Alabama Volleyball Travels to Miami for FIU Classic
9/5/2013 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sep 5, 2013
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama (2-1/0-0 SEC) continues its season with a trip to the 2013 FIU Classic in Miami, Fla., Friday and Saturday, September 6-7. The Crimson Tide will open the tournament on Friday at 8 a.m. CT, against the Houston Baptist Huskies and then take on the tournament host, the Florida International Panthers, later that day at 2 p.m. CT. The Tide will close the tournament on Saturday, Sept. 7, against the UNC Wilmington Seahawks with first serve scheduled for 11 a.m. CT.
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• Alabama head coach Ed Allen is in his third season with the Crimson Tide and 22nd overall as a head coach. With a 2-1 record this season, Allen has a 31-35 record at The Capstone, bringing his career record to 525-218 (.706). • Krystal Rivers and Katherine White were both named to the Black Knights Invitational All-Tournament Team.
• Redshirt freshman Krystal Rivers led Bama with 36 kills, averaged 3.27 kills per set and hit .475 for the tournament … Rivers also led the Tide with 10 total blocks (7 solo, 3 assisted) and 45.5 points in the tournament … Rivers hit .600 against Army, posting a season-high 15 kills on 20 attempts with three errors.
• Katherine White averaged 2.09 kills per set, had a .333 hitting percentage and added eight blocks (4 solo, 4 assisted) in the three matches.
• True freshman Brittany Thomas averaged 3.00 kills and 2.91 digs per set as she played all six rotations for the Tide in all three matches of the tournament … Thomas led the Tide with 14 kills against Seton Hall, in her first career match with the Tide … Thomas closed out the tournament with a double-double after posting 11 kills and a team-high 13 digs against Army.
• Laura Steiner averaged 2.64 kills per set after finishing the event with 29 total kills.
• After recording a season-high 45 assists against Army, Sierra Wilson averaged 9.73 assists per set for the tournament … with 107 assists in the tournament, Wilson now has 1,400 career assist and ranks 10th all-time at Alabama in assists … Wilson needs 54 more assists to pass Kayla Schmidt for ninth all-time … Wilson notched her eighth career double-double with 45 assists and 10 digs against Army.
• Andrea McQuaid averaged 1.64 kills and 1.91 digs per set in the tournament … in the first match of the year, McQuaid posted her 15th career-double double with 21 assists and 13 digs, also added eight kills against Seton Hall.
• As the starting libero, Caitlin Bernardin led the Tide with 33 digs in the three matches to average 3.00 digs per set.
• Kelsey Melito, Kryssi Daniels and Thomas had two aces each in the tournament.
Following a 3-0 win over Prairie View A&M on Wednesday night, Houston Baptist enters the FIU Classic with a 3-1 record. The Huskies opened the season by winning two of three matches in the Houston Marriott Westchase Classic, posting wins over UT Pan America (3-2) and Louisiana (3-0). The Huskies only loss of the season was a four-set defeat to Nebraska-Omaha. Megan McStravick leads the team with 3.00 kills per set and junior Madeline Gaffney is averaging 2.60 kills per set, while leading the team with 49 kills in four matches. Senior Caiti Wenger is averaging 2.42 kills per set and Jessica Wooten adds 2.38 per frame. Gaffney and freshman Kayla Armer were named to the Houston Marriott Westchase Classic All-Tournament team and Wenger was named the tournament MVP. Head coach Trent Herman heads into his second season at the helm of the Huskies after a 20-11 record in his first season. Friday's match between Alabama and Houston Baptist will mark the first ever meeting between the two schools.
The Florida International Golden Panthers come into the weekend with a record of 1-2. In their last outing, the Panthers swept South Carolina State in the Gamecock Invitational finale. FIU opened the tournament with losses to High Point (2-3) and South Carolina (0-3). FIU is led offensively by junior Ksenia Sukhareva who is averaging 3.36 kills per set through three matches. Sukhareva had 16 kills in the five-set loss to High Point before recording 14 kills in the win over South Carolina State. Ashlee Hodgskin leads the team wtih 7.14 assists per set while Jessica Mendoza is averaging a team-high 2.64 digs per set. Rita Buck-Crockett takes over the reins of the FIU volleyball team in her first season as head coach. Friday's match between Alabama and FIU will mark the 10th meeting all-time between the two schools, and first since 2002 when the Tide posted a 3-0 win over the Panthers. Alabama is 7-2 all-time against FIU.
UNC Wilmington opened the season with three wins in the Kristen Dickmann Invitational hosted by the Naval Academy, defeating Navy (3-1), Elon (3-0) and Illinois-Chicago (3-1). As a team the Seahawks are averaging 12.18 kills per set with a .228 hitting percentage. Christi Laite led the squad in the tournament, recording 44 kills in the three matches to average 4.00 kills per set, while hitting .289 in the tournament. Morgan Kline chipped in with 2.36 kills per set, Courtney Porter averaged 2.09 kills per set and Meredith Peacock chipped in with two kills per set. Setter Victoria Phillips is averaging 10.18 assists per set and Haley Collins leads the team with 4.00 digs per set. Amy Bambenek is in her fifth season as the head coach of the Seahawks and has a 46-77 overall record with the team. Saturday's match between Alabama and UNCW will mark the first ever meeting between the two schools in volleyball.
Alabama will play its first home matches of the 2013 season when it returns to Foster Auditorium to host the Hampton Inn Bama Bash on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13-14. The tournament will feature the Tide, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UT-Martin and Nicholls State. The tournament will consist of nine total matches, with five to be played on Friday and four on Saturday. The tournament gets underway at 9 a.m. CT on Friday with UT-Martin and South Alabama taking the floor. Alabama will play Nicholls State at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, before battling Arkansas State at 7 p.m. later that night. UA will then play South Alabama at 11:30 a.m. and UT-Martin at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
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