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Alabama Volleyball Hosts Crimson-White Tournament This Weekend in Tuscaloosa
9/14/2017 11:40:00 AM | Volleyball
THIS WEEK: CRIMSON-WHITE TOURNAMENT
Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Foster Auditorium
Friday, Sept. 15
- vs. Southern (0-7) – 10 a.m. CT
- vs. Murray State (6-3) – 7:30 p.m. CT
Sunday, Sept. 16
- vs. Troy (4-7) – 1 p.m. CT
SCOUTING ALABAMA (8-2)
- Alabama is 8-2 this season and is on a five-match winning streak following a 3-1 decision over Samford Tuesday night in Birmingham, Ala. Prior to Tuesday's win, the current streak started with a five-set victory over McNeese State on Sept. 8 and continued with three-set sweeps over Tennessee State and Hofstra and a four-set win over Furman at last weekend's Hampton Inn Bama Bash.
- As a team, Alabama is ranked third in the SEC in opponent hitting percentage (.152), service aces (53, 1.43/set) and digs (609, 16.46/set) and is fifth in the league in blocks (93, 2.51/set). Individually, Quincey Gary is second in the league in digs (177, 4.78/set), Leah Lawrence is fifth in in hitting percentage (.386) and 10th in blocks (38, 1.03/set) and Meghan Neelon is sixth in assists (364, 9.84/set) and seventh in aces (14, 0.38/set).
- This weekend concludes the pre-conference portion of the schedule, with the Crimson Tide opening SEC play on the road next weekend. With an 8-2 record so far, Alabama is now 65-21 (.756) under head coach Ed Allen in the preseason portion of the schedule. The Tide has lost two or fewer matches in preseason play in four of Allen's previous six seasons in Tuscaloosa.
- Junior Quincey Gary earned her second-straight SEC Defensive Player of the Week award on Monday. Gary led the team in digs in all three matches at the Hampton Inn Bama Bash, finishing the weekend with 57. She had a weekend-best total of 23 against Hofstra and, following another 23-dig performance against Samford on Tuesday, has now surpassed 20 digs in four of her last seven matches.
- Senior Leah Lawrence was named the Hampton Inn Bama Bash MVP last weekend, finishing 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. On Tuesday, she was tied for the team lead with 11 kills against Samford, hitting .391 in the match.
LAST TIME OUT: ALABAMA DEFEATS SAMFORD, 3-1 IN TUESDAY ROAD TILT
After falling in the opening set, Alabama battled to a close victory in set two before scoring a pair of convincing set victories to defeat Samford Tuesday night, 3-1, by scores of 23-25, 26-24, 25-12 and 25-15.
Alabama fell by two points in the opening set to Samford before evening the match with a two-point victory in the second set. After intermission, the Tide took a 2-1 match lead with a convincing 25-12 win in set three and closed it out with a 25-15 victory in set four. Freshman Christine Jarman, senior Leah Lawrence and sophomore Hayley McSparin each finished the match with a team-leading 11 kills, while Jarman added 13 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Junior Quincey Gary, the two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Week, posted 23 digs and freshman Meghan Neelon finished with 40 assists.
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 Monday 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 - 364), block assists (6th - 301) and solo blocks (7th - 63). She is 74 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 1,353 career digs to place third on the all-time career list at Alabama. She is only seven shy of tying Lorian Newcomer (1993-95) in second place with 1,360 and is 371 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 3.21 digs per set, which is seventh all-time at Alabama, and her 421 sets played puts her 28 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
Next weekend, Alabama opens SEC play with a pair of road matches, facing Georgia (8-3) on Friday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. CT and Ole Miss (8-3) on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 1:30 p.m. CT. Friday's match against the Bulldogs will be broadcast live on the SEC Network.
