Mustangs Continue C-USA Road Trip
Oct 12 | Volleyball
Oct. 12, 2006
DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU volleyball team is continuing their Conference USA road trip as they head to UAB and Memphis this weekend. The Mustangs will meet up with UAB on Fri., Oct. 13 at 7:00 p.m. and then will head to Memphis for a Sun., 1:00 p.m. match.
The Mustangs are 11-10 on the season and 2-5 in C-USA play. SMU is coming off a win over conference foe, UTEP this past weekend. The junior outside hitter tandem of Rachel Giubilato and Caitlin Rainbird lead the Ponies as they have both notched over ten double-double performances each this season. Giubilato is 16th in the nation with 4.92 kills per game and she just broke into the all-time top ten list in kills per season with 389 and is first in the all-time points per game category averaging 5.50.
The Mustangs have four people averaging over two kills per game including the swinging duo of Giubilato and Rainbird who combine for an average of 4.2 kills per game while Kendra Kahanek, who posted her first double-double against UTEP, and Natalie Peters round out the four. Three people are averaging over three digs per game (Giubilato, Rainbird, Candice Davis). Davis took C-USA Co-Player of the Week honors this past week as she posted a career-high of 32 digs against SFA last week and then came close to matching that against UTEP with 31 digs. SMU has posted 26 more kills than their opponents this season and are 6-2 when hitting over .250 while they are 10-1 when holding opponents below .250.
UAB is 14-5 on the season and 2-2 in C-USA play. They are led by Ivana Bozic who has 333 kills and 204 digs this season and Fernanda Domingos who has posted 200 kills along with 137 digs. Nevena Stefanov leads with 864 assists, averaging out to 12.71 per game while Brianna Galvin averages 3.87 digs per game for a total of 263. Casey Dent and Shaniquwa Cooper lead at the net with 49 and 40 blocks, respectively.
Memphis is 17-4 overall and 3-3 in C-USA play and will face Tulsa on Friday before taking on the Mustangs on Sunday. The Tigers are led by Shelby Burton who has posted 310 kills and 75 blocks. Sarah Bury adds 3.35 kills per game, totaling to 251 on the year while Laura Cote averages 12.74 assists per game for a total of 968 this season. Christen Clayton has compiled 377 digs for the season.
After these matches, the Mustangs will return home to host UTEP and Tulane.
