CONFERENCEUSA.COM - The Official Athletic site of The Conference USA

C-USA Volleyball Notebook
VB Notebook

Aug. 29, 2012

IRVING, Texas - For the second-consecutive week, Conference USA volleyball teams will compete in numerous non-conference tournaments. Highlighting this weekend events will be the Tiger Classic that is now being hosted by Rice.

In anticipation of Tropical Storm Isaac's arrival to the gulf coast region, the Tiger Classic, scheduled to take place in Baton Rouge, La. from Aug. 31-Sept. 1, has moved to Rice University's Fox Gymnasium. Fox Gym is located in the Youngkin Center on Rice's campus. Rice last played inside Fox Gym in 2008.

The Owls continue its stretch of eight games against 18+ win teams from a year ago with three volleyball powerhouses. No. 7 Purdue becomes the second Top 10 team to visit Rice in as many years and No. 12 Washington gives the Owls back-to-back matches against ranked opposition.

A complete weekend schedule is below and in the PDF version of the weekly notebook.

C-USA VOLLEYBALL NOTEBOOK & STATISTICS_Aug. 29

C-USA HIGHLIGHTS
* Marshall (3-0) won the Thunder Invitational with wins against Wright State, IUPUI and Miami (Ohio). In the title match, the Herd came back from being down two sets to win 28-30, 22-25, 25-10, 25-22, 15-10. Senior Katy Schad earned tournament MVP honors after finishing the weekend with 50 kills, 44 digs and three double-doubles.

* Tulsa went 2-1 in opening weekend action as the Golden Hurricane participated in the Nike Invitational in Norman, Okla. TU swept Western Michigan and Missouri State before falling in five sets to host Oklahoma in the title match.

* Conference USA placed three players on the COBRA Magazine All-Preseason National Team and two on the Preseason National Player of the Year watch list. Seniors Tyler Henderson and Altrese Hawkins as well as junior AnGelica Crump have been named to the Preseason COBRA National First Team while Henderson and Hawkins are pencil in as National Player of the Year candidates.

* Junior transfer Nicole Willis tallied 30 kills against Campbell in her first match for East Carolina, one shy of the school record.

* Sophomore Jillian Humphrey had a stellar defensive opening weekend as she averaged a C-USA weekly best 2.40 blocks per set and registered 24 total blocks for the Rice Invitational I.

* UAB junior Rachel Fairbanks posted two matches of 30-or-more digs to open the 2012 campaign. In the season opener vs. UTSA, she corralled 30 digs, marking just the fifth time a Blazer had reached that mark since 2001. A day later vs. Furman, Fairbanks surpassed her career-high by posting 31 digs. Fairbanks became the first Blazer since 2001 to post two matches of 30-plus digs in the same season. For the weekend, she averaged 5.29 digs per set, recording 90 digs in 17 sets.

* SMU's 31-29 set win over CS-Fullerton marks the longest set since the rule changed after the 2007 season, shortening sets from 30 to 25 points.

* Southern Miss picked up a win against future C-USA opponent Louisiana Tech, 3-0, in the final match of the Southern Miss Invitational. The Golden Eagles tallied 14 service aces while registering 116 digs (12.89 dps) for the three matches.

UPCOMING MATCHES
Fri., Aug. 31
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Milwaukee Invitational (Milwaukee, Wis.)
>> East Carolina vs. Southeast Missouri 4:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Lipscomb Tournament (Nashville, Tenn.)
>> Houston vs. Missouri 10 a.m.
>> Houston vs. Appalachian State 5 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Louisville Tournament (Louisville, Ky.)
>> Marshall vs. Samford 4 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Courtyard Charleston North Classic (Charleston, S.C.)
>> Memphis vs. Slovenian Team (exh) 3:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 LSU Invitational (Houston, Texas)
>> Rice at LSU 10 a.m.
>> Rice vs. #7 Purdue 5 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 TCU Invitational (Fort Worth, Texas)
>> SMU at TCU 7 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Bon Temps Invitational (Lafayette, La.)
>> Southern Miss vs. Houston Baptist 9 a.m.
>> Southern Miss vs. McNeese State 12:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Lamar Tournament (Beaumont, Texas)
>> Tulane vs. LA Tech 4:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Kansas Volleyball Invitational (Lawrence, Kan.)
>> Tulsa vs. Arkansas State 2 p.m.
>> Tulsa at Kansas 7 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 2 Notre Dame Shamrock Invitational (South Bend, Ind.)
>> UAB at Notre Dame 6 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT/UCF CLASSIC
>> Columbia at UCF 12 p.m.
>> Jacksonville at UCF 7 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 UTSA Classic (San Antonio, Texas)
>> UTEP vs. Belmont 12 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 1
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Milwaukee Invitational (Milwaukee, Wis.)
>> East Carolina vs. Bradley 11 a.m.
>> East Carolina at Milwaukee 7 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Lipscomb Tournament (Nashville, Tenn.)
>> Houston at Lipscomb 2:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Louisville Tournament (Louisville, Ky.)
>> Marshall at Louisville 10 a.m.
>> Marshall vs. Duke 4 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Courtyard Charleston North Classic (Charleston, S.C.)
>> Memphis vs. North Florida 9 a.m.
>> Memphis at College of Charleston 6 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 LSU Invitational (Houston, Texas)
>> Rice vs. #12 Washington 11 a.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 TCU Invitational (Fort Worth, Texas)
>> SMU vs. Army 10 a.m.
>> SMU vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Bon Temps Invitational (Lafayette, La.)
>> Southern Miss at UL-Lafayette 1 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Lamar Tournament (Beaumont, Texas)
>> Tulane vs. Texas State 10 a.m.
>> Tulane at Lamar 6 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Kansas Volleyball Invitational (Lawrence, Kan.)
>> Tulsa vs. Nebraska-Omaha 11:30 a.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 2 Notre Dame Shamrock Invitational (South Bend, Ind.)
>> UAB vs. Eastern Kentucky 3:30 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT/UCF CLASSIC
>> Liberty at UCF 6 p.m.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 UTSA Classic (San Antonio, Texas)
>> UTEP at UTSA 6:30 p.m.