Racers Headed to Saluki Invitational

Friday, September 9

Carbondale, Ill.

7:30 PM

Murray State

Southern Illinois

Junior Cassy Woolverton tallied a career-best .343 hitting percentage in the Racers last match against Evansville.

Photo by: Murray State Sports Information

9/7/2011 2:42:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

The Murray State volleyball team will be participating in its final preseason tournament this weekend when they travel to Carbondale, Ill., for the Saluki Invitational, Sep. 9-10. The Racers will first face host Southern Illinois, Friday, Sep. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in SIU Arena. The tournament continues Saturday, Sep. 10 with matches against Memphis (10:30 a.m.) and Green Bay (5 p.m.).

Notes

Scouting Southern Illinois
The Salukis are 3-2 after the first two weeks of action. SIU has three main hitters seeing over 100 attempts this season. Alysia Mayes leads the team with a .343 hitting percentage on 51kills, 14 errors and 108 attempts. She also adds a team-best 25 (7-18) blocks). Jessica Whitehead leads the team in kills, with 71, and Laura Thole has 70 kills, 54 digs and 16 (2-14) blocks. The Salukis and their opponents are close in most statistical categories, but they do have an advantage in hitting percentage at .190 to .146.

The Series
The Salukis own a 10-2 advantage in the all-time series after earning wins in the last four meetings. The last meeting was Sep. 12, 2009 at the Saluki Invitational, which SIU won 3-2.

Scouting Memphis
The Tigers are 5-2 this season after the ASICS Challenge hosted by the University of San Francisco. Memphis is hitting at a .279 clip so far this season, but their opponents are hitting .206. The Tigers also have advantages in kills (14.4/11.7), service aces (1.6/1.1) and digs (14.1/12.1) per set. There are four main hitters for Memphis, each with over 125 attempts and 50 kills. Altrese Hawkins leads the team with 111 kills, a .335 attack percentage and 12 (2-10) blocks. Marija Jovanovic is also hitting over .300, with a .314 (89k-28e-194ta). Jovanovic also adds nine service aces, 47 digs and 13 (0-13) blocks. Lauren Hawkins is also a key hitter, with a .310 (62k-23e-126ta) hitting percentage and 20 (2-18) blocks.

The Series
The Tigers own an 8-1 advantage in the all-time series, including the last three meetings. The last meetings was in Memphis, Tenn., Sep. 15, 2006.

Scouting Green Bay
The Phoenix are 2-5 so far this season. Green Bay has six key hitters with over 100 attempts each. Carmen Leitermann leads the team hitting at a .291 (73k-23e-172ta) clip and adds 24 (5-19) blocks. Abbey Gitter is also a main hitter, with a .255 (67k-26e-161ta) hitting percentage. Carlie Willison is the other go-to hitter, with a .122 (49k-27e-180ta) hitting percentage, while adding 70 digs. Brittany Groth is the key defensive player with 129 digs on the season. The Phoenix are trailing their opponents in most statistical categories, except digs. Green Bay has a slight 16.4 to 15.9 digs per set advantage. However, their main deficit comes in the hitting percentage column at .190 to .202.

The Series
This will be the first meeting between the Racers and the Phoenix. MSU has faced eight other teams from the Horizon League and has an 8-14 record against the conference.

All-Tournament Honors
Senior Teresa Krog earned Marriott Volley Brawl All-Tournament honors after recording 45 kills, her first two career service aces, 13 digs and two blocks in the four matches.

Reaching for Milestones
When the MSU volleyball team steps onto the court this season they will be going for several milestones for both the team and for head coach David Schwepker. The teams first win will mark the 400th for the volleyball program in its 29 year history. The Racers currently have a 399-461-1 mark.

MSU will also be aiming to reach three difference milestones for their head coach. Schwepker needs just one OVC win to reach his 125th, seven overall wins for his 200th career coaching win and 20 wins to reach his 200th win while at the helm of the Racers.

Moving Up in the Career Charts
Three of the MSU players are currently on or just shy of making career lists in at least one category this season. Senior Mary Cunningham currently has 135 block assists, moving her into 10th on the career block assist charts at MSU. She needs 13 more to take over ninth (148-Ashley Nenninger).

Fellow senior Kayleah Sauer is already on the Racers career digs list, currently in third place (1,769) after the first weekend of play. Sauer is 225 from second held by Kim Koehler (1,994) and 356 from the top spot that belongs to Heather Norris (2,125). The Louisville, Ky., native has averaged 550 digs per season in her first three years. Sauer is also close to making a second top-10 list, service aces. She ended her last campaign with 85 career service aces and the top-10 list starts at 99 and goes up to 257.

Junior Lydia Orf is also making a push to join Sauer in the 1,000 Dig Club. The St. Charles, Mo., native has recorded 647 digs and needs 353 to become the 14th member of the club.

Up Next
The Racers will start the Ohio Valley Conference portion of the season next weekend, with matches on the road against SIU Edwardsville (Sep. 16) and Eastern Illinois (Sep. 17).