Southern Miss Seeded No. 12 at Conference USA Championship
11/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 16, 2005
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - -- The Lady Eagle volleyball team heads into the Conference USA Championship as the No. 12 seed, facing No. 5 East Carolina in the first round.
Southern Miss enters the tournament following a loss to UCF, concluding its regular season with a 6-18 record and 0-14 mark in C-USA. This is the first time since 1994 that Southern Miss failed to post a conference win. Southern Miss did not play against Tulsa or SMU during the regular season.
Freshman Ashley Petrinec continues to lead the team with 226 kills, while Amanda Blunck leads the team in digs with 299. Ednali Serralta, who missed four matches, leads the team in assists (757)and aces with 25. Jazzmien Stephens leads the team in total blocks with 75, while Morgan Johnson leads the team in hitting percentage.
This is the third time Southern Miss and East Carolina have met this season with ECU winning the two previous matches. ECU is the No. 5 seed with an 18-10 record and 9-6 mark in C-USA. Pam Ferris leads the Pirates with 414 kills, a 4.02 kill average per game, and 38 aces. Trish Monroe is one of six players with 125 digs or more and leads the team with 399. Setter Heidi Krug is averaging 13.23 assists per game.
Marshall is the top seed in the tournament, finishing with a 15-1 record in league play and 23-5 overall. The No. 2 seed is Houston (10-4, 16-11) followed by No. 3 Tulsa (10-5, 23-7), No. 4 UTEP (10-6, 20-9), No. 5 East Carolina, No. 6 Rice (8-7, 17-9), No. 7 SMU (8-7, 12-15), No. 8 Memphis (7-7, 16-15), No. 9 UCF (6-10, 8-17), No. 10 UAB (8-7, 19-9), No. 11 Tulane (2-13, 3-15) and No. 12 Southern Miss (0-14, 6-18).