The Alabama volleyball team secured another tournament-win this weekend in the Hampton Inn Bama Bash as they dominated in Foster Auditorium, dropping only one set all weekend.
Outside hitter Kayla Fitterer said the biggest thing that the team can take away from this weekend’s play is confidence.
Fitterer played in her first home match on Friday night against Austin Peay where she posted her 26th career double double with 18 kills and 12 digs.
The senior has taken practice and play on a day-to-day basis as she continues to recover from an off-season foot surgery.
“I’m back in as much as I can be right now,” Fitterer said after the tournament-clinching match against East Tennessee State. “I took off this morning and yesterday morning to rest, but I’ll be good now to play in all of the games from here.”
Fitterer posted seven kills and seven digs against ETSU.
The Tide’s performance in the Bama Bash landed Sierra Wilson, Katherine White and Laura Steiner spots on the all-tournament team with Steiner earning the title of Most Valuable Player.
Steiner, a freshman outside hitter, finished the tournament with a hitting percentage of .358, 34 kills over four matches and an average of 3.40 kills per set played.
“I didn’t actually know I was playing until right before the game so I just went in there trying to have a good match to finish the tournament out, and I ended up with some kills so that was nice,” Steiner said.
With a match-high 12 kills versus ETSU, Steiner showed her ability to step up, even as a freshman.
“I think you always have to prepare yourself thinking that you might go in – especially if someone is not performing their best that you might get thrown in there,” Steiner said.
The tournament gave the Tide many opportunities to see growth in almost every member of the team.
“We’re getting balanced and we’re really pleased with Laura Steiner’s performance as a freshman from the outside,” head coach Ed Allen said. “She’s giving us a great deal of consistency and exploiting the block with her offense. Again, Sierra Wilson continues to grow as a leader and quarterback of this team. She still has a long way to go, but she’s in a better place than she was two weeks ago.”
In the four matches played, Wilson posted 157 total assists, giving her an average of 12.1 assists per set.
“We identified several things that we need to work on,” Allen said of his team’s overall weekend play. “I also thought we had a little bit more consistency in most parts of play except for attacking in that last match.”
The 10-1 Tide returns to Foster Auditorium on Tuesday to take on Samford in its last non-conference match before opening up SEC play against LSU.
