The volleyball team started the year as champions after winning the Hampton Inn Bama Bash Tournament Championship at Foster Auditorium. The team went 3-0 against Alabama State, Austin Peay and Texas State.
“I’m really pleased with the team’s growth over the two days and where I think we’re capable of being as we move through the next two months,” head coach Ed Allen said.
The Crimson Tide closed out the tournament on Saturday night after a five-set match against a Texas State team that is perennially in the running for a championship.
From the beginning of the match, one would think UA was the defending tournament team. The Tide took the first two sets 25-23, 25-13. Junior Kayla Fitterer had four kills in the first set, while Leigh Moyer accounted for three digs. The first two sets were full of high energy and hustle plays from Alabama with some big plays coming from freshman Katherine White.
White had a block in the second set that led to a crowd and team uproar and forced TSU to take a timeout with a 19-10 Bama lead. With the crowd on their feet, Fitterer ended the second set with a block.
The Bobcats refused to go down easy and fired back winning the next two sets, 22-25, 15-25. However, the Tide was not about to lose a grasp on a victory. Fitterer scored the team’s first three points in the fifth set with three kills. Sophomores Cortney Warren and Brianne Vande Griend came in big with major kills in the set. The set ended 15-9 with TSU hitting a ball out of bounds.
Fitterer collected her 15th career double-double with 19 kills and 15 digs. For the match, junior Kelsey Anderson led all players with 19 digs, senior Stephanie Riley had a match high 28 assists and Warren accounted for nine kills and a .409 hitting percentage.
“In the fifth game we knew it was our house; we wanted to win,” Fitterer said. “We knew we were going to win, so we just had to come back and show them that we were the better team tonight.”
Allen said, “Our kids played with a lot of composure and our ball control came back in the fifth set. Kayla Fitterer did a nice job getting us going. Cortney Warren showed up tremendously in the match and is showing flashes of what she’s capable of doing all the time, and the swing that Brianne had at a critical point of the match energized the team.”
The tournament began Friday with Alabama facing in-state opponent Alabama State. The Tide proved to be too much for the Hornets, defeating them in straight sets (25-12, 25-15, 25-15). Fitterer and Warren both had double-doubles in the match.
Later that night, the Tide faced annual championship competitor Austin Peay. After a powerful game from sophomore Andrea McQuaid who was three kills shy of a triple-double, the Tide won the match 25-19, 20-25, 25-16, 25-21.
After garnering three double-doubles, Fitterer was named the tournament’s most valuable player while Cortney Warren and Leigh Moyer joined her on the all-tournament team.
The 3-0 start to the season is the Tide’s best since 2004.
