Alabama
Samford
Alabama Volleyball Travels to Birmingham to Face Samford Tuesday
9/11/2017 2:46:00 PM | Volleyball
THIS WEEK: AT SAMFORD
Alabama (7-2) at Samford (3-7)
Tuesday, Sept. 12 – 7 p.m. CT
Birmingham, Ala. – Pete Hanna Center
SCOUTING ALABAMA
- Alabama is 7-2 this season after going 3-0 at last weekend's Hampton Inn Bama Bash in Tuscaloosa, Ala. There, the Crimson Tide defeated Tennessee State, Hofstra and Furman. The wins pushed Alabama's current win streak to a season-best four matches.
- Senior Leah Lawrence was named the Hampton Inn Bama Bash MVP, finishing the weekend with 40 kills (4.00/set) and a .515 hitting percentage, leading the team in each category all three matches. She capped the weekend with a career-best 18 kills in the four-set win over Furman, hitting .552 with three solo blocks and two block assists.
- Junior Quincey Gary earned her second-straight SEC Defensive Player of the Week award and was named to the Hampton Inn Bama Bash All-Tournament team. Gary led the team in digs in all three matches, finishing the weekend with 57. She had a weekend-best total of 23 against Hofstra, surpassing 20 digs for the third time in her last six matches.
- Freshman Christine Jarman was also named to the Hampton Inn Bama Bash All-Tournament team. Jarman had 25 kills and posted double-digit digs in all three matches, including a double-double against Hofstra with 11 kills and 13 digs.
- Alabama has won 20 of its 21 meetings all-time against Samford, including a five-set victory in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, the Tide's first ever postseason win.
LAST TIME OUT: HAMPTON INN BAMA BASH
- Alabama 3, Tennessee State 0: Alabama volleyball opened action at the Hampton Inn Bama Bash Friday morning with a sweep over Tennessee State. Alabama used a pair of long scoring runs in the opening frame, including eight in a row to close the set, to post a double-digit win over Tennessee State, 25-14. The second and third sets were more tightly-contested with identical scores of 25-20, but the Tide ultimately prevailed to win in straight sets. Lawrence led the offensive effort, hitting .471 with 10 kills. Quincey Gary led the back row defense with 16 digs. Leah Lawrence and Mahalia Swink led the team with eight blocks each, tying a season-high for both players.
- Alabama 3, Hofstra 0: Alabama volleyball closed Friday action at the Hampton Inn Bama Bash with its second sweep of the day. Alabama trailed for the majority of the opening set, before staving off set point from Hofstra to eventually win, 27-25. The momentum carried into the following two sets, which the Tide won by eight points and six points, respectively. For the second-straight match, Lawrence led the Tide offense with 12 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Christine Jarman finished with 11 kills and 13 digs, her third double-double of the season, and Quincey Gary covered plenty of ground on defense with a team-leading 23 digs.
- Alabama 3, Furman 1: After dropping the opening set of Saturday's match, Alabama rallied with three strong set performances to earn the 3-1 comeback victory over Furman. The Tide lost a close opening set to the Paladins by three points but rebounded with three straight wins by progressively larger scores of four, six and 15 points, respectively. Leah Lawrence capped a stellar weekend with another team-leading performance on offense, producing a career-best 18 kills and a .552 hitting percentage with just two errors on 29 swings. Ginger Perinar and Mahalia Swink also earned double-digit kills with 12 and 10, respectively. Meghan Neelon paced the offense with 48 assists and was also strong from the service line with four service aces, the highest total for any Tide player this season. Cidavia Hall also made her Crimson Tide debut, leading the team with six blocks.
GARY EARNS SECOND-STRAIGHT SEC WEEKLY AWARD
For the second-straight week, Alabama volleyball's Quincey Gary earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week, it was announced Tuesday by the Southeastern Conference.
The weekly honor is the second of Gary's career and makes her just the second player in program history to earn multiple Defensive Player of the Week honors in the same season, joining Amy Pauly who did so in 2006 and 2008.
The junior from Alexandria, Ind., was named to the Hampton Inn Bama Bash All-Tournament team last weekend, leading the team in digs in all three matches for a weekend total of 57. She posted a weekend-best 23 digs in the three-set win over the Hofstra Pride on Friday, giving her 20 or more digs in three of her last six matches. She was also strong from the service line, scoring at least one ace in all three matches, including two against the Pride.
CAREER RECORD WATCH
- Senior Leah Lawrence is already among the top 10 at Alabama in career blocks (6th - 361), block assists (6th - 298) and solo blocks (7th - 63). She is 77 blocks away from the school record of 438 held by Shelly Adamcik (1999-02). Lawrence has surpassed 100 blocks in two of her three previous seasons at Alabama, including a personal-best 122 last year.
- Senior Natalie Murison has been a mainstay on the Tide defense over her career in crimson and white, earning 1,344 career digs to place third on the all-time career list at Alabama. She is only 16 shy of tying Lorian Newcomer (1993-95) in second with 1,360 and is 380 away from Amy Pauly's (2005-08) record total of 1,724. Murison has surpassed 400 digs in each of her three previous years, including a personal-best 469 as a sophomore in 2015. She has a career average of 3.22 digs per set, which is seventh all-time at Alabama, and her 417 sets played puts her 32 sets away from cracking the top 10.
FINDING A HOME AT FOSTER
Since moving back into a renovated Foster Auditorium in 2011, Ed Allen's first year as the Tide's head coach, Alabama has compiled a 66-27 (.710) on its home court. Attendance has surged since its move back to Foster Auditorium as well, welcoming over 12,000 fans in five of Allen's six seasons after only surpassing 10,000 once prior to 2011.
UP NEXT
This weekend, Alabama returns to Foster Auditorium for the Crimson-White Tournament. The Tide opens play on Friday, Sept. 15 against Southern at 10 a.m. CT and Murray State at 7:30 p.m. CT before returning on Saturday, Sept. 16 to face Troy at 1 p.m. CT.
