Murray State University Athletics
Serves Set to Fly in Racer Arena for First Time in 2009
9/16/2009 3:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
After spending the first three weeks of the 2009 season on the road, the Murray State volleyball team will get its first chance to play in the newly-renovated Racer Arena Friday, Sep. 18 and Saturday, Sep. 19. The Racers will open their home and Ohio Valley Conference schedule with Morehead State at 7 p.m. Friday and then face Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Scouting Morehead State
The Eagles head to Racer Arena with a 7-4 record after falling in four sets to Marshall Tuesday. As a team Morehead State is hitting .195 (476k-207e-1377ta), with Holly Evans leading the team with a .255 (93k-30e-247ta) attack percentage. The keys to success for the Eagles seem to be at the service line and defensively at the net. Morehead is averaging 2.5 blocks per set and 1.8 aces per set.
Annie Gruenschlaeger leads the team in blocks, with 56 total blocks (9-47), while Evans and Emma Keough have each added 36. The Eagles have four players that have tallied over 10 service aces already this season. Kirstie Brangers has 15, Kaitlin Craven record 13, and Lindsey Ruddell and Kristina Schoo each added 11.
Craven is the main offensive threat for Morehead, as she has taken 27 percent (365) of the teams attacks. She has a .200 (123k-50e-365ta) hitting percentage and averages 3.08 kills per set. Evans is the next player on the team to take the most attempts, with 247 attempts. Ellie Roberson is the only other player with more than 200 attempts, with 208 and 71 kills.
Scouting Eastern Kentucky
Like MSU, the Colonels have had a rough start to the 2009 campaign, going 0-9 in their opening tournaments against tough competition. EKU has two players that receive 46 percent of the attack attempts and another three who attempt another 40 percent. Lauren Snyder and Lindsey Loescher have each attempted around 230 attempts, with Snyder connecting on 76 and Loescher on 72. Hannah Groudle is the most accurate hitter so far this season, with a .356 (44k-8e-101ta) attack percentage. Groudle is also the team's leading blocker, with 12 (5-7). Abby O'Connor returns as the defensive specialist for the Colonel and has tallied 132 digs.
EKU has team statistics similar to the Racers, except in the blocking category. MSU is averaging 1.7 blocks per set, while the Colonels are netting just 0.9 blocks per set. EKU is also allowing 2.7 of their attacks to be sent back down on their side of the floor.
All-Tournament Honors
Junior Sara Hayden earned the team's second All-Tournament honor of the year at the 30th Annual Saluki Invitational. The Louisville, Ky., native was named to the all-tournament team after posting a .410 (20k-4e-39ta) attack percentage and garnering 11 total blocks (1.00/set). Sophomore Kayleah Sauer picked up her first award of the season when she was named to the adidas Classic All-Tournament Team. The Louisville, Ky., native tallied 44 digs, including a season-best 17 against Indiana.
Block Party
Since the 2003 campaign when the Racers recorded 226.5 total blocks the team has not focused on that aspect of the game as much. That is until last season when the team tallied 212 total blocks (73-278). During the previous four seasons the Racers sent down 141 to 193 of their opponents attacks.
A large reason for the resurgence of the art of blocking has been a trio of juniors who all have a chance to make their way onto the top-10 blocking lists this season.
Sara Hayden was the first of the three to move her way onto the All-Time Total Blocks List. In MSU's match against Valparaiso, Hayden garnered four block assists, good enough to tie her for the No. 10 spot on the total block list. She ended the weekend with 11 block assists, moving her total to 150 career blocks. She will need 21 more blocks to move up to No. 9. Hayden also needs five block solos and 20 block assists to put her name on those lists.
Ashley Nenninger is also inching closer to the 10th position on the block assist and total blocks charts after recording 87 total blocks.
The final member of the trio that has been adding to the blocking total is Becca Lamb. The Highland, Ill., native currently has 89 total blocks.
Hoping for History to Repeat
Besides earning a spot on both the All-OVC Second and Newcomer Teams, setter Jade Guo earned the first OVC Freshman of the Year honor for the Racers since 2002 when setter Nikki Wang claimed the award.
Like Guo, Wang was a native of China so the similarities between the two players seem to be running deep and the Murray State volleyball team hopes that those similarities keep coming. A year after Wang earned the Racer's first OVC Freshman of the Year honor the team claimed the 2003 OVC Tournament Championship title and made their first trip to the NCAA tournament - so the MSU volleyball team would like history to keep repeating.
