Charlotte Blanks USM, 3-0, In C-USA Volleyball Tournament

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Nov. 16) - Seventh-seeded Charlotte maximized its homecourt advantage

with a 3-0 win over 10th-seeded Southern Miss in the first round of the

Healthy Choice Conference USA Tournament Thursday night at Halton Arena.

The

quarterfinals get underway Friday at 1 p.m. with eighth-seeded Saint Louis

facing top seed South Florida. At 3 p.m., fifth-seeded DePaul meets

fourth-seeded Houston. No. 6 Tulane squares off with third-seeded

Louisville at 6 p.m., and the 49ers return to action at 8 p.m. against

second-seeded Cincinnati.

Charlotte wasted no time getting its offense in gear, hitting a composite

.333 (43-11-96) in the three games. Christy Galvin and Courtney Burg led the

way with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Galvin and Burg also added 10 digs

apiece. Southern Miss coach Steve Sykes knew that the 49ers would be ready

for the home crowd at Halton Arena.

"It's always an advantage to be playing at home, especially in the

conference tournament," he said. "We got off to a slow start and never

really recovered."

According to Charlotte coach Lisa Marston, her club became a little sluggish

early in a game three. The first-year mentor hopes that this is the lone

incident.

"We had a little bit of an energy drop off at the start of the third game,

which we won't be able to do against Cincinnati," she said. "But we got it

back and finished up strong."

Lindsay Westendorf and Kendall Reid-Webster had eight and six kills,

respectively. Bridget Files added five kills and seven digs and hit .333 on

the night.

SOUTHERN MISS   4       4       4               
CHARLOTTE       15      15      15
STATISTICAL LEADERS:
Kills: Galvin (CHA) 11
Attempts: Galvin (CHA) and Reid-Webster (USM) 26
Assists: Ozkan (CHA) 26
Digs: Galvin (CHA) 10, Burg (CHA) 10
Hitting Percentage: Akgun (CHA) .471 (8-0-17)
Service Aces: Ozkan (CHA) 4