Friday, the Crimson Tide will face Toledo at 12 p.m. CT and Furman at 7 p.m. CT. Alabama will close out the tournament on Saturday with UAB at 1 p.m. CT.
"We have got some great competition coming to Tuscaloosa this weekend," Alabama head coach Judy Green said. "We are going to face Toledo right off the bat, and they just knocked off Michigan that is ranked in the top 15 in the country. The one thing our players sometimes don't always understand is that we really try to put our schedule together to help us going towards our conference play and give us a chance to potentially make the postseason. Furman is a very good team. They've won their conference championship and been to the NCAA tournament as well, and UAB is an in-state rival."
The Tide opened its 2010 season at the Hawkeye Challenge last weekend where it went 1-2. Alabama kicked off the tournament on Friday with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-14, 29-27, 25-19) loss to host-institution Iowa. The Tide bounced back on Saturday with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-8, 25-13) sweep of Green Bay before dropping a close three-setter to Southern Illinois on Sunday by scores of 26-24, 25-19, 25-23.
Alabama and Toledo have met twice in the past in the series that began in 1990. The Tide fell to the Rockets in the first meeting but won 3-1 in the most recent match in 2005. Toledo comes to Tuscaloosa undefeated at 3-0 with its latest win coming over then-No. 12 Michigan.
This will be the second match between Alabama and Furman, with the Tide winning 3-0 at its last meeting in 1999. The Paladins are 1-2 heading into the tournament with their lone win coming over Presbyterian.
Alabama is 18-11 in previous meetings with UAB, with the last match between the schools resulting in a 3-2 loss for the Tide. The Blazers are 1-2 coming off of a win over Alabama A&M.
"Enough can't be said for how much we want to defend our home court, and the past couple of years we have not done that very well here," Green said. "Come Friday at noon we are going to do a better job of that, and we are going to make sure that everybody knows when they come into the CAVE they are going to have to fight."
