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Aug. 29, 2003
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Virginia volleyball team began its 25th anniversary season with a 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 31-29) win over Alabama-Birmingham Friday afternoon (August 29) in the Tiger Classic at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Fourth-year middle Shannon Boyle (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline Academy) paced the Cavaliers with 12 kills and a .706 attack percentage.
Boyle had 12 kills on 17 attempts for her .706 hitting percentage which ranks ninth on UVa’s single season attack percentage list. She also led the Cavaliers with 12.5 points. Third-year middle Alexis Geocaris (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) added 12 points on nine kills and three blocks, while third-year outside hitter Celeste Laborde (New Orleans, La./Academy of the Sacred Heart) registered eight kills. First-year setters Kathleen Branagh (Lafayette, Calif./Campolindo) and Emily Kirkwood (Tampa, Fla./Plant) tallied 21 and 14 assists, respectively. Kirkwood added three service aces and three digs, while Branagh also had three digs. Fourth-year All-ACC libero Whitney Ashcraft (Yorktown, Ind./Burris) led Virginia’s defensive effort with 19 digs. She is now just five digs shy of reaching the 1,000 career dig milestone.
UAB had four players reach double figures in kills, including Karen Boyd and Lindsay Carnohan who both had 12 kills. Breanne Swenson recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 12 digs.
Virginia took dominating leads in the first two games of the match before coming from behind to win the third and final game. As a team, UVa hit .239 in the match with just 16 errors, while UAB hit .139 with 30 errors.
The Cavaliers return to action Friday evening when they play host Louisiana State at 8:00 p.m. Virginia concludes play in the Tiger Classic with a noon match Saturday (August 30) against Centenary.