Volleyball Hosts UAB on Senior Day

Marshall Volleyball Notes

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall volleyball team is back in the Cam Henderson Center for the regular season finale, and Senior Day, as the UAB Blazers come to town on Thursday. First serve is set for 6 p.m. Michaela Ahlenslager, Ivana Trencheva and Amber Weber will be honored before the match.

The Thundering Herd comes into the match with an overall record of 17-9 and 8-5 in Conference USA. The Blazers enter with a record of 12-13 and 4-8 in conference. Marshall has clinched a spot in the upcoming C-USA Tournament.

Match Details: Blackout Match
Live Stats: SIDEARM
Live Video: HERDVISION on CUSAtv
Marshall Radio: 88.1 WMUL-FM and streamed online www.marshall.edu/wmul.
Series History: 25th all-time meeting – UAB leads 13-11.
Last Meeting: September 28, 2018 in Birmingham – UAB won in three sets.

Marshall has won its last five matches to bounce back after a five-match losing streak. The Herd traveled down to Florida this past weekend and came away with two, five-set wins at FIU and Florida Atlantic. Marshall pulled off a great comeback at FIU, after dropping the first two sets, the Herd rallied to win the next three and take the victory. Then Marshall was ahead 2-1 through three sets and struggled in the fourth set as the Owls tied it up at 2-2. However, the Herd rallied again and took the fifth set to clinch a spot in the Conference USA Tournament. Head Coach Ari Aganus has Marshall back in the tournament in her first season after the squad missed out on the postseason in 2018.

Redshirt junior Ciara Debell was named Conference USA Co-Offensive Player of the Week after coming through with 27 kills against FIU and 21 more in the win at FAU. The outside hitter continues to lead the Herd with 393 kills this season and has over 900 in her career. Sophomore Sarah Schank had an outstanding match at FIU with a career-high 22 kills and she teamed with Debell to pull Marshall through the comeback. Schank is second on the team with 214 kills.

Sophomore Gabrielle Coulter leads with 524 assists and junior Syndey Lostumo is next with 430. Lostumo leads the Herd with 34 service aces.

Senior Amber Weber has pushed her streak of consecutive matches with 10 or more digs to 29-straight and has tallied 20 or more in each of the last three matches. Weber is averaging 4.91 digs per set that raises to 5.65 per set in C-USA matches.

The Herd continues to be a dominant force at the net, leading the conference and ranked 10th in the NCAA with 2.83 blocks per set. Marshall had double-digit team total blocks in both matches down in Florida. Sophomore Isa Dostal (1.36 blocks per set) and junior Destiny Leon (1.34 per set) are one and two in the conference in blocks per set. Leon has 125 total blocks and Dostal has 121, and are the first tandem for Marshall to have more than 100 total blocks in a season since 2006 when Chelsea Lazar (121) and Uche Ndubisi (116) teamed up at the net.

Opponent
The UAB Blazers are playing for an outside shot at the one of the last two spots in the conference tournament. However, the Blazers will most likely need to win both of its remaining two matches and hope for some losses from UTEP and Middle Tennessee. After playing the Herd, UAB travels to Bowling Green to take on No. 19 WKU.

The Blazers lost in four sets to the Charlotte 49ers on senior day this past Sunday. Emma Mitchell leads the team with 283 kills and Abby Carlile is next with 179. Carlile led UAB with 23 kills against Charlotte. Rachel Morse has been the main setter and has 770 assists. Grace Koper adds another 158 assists. The Blazers have been successful this season with service aces, tallying 29 more than the opposition. Six different players have 18 or more aces and four have 20 or more. Kiana Mack leads with 29.

On defense, three players have recorded over 200 digs with Brianna Muller leading with 254. Morse is next with 224 and Mitchell has 220. At the net, UAB is averaging 1.89 blocks per set. Anna D'Cruz leads with 87 total and 0.99 per set.

Up Next
Marshall waits to find out its seed in the C-USA Tournament, Nov. 22-24, hosted by Rice University in Houston, Texas.

For all the latest information about Marshall volleyball, follow @HerdVolleyball on Twitter and Marshall University Volleyball on Facebook.

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Players Mentioned

Michaela Ahlenslager

Gabrielle Coulter

Ciara DeBell

Isa Dostal

Destiny Leon

Sarah Schank

Ivana Trencheva

Amber Weber

Marshall University Athletics