Volleyball Evens Conference Mark With 3-1 Road Win

Sunday, October 4

Storrs, Conn.

1:00 PM ET

University of Memphis

11-6, 2-2American

UConn

7-8, 1-3American

Memphis

UConn

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Oct 04, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Hayes and Morgan tie career highs in kills in road win.

By: Tammy DeGroff

STORRS, Conn. – The Memphis volleyball team (11-6, 2-2 American) hit .324 in the fourth set and out-blocked host UConn (7-8, 1-3 American) 4-1, in a 3-1 win at Gampel Pavilion, Sunday. The win evens Memphis' conference mark at 2-2 and improves the Tigers to 2-1 in American Athletic Conference road matches so far this season.

Memphis took a 25-23 first set for the early lead in the match. Junior right side McKenzie Hayes hit .571 in the first set, en route a career-tying 18 kills on the day. Hayes then added five more kills in the second set and Summer Morgan hit .857, downing six kills on seven attacks, in a 25-18 Memphis set win.

Following the break, and up 2-0 in the match, Memphis committed four service errors, so despite out-hitting and out-blocking UConn, Memphis was edged in the third set, 25-23.

The Tigers balanced out the offense in the fourth set and rolled to a 25-17 win. Three different Tigers hit .500 in the set and Morgan recorded three of her eight blocks in the fourth set to pick up the road win.

Hayes and Morgan both tied career highs in the win. Hayes finished with 18 kills and hit .500 for the match on 34 attacks. She also added five blocks for a game-high 20.5 points. Morgan tied her career high in kills from the Cincinnati road win over a week ago and posted eight total blocks in the win.

Veronica Zimmerman led Memphis with 42 assists and Lindsey Purvis missed a career-high in digs by three, finishing with 26. She was one of five Tigers with double-digit digs in the win.

Jade Strawberry led UConn with 14 kills and 27 digs, while Erika Thomas added 13 kills. Kenya Cason finished with 11 kills and 10 digs in the home loss.

Memphis returns home for two matches this week, hosting USF, Friday at 7 p.m. before welcoming preseason favorite UCF, Sunday, at 1 p.m.