Racer Volleyball Travels to Dayton for Wright State Invitational

Friday, September 13

Dayton, Ohio

3:30 p.m.

Murray State

Indiana State

Racer Volleyball Travels to Dayton for Wright State Invitational

9/12/2013 9:05:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Match Notes | Live Stats | Video vs. ISU | Video vs. WSU I Video vs. RMU

Murray State will head to its third weekend tournament, participating in the Wright State Invitational. The Racers will look to get back on track after recently having their season-long four game winning streak snapped at the hands of Evansville in their home opener. Murray State now sits at 4-3.

The four-team tournament will kick-off Friday night as MSU battles Indiana State. The Racers will then face host Wright State Saturday morning and Robert Morris later that same afternoon.

Racer fans packed into Racer arena Tuesday Sep. 10 for Murray State volleyball's home opener against Evansville. The fans brought a great atmosphere, but MSU couldn't live up to its end of the bargain, losing in straight sets to the Purple Aces for the second time this season. In a rematch from the season opener under two weeks ago, the two teams played three incredibly close sets, with two of the three needing extra points to determine a winner.

The score was tied 38 times and the lead changed hands 18 times in just the three sets. The Racers seemingly had momentum on their side, breaking set point twice in the opening set, but could not complete the victory and fell 28-26. MSU played two more spirited battles, with every point being fought for, but were ultimately doomed by their own mistakes. The Racers committed 16 more errors than Evansville (26-10), including crucial ones downs the stretch in sets two and three.

Scottie Ingram led the Racers with her second career double-double, leading the team in both kills (14) and digs (22). Hannah Stultz played the entire third set and set career-bests with 15 assists, three digs and two kills.

Friday night's opponent, Indiana State, is seven matches into the 2013 campaign and has already matched their 2012 win total. With a 4-3 record, the Sycamores can enjoy an early winning record. ISU recently took two wins at the Hampton Inn of Holly Springs Invitational against Georgetown and North Carolina Central. Most recently, the Sycamore lost to IUPUI Tuesday, Sep. 10.

Indiana State is led by this past week's Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week Morgan Dall. Dall notched her 1,000^th career kill (11^th player in ISU history) and set a career-best with 26 kills in a straight-set victory over Chicago State. In four games, Dall landed 83 kills and had a .311 hitting percentage. For the season, Dall leads the team with 123 kills.

Indiana State has a strong presence in the middle of the court with three players already registering at least 20 blocks. Kynedi Nalls leads the way with 25 while Kyla Thomas (24) and Cassandra Willis (20) are close behind.

Wright State enters their tournament in a mini-slump having lost three of their last four matches. After salvaging a win in their final match of the Lafayette Tournament this past weekend, the Raiders were dropped in straight sets by Butler.

Heidi Splinter leads an offensive attack averaging 11.89 kills per set. Her 130 kills are a team-best and her 3.51 kills per set are second in the Horizon League. Emily Meng, the primary setter, comes in with a Horizon League best 383 assists. The Raiders have four players with double-digit blocks; Marisa Aiello leads the way with 25. The defense has also racked up 521 digs. Five players have at least 50 digs with Miranda Puthoff on top with 130.

Robert Morris is still looking to pick up its first win of the season entering its eighth match. A season ago the Colonials finished 18-16 and earned a trip to the NEC Tournament.

RMU is led by a trio of juniors, Sydney Sizemore, Hannah Hoffman and Melissa Bograd. Sizemore leads the team and is seventh in the North East Conference (NEC) with a 2.72 kills per set average (68 overall). Bograd also finds herself on the NEC rankings, coming in tied for fifth with 3.14 digs per set (80 overall).
Arden Fisher is coming off a productive game against Akron. In the 3-0 match loss, Fisher recorded a double-double, leading the Colonials with 10 kills and 15 digs.