Volleyball Hosts AAC Home Openers This Weekend

Friday, September 29

Memphis, Tenn.

7 pm CT

University of Memphis

UCF

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Sep 28, 2017 | Women's Volleyball

Memphis Overall-Conference Statistics

Tigers face UCF Friday, USF Sunday.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The University of Memphis volleyball squad is back at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse for its American Athletic Conference home-opening weekend. The Tigers host UCF and USF.

It seems as if the Tigers were just home – which they just were two weeks ago – but at the same time, they haven't had many matches at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse so far in 2017. Of its 14 matches to date this season, Memphis has played 11 on the road. Memphis is 3-0 at home and 4-7 away from the Bluff City.

Now, the Tigers are looking to turn the "home-heavy" portion of the schedule into victories. Memphis hosts eight of its next 12 matches, including this weekend, at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. After this weekend, the Tigers also host home league matches Oct. 13-15, Oct. 20-22 and Nov. 3-5.

Memphis' American Athletic Conference Home Opening Weekend

Date/Day	Opponent	Time (CT)
Sept. 29/Friday	UCF (Greek/Student Organization Night; T-shirt giveaway)	7 p.m.
Oct. 1/Sunday	USF (Memphis Tigers spatula giveaway)	1 p.m.

Memphis/Opponents Breakdown

	Memphis	UCF	USF
2017 Record	7-7, 0-2 AAC	8-6, 1-1 AAC	5-7, 0-2 AAC
Series		UCF leads 19-13	USF leads 18-10
Last Meeting/2016		UCF 3-1 win (@Memphis)	Memphis 3-2 win (@Memphis)
Kills Leader	Hannah Flowers, 135	Kia Bright, 194	Priscilla Ehieze, 106
Assists Leader	Faith Myers, 349	Miranda Watkins, 306	Alex Mendoza, 409
Digs Leader	Alyssa Kronberg, 237	Jordan Pingel, 216	Maria McLamb, 167
Total Blocks Leader	Brianna Kadiku, 57	Taylor Wickey, 45	Clara Payne, 39

Head coach April Jauregui comments
(On early-season travel)
"Obviously, travel in this league takes a toll. But, we went into last Friday's match with a lot of energy. We played a tough UConn team in a tough environment, and we played with some jitters as it was our first conference match. The travel did affect us Sunday (at Temple). There are no easy trips in this conference. Being home this weekend will be great for us so we can get our legs back and feel good going into Friday's match."

(On newcomers learning how tough league play is)
"Seeing things visually is a big step forward, and our newcomers now see what the other conference teams are bringing, how many strong attackers they have. Our team is getting better every day, and that's our goal this season. We want to improve our position, and get our young players experience. We may not see all the benefits of that immediately, but it is paying off. Down the road, the experience will become a huge asset for us."

(On this weekend's matches)
"UCF brings a lot of power in their offensive system. They have great height, and they can really score all along the net. For us, we have to be disciplined with our blocking schemes. This week in practice, we've been focusing on defense and keeping balls in play and making saves. I haven't watched much film yet on South Florida, but we'll look more on them later in the week and be prepared when we play them Sunday."

Tigers Tidbits

The Tigers are playing only their fourth home match Friday before the calendar turns to October. Memphis hosted three matches – all wins – in its own Memphis Invitational Sept. 15-16 and welcomes UCF to the Elma Roane Fieldhouse Friday. The last time the Tigers played fewer matches before October was in 2003 when that squad played only three times at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse before Oct. 1.
Memphis is looking to change its recent conference home-opening vibe this weekend. Since joining the American Athletic Conference in July of 2013, the Tigers are 2-5 in their league home-opening matches. Last season, Memphis fell to Connecticut and Temple in its conference home-opening weekend. In 2014, the Tigers swept their league home openers with victories Tulsa and SMU.
If any two opponents can battle Memphis for number of newcomers this season, they are UCF and USF. The Tigers have nine newcomers (7 freshmen/2 transfers) on their roster. UCF has seven newcomers (5 freshmen/2 redshirt freshmen) and USF nine newcomers (5 freshmen/1 redshirt freshman/3 transfers) on their respective rosters.
Senior Faith Myers is looking for the 20^th double-double (assists-digs) of her career entering play this weekend. She posted her 19^th career double-double with 16 assists and 11 digs in a setback at Temple Sept. 24.
With such a young squad, several newcomers are leading the way in in a couple of statistical categories. Freshman Hannah Flowers tops the team in total kills (135), and junior college transfer Kelsea Bivins leads in kills per set (2.77). In fact, three of the top-five Tigers in total kills are newcomers. Following Flowers are redshirt freshman Natale Zanellato (94 kills; 4^th on team) and Bivins (86 kills; 5^th on team). Freshman Alyssa Kronberg leads Memphis with 237 digs, and Flowers is second on the squad in total blocks (33).
This week, three Tigers rank in the top-10 in four statistical categories in The American, and they are: Brianna Kadiku in hitting percentage (10^th) and blocks (8^th), Faith Myers in assists (9^th) and Alyssa Kronberg in digs (6^th).