BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Louisiana Tech's volleyball team fell 3-0 (25-19. 25-9. 25-20) to UAB in Saturday's match at the Bartow Arena.
 
The Lady Techsters jumped out to an early lead in the first set, using two kills from Laura Ehieze to build a 5-2 advantage. The Blazers (5-5) rallied from the early deficit to knot the match at 11-11 later in the stanza, eventually separating from LA Tech with a 5-0 run to take a 16-11 lead.
 
UAB outside hitter Alex Kells paced the Blazers with 14 kills and a .458 hitting percentage. The Blazers' workhorse Fernanda Maida tallied 11 kills of her own on a team-high 33 attempts.
 
"There were some bright spots today, particularly in the play of our middles, but we have to do a better job with our first contact to get them the ball more," head coach Amber McCray said. "We felt we were able to compete when in system, but UAB did a phenomenal job behind the service line and we struggled to handle it. Tomorrow, we will work to replicate what we did well today more often and drastically reduce our errors so we can put ourselves in a position to compete."
 
The Lady Techsters and Blazers traded points early in the third set, leading to three ties and a lead change within the first 20 points recorded in the set. Tech's Elizabeth Sandoval hammered home one of her four kills to make it 8-7 Lady Techsters early in the stanza. Senior Emily Boylan notched a kill the point prior to tie the set at 7-7.
 
The Blazers held a three-point advantage for most of the rest of the set, using timely two-point spurts to keep LA Tech from evening up the set. UAB hit .356 for the match while holding the Lady Techsters to a .138 percentage of their own.
 
Ehieze led LA Tech with seven kills. Senior libero Alyssa Zucco had a team-high nine digs while logging one assist. Setter Abigail Hildenbrand dished out a team-high 19 assists.
 
LA Tech will close out its weekend trip with another matchup against the Blazers. Sunday's match is set to begin at 1 p.m. in the Bartow Arena.