Alabama Volleyball Opens SEC Play With Road Matches at Georgia and Ole Miss

Friday, September 22

Athens, Ga.

6 P.M. CT

Alabama

Georgia

Photo by: Robert Sutton

Alabama Volleyball Opens SEC Play With Road Matches at Georgia and Ole Miss

9/21/2017 8:55:00 AM | Volleyball

Match Notes (PDF)Live Stats vs. Georgia Live Video vs. Georgia Live Stats vs. Ole Miss Live Video vs. Ole Miss

THIS WEEKEND

Friday, Sept. 22 at Georgia (10-3) – Athens, Ga. – 6 p.m. CT (SEC Network)
Sunday, Sept. 24 at Ole Miss (9-4) – Oxford, Miss. – 1:30 p.m. CT

SCOUTING ALABAMA

Alabama is 11-2 this season and is riding an eight-match win streak heading into conference play. Last weekend, the Crimson Tide went 3-0 at the Crimson-White Tournament in Tuscaloosa, defeating Southern, 3-0, Murray State, 3-1, and Troy, 3-0.
As a team, Alabama is ranked third in the SEC in opponent hitting percentage (.149), service aces (69, 1.47/set) and digs (752, 16.00/set) and is fifth in the league in blocks (121, 2.57/set). Individually, Quincey Gary leads the league in digs (224, 4.77/set), Leah Lawrence is sixth in hitting percentage (.374) and 10th in blocks (49, 1.04/set) and Meghan Neelon is sixth in assists (469, 9.98/set) and seventh in aces (18, 0.38/set) and Hayley McSparin is seventh in blocks (51, 1.13/set).
This weekend, Alabama opens the SEC portion of its schedule. Under head coach Ed Allen, the Tide has surpassed 10 conference wins in three of his six seasons, including a program-record 13 wins in 2014. Alabama has finished ranked in the top five in the conference in each of the last four years.
Sophomore Hayley McSparin was named the Crimson-White Tournament MVP last weekend, leading the team with 32 kills, a .489 hitting percentage and 16 blocks. She hit above .380 in all three matches, including a career-high .611 against Murray State. She also stuffed a career-best 11 blocks against the Racers, a mark that is just two shy of the Alabama single-match record. Her 14 kills and 11 blocks against Murray State mark her first career double-double and it is the first double-double with kills and blocks for any Tide player since Rachael Green on Sept. 9, 2006.
Senior Leah Lawrence and sophomore Ginger Perinar were each named to the Crimson-White All-Tournament team. Lawrence, who won tournament MVP honors two weeks ago at the Eason Bama Bash, tied McSparin for the team lead in kills last weekend with 32 (3.20/set) and hit .338. She led the team with six service aces and had 11 blocks, six of which came in the weekend finale against Troy. Perinar had 21 kills over the weekend, capping the tournament against Troy with her best hitting performance of the season, earning a .421 clip with eight kills and no errors on 19 swings.

LAST TIME OUT: ALABAMA GOES 3-0 AT CRIMSON WHITE TOURNAMENT

Alabama 3, Southern 0: Alabama battled against a resilient Southern squad in Friday's opening match, going past the 25-point mark in set one and edging out close victories in the remaining two sets. Over the entire match, there were 24 tie scores and seven lead changes, including four in the deciding third set. Senior Leah Lawrence led the Tide offense with 12 kills and sophomore Hayley McSparin was also in double digits, finishing with 10 along with a team-leading three blocks.
Alabama 3, Murray State 1: Alabama built a 2-0 match lead before Murray State avoided the sweep with a win in set three. The Tide ended the match with a 10-point victory in the fourth to claim the four-set win. Alabama out-blocked Murray State 14-3, a season-high for the Tide, with sophomore Hayley McSparin earning a career-high 11 blocks, just two shy of the school record. McSparin also added 14 kills for her first career double-double.
Alabama 3, Troy 0: Alabama closed its weekend at the Crimson-White Tournament with a three-set sweep over Troy Saturday in Foster Auditorium, extending its current win streak to eight matches. Alabama played with plenty of energy right from the first whistle against Troy, defeating the Trojans by 10 and 11 points in the first two sets before battling against a late push in the third to win, 25-22. Senior Leah Lawrence and sophomores Hayley McSparin and Ginger Perinar led the team with eight kills each and all three hit above .380, leading to a season-best .303 team hitting percentage. The trio were named to the Crimson-White All-Tournament team, with McSparin earning MVP honors.

CAREER RECORD WATCH

Senior Leah Lawrence is already among the top 10 at Alabama in career blocks (5th - 375), block assists (5th - 309) and solo blocks (6th - 66). She is 63 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 moved into second place in career digs last weekend, pushing her total to 1,371 passing Lorian Newcomer (1993-95) with 1,360. She is now 353 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 3.18 digs per set, which is seventh all-time at Alabama, and her 431 sets played puts her 18 sets away from cracking the top 10.

ALABAMA VOLLEYBALL SHINES ON SEC NETWORK
Since the launch of the SEC Network during the 2014 season, Alabama has been featured in 20 matches, winning 14 of them with a 10-3 mark at home and 4-3 mark on the road.

Sept. 24, 2014 at Georgia: W, 3-1
Oct. 12, 2014 vs. South Carolina: W, 3-1
Oct. 26, 2014 vs. Arkansas: W, 3-1
Nov. 9, 2014 at South Carolina: W, 3-2
Nov. 16, 2014 vs. Georgia: W, 3-0
Sept. 23, 2015 vs. Mississippi State: W, 3-1
Oct. 11, 2015 vs. Missouri: W, 3-2
Oct. 18, 2015 at LSU: W, 3-2
Oct. 25, 2015 vs. Georgia: W, 3-0
Oct. 28, 2015 at Missouri: L, 2-3
Nov. 1, 2015 at Arkansas: W, 3-2
Nov. 8, 2015 vs. South Carolina: W, 3-1
Nov. 15, 2015 vs. Auburn: W, 3-0
Nov. 25, 2015 vs. Ole Miss: L, 1-3
Sept. 23, 2016 vs. Texas A&M: W, 3-2
Sept. 25, 2016 vs. Florida: L, 0-3
Oct. 2, 2016 at Mississippi State: L, 2-3
Oct. 28, 2016 vs. Tennessee: L, 0-3
Nov. 6, 2016 vs. Arkansas: W, 3-1
Nov. 13, 2016 at Florida: L, 0-3

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 69-27 (.719) on its home court, including a 6-0 record this season. 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 returns to Tuscaloosa for a pair of SEC matches in Foster Auditorium, beginning Wednesday, Sept. 27 against Arkansas (10-2). The match is set for a 7 p.m. CT start and will air live on the SEC Network. On Sunday, Oct. 1, the Tide welcomes Missouri (7-6) for a 1 p.m. CT match.