Marquette Volleyball Captures C-USA Tourney Opener

Nov. 15, 2001

Milwaukee -- The Marquette volleyball team enjoyed a successful opening game at the Conference USA Tournament Thursday afternoon, defeating Southern Miss in four games. The Golden Eagles raised their overall record to 18-11 following a 26-30, 30-24, 30-26, 30-26 decision. Southern Miss saw its record fall to 9-19 overall. This year's tourney is being held in Houston.

Jennifer Amobi (Silver Springs, Mary.), a member of Conference USA All-Freshman Team, was the story of the match as she posted a season-high 27 kills along with a 52.2 hitting percentage (27-3--46). Her kill total represented the highest mark by a Marquette player this season. Senior Vesna Grbavac (Palatine, Ill.), named a Conference USA Second-Team honoree yesterday, chipped in 22 kills (her seventh outing of 20 or more kills this season), a hitting percentage of 28.6 percent (22-8--49) and eight digs. Freshman Shannon Devine (Harris, Minn.) registered 10 attacks to round out MU's double-figure kill producers while coming up with four block assists. Junior Danielle Hagen (Milwaukee) played a strong defensive match with 18 digs and a pair of block assists.

For the match, Marquette finished with a 29.2 hitting percentage (75-26--168) compared to USM's mark of 19.3 percent (66-31--181). MU totaled 66 digs compared to 59 for Southern Miss and each team finished with eight blocks.

The win enables Marquette to advance to the quarterfinal round tomorrow where it will meet No. 3 seed South Florida (21-7) at 3:00 p.m.