Volleyball Preview: SMU, UCF

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – There's a first time for everything, and the University of Memphis faces a first this weekend when the Tigers take their second American Athletic Conference road trip of 2019. Memphis travels to Dallas, Texas, for a Friday match with SMU and then moves on to Orlando, Fla., for a Sunday encounter with UCF.

For the first time since joining The American, Memphis will not play both Florida schools, UCF and USF, on the same weekend. In the past, the Tigers – with or without a travel partner – always played both Florida programs on the same weekend either at home or on the road.

However, with the change in travel partners plus a move to East and West divisions in league play, the schedule was altered. This season, SMU is Memphis' travel partner and faces the Tigers coupled with the Florida schools on two different weekends (Oct. 11-13: at SMU, at UCF/Nov. 1-3: SMU, USF).

Memphis' American Athletic Conference Road Weekend

Date/Day	Opponent	Time (CT)
Oct. 11/Friday	at SMU	7 p.m.
Oct. 13/Sunday	at UCF	11 a.m.

Memphis/Opponents Breakdown

	Memphis	SMU	UCF
2019 Record	11-5, 0-4 The American	9-5, 3-1 The American	10-6, 3-1 The American
Series		SMU leads 16-6	UCF leads 22-13
Last Meeting		SMU won 3-2 (in Dallas, 2018)	UCF won 3-0 (in Memphis, 2018)
Kills Leader	Meredith Wallace, 199	Hannah Jacobs, 185	McKenna Melville, 254
Assists Leader	Sabrina Bianco, 634	Lily Heim, 600	Erin Olson, 333
Digs Leader	Kaitlyn Gehler, 233	Montana Watts, 244	Makenzie Kuchmaner, 213
Blocks Leader	Sabria Cooper, 41	Meryn Kennedy, 49	Nerissa Moravec, 77
Aces Leader	Hannah Flowers, 36	Makayla Miller, 18	Kristina Fisher, 15

Head coach Sean Burdette comments
(On close calls to open AAC season)
"It's been a dog fight, especially on our side in the West Division. Entering last weekend, most of the matches in the West had gone five sets and all were nail-biters. At the end of the day, we have to figure out how to score a couple of more points and give fewer away to our opponents. On Sunday, we unfortunately gave in to some of our frustrations of having gone five sets and missing on those. We have to regroup and get ready to go on the road this weekend."

(On improvements)
"It's not giving in. It's learning through the process and going back to the basics and doing what got us here and continue to plug that. We watched film and we see that it's little things here and there. When those things are corrected, it's a much easier game. In the Tulsa match Sunday, the first 10 points felt like it was over, but we were still there. We have to more aggressive, especially when we're out-of-system attacking."

(On younger players getting minutes)
"That's key for us. We have to have people that can come in at any given time. We talk about people having to be ready because you don't know when your name's going to be called. You need to step in and do some good things for us."

(On early play in the West Division)
"We talked about it after Tulsa. We can beat anybody as long as we play together and do the same things day-in and day-out. Certainly, no team is out of it at this point. You have to take care of business in your division, and when you cross over, you have to ready as well."

(On SMU, UCF)
"SMU's a very athletic team, very physical team. They play very well at home. It's a team that if we serve the ball well, we can get some good match-ups. It's going to come down to ball control and physicality.

"UCF is a seasoned team from a very strong non-conference schedule, and they have a very balanced attack. They play very well together and can beat you from several positions. Communication, discipline and execution will be key to competing at a high level against UCF."

Tigers Tidbits

The Tigers and Mustangs played two barn burners last season. Memphis and SMU split their series, with each team winning 3-2 on its homecourt.
Speaking of 3-2 scores, Memphis and SMU have seen a lot of those recently. The Tigers and Mustangs both played 3-2 decisions in their first three conference matches of 2019. Memphis dropped 3-2 decisions to Tulane, Houston and Wichita State. SMU suffered 3-2 setbacks to Tulane and Houston, but defeated Tulsa 3-2.
Two Tigers are making a second homecoming to their home state of Texas Friday. Jada Birkel and Sabrina Bianco both are from Austin, Texas, which is around three hours south of Dallas. The tandem made their first trip to the home state two weeks ago when the Tigers played at Houston.
Sunday's match at UCF features a reunion for the Lafayette High School (Wildwood, Mo.) Lancers volleyball program. Two recent Lafayette stars – Memphis junior Hannah Flowers and UCF sophomore Kathryn Wesolich – played together on the Lancers' 2016 Missouri high school Class 4A state championship team. In the 2018 Memphis-UCF match-up, Flowers posted 12 kills and four digs, and Wesolich had five kills and three blocks.
Friday's Memphis-SMU encounter features match-ups of two of The American's top servers and setters. The match has the league's top two servers in terms of aces per set in Memphis' Hannah Flowers (1^stwith 0.59/36 total) and SMU's Makayla Miller (2^ndwith 0.42/18 total). Two of the conference's top setters are on the court Friday. SMU's Lily Heim is second in the conference in assists per set (11.27/600 total) and Memphis' Sabrina Bianco is third (10.23/634 total).

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Players Mentioned

Sabrina Bianco

Jada Birkel

Sabria Cooper

Kaitlyn Gehler

Meredith Wallace

University of Memphis Athletics