Racers End Road Swing in Clarksville

The Murray State Racers volleyball team (8-8, 2-4 OVC) will travel to Austin Peay (12-7, 5-1 OVC) for a midweek match with the Governors at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn.

MURRAY STATE VS. AUSTIN PEAY
Wednesday, October 13 | 6 p.m. CT
Live Video (ESPN+) | Live Stats

QUICK HITS
- The 2021 season marks the 39th year of Murray State volleyball.
- Murray State was picked to finish seventh in the OVC in the conference's preseason poll.
- Murray State's 2021 schedule boasts four non-conference tournaments after playing a conference-only schedule in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Racers will travel twice to Georgia to compete in the Mercer Bear Classic (Aug. 27-28) and in Georgia Southern's Eagle Invitational (Sept. 10-11), to St. Louis, Missouri to play in Saint Louis's Billiken Invitational (Sept. 3-4) before closing out non-conference play the University of Evansville's Dunn Hospitality Invitational (Sept. 17-18).
- Head coach Dave Schwepker stands at 354-302 in his 24th season in Murray. He is joined by assistant coach Alison Hrusovsky who enters her third season with the Racers.
- The Racers roster features a pair of seniors, one redshirt senior, two juniors, five sophomores and four freshmen.

LAST TIME OUT
- The Racers' road struggles continued as they fell twice to UT Martin over the weekend in five sets, 25-20, 21-25, 20-25, 25-15, 8-15 and in four sets, 20-25, 16-25, 25-23, 17-25.
- Metzger put up double-digit kills in back-to-back games for the first time this season. She hit a season-high 15 kills on a .500 attacking % and followed up with another 12 kills on a .320 attacking %. Metzger added six blocks assists and one solo block.
- Watts continued her streak of recording double-digit kills in every match this season with a 20 kill and 11-kill performances. Watts led all hitters with 20 kills on Friday night and added 10 digs for her third double-double in a row and added three block assists.
- Fernandez anchored the back row with 46 digs in the two matches. On Friday, Fernandez collected 24 digs in the five-setter and added another 22 digs on Saturday.

FAB FRESHMEN
- Three Racer freshmen see significant playing time, Bailey DeMier, Alexa Harris and Brooke Lynn Watts.
- Watts and DeMier have started every game at outside hitter and setter, respectively, and lead the league in kills per set and assists per set.
- Alexa Harris earned a starting role at Evansville's Dunn Hospitality Tournament and has impressed since. Last weekend, Harris picked up her first two career double-doubles with a 13-kill, 10-dig outing on Friday and a 12-kill, 13-dig performance on Saturday.
- DeMier produced 93 assists, tying her season-high 53 assists on Friday with seven digs and two aces. On Saturday, DeMier collected 40 assists, eight digs and two kills.
- Watts has collected seven total OVC weekly honors so far this season, two Offensive and five Newcomer while Harris has collected one Newcomer of the Week.

BEST IN THE NATION
- As a team, Murray State is third the nation in Kills Per Set (14.63) and in Assists Per Set (13.47).
- Freshman outside hitter Brooke Lynn Watts is third in the NCAA in Kills Per Set, averaging 5.12 kills per set. The 2021 Gatorade State Player of the Year (Maryland) has recorded double-digit kills in every match to start the season.
- Watts leads the NCAA in Attacks Per Set (14.25) and is second in Points Per Set (5.87).
- Senior libero Becca Fernandez moved into second in the NCAA in Digs Per Set, averaging 6.27 digs per set.
- Watts' 34 kills against Georgia Southern are the second-most in the NCAA for a 4-set match this season.
- Fernandez's 41 digs were second-most in a 3-set match this season in the NCAA.

OVC STACK UP
- Murray State sits seventh overall in the OVC standings after the third weekend of conference play.
- As a team, Murray leads the OVC in assists per set (13.25), kills per set (14.32) and digs per set (18.32).
- Watts leads in the OVC in kills per set (5.12) and points per set (5.41).
- Libero Becca Fernandez's 6.10 digs/set is best in the OVC and second overall in the NCAA. Freshman setter Bailey DeMier is first in the OVC in assists per set, averaging 11.13 assists/set.
- Middle blocker, Kolby McClelland is sixth in the OVC with a .271 hitting percentage.

OVC HONORS
- The Racers have collected OVC honors in each of the first six weeks of the season, totaling ten honors so far, the most of any team in the conference.
- Freshman Brooke Lynn Watts has claimed seven honors, five Newcomer of the Weeks and two Offensive Player of the Week in the first six weeks.
- Freshman Alexa Harris claimed her first career OVC honor, Newcomer of the Week (Sept. 20) after averaging 4.67 kills per set on a .310 hitting clip.
- Senior Becca Fernandez has won OVC Defensive Player of the Week twice so far this season (Sept. 6; Oct. 4).

ROAD WOES
- Through the first seven weeks, the Racers have only played two game at Racer Arena, sweeping both over Eastern Illinois. Murray State's neutral record is 5-1.
- The Racers' away record is 1-7 with their lone win coming at Georiga Southern.
- Currently, the Racers' are on a four-game skid, falling to both Morehead State and UT Martin on the road in the previous two weeks.

THE LONGEST MATCH
- The Racers played the longest match in the 25-point rally scoring era on Friday with a 38-36 set one loss to Morehead State.
- Murray State also lost 30+ point match earlier in the season, falling 33-31 in set two to Evansville.
- The Racers' previous long was on Sept 18, 2001, 38-36, to WKU in the 30-point rally scoring era.

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
- Senior libero Becca Fernandez broke Murray State's All-Time Digs record, collecting 41 digs at the Eagle Invitational to surpass Kayleah Sauer ('08-'11) with 2,166 career digs.
- Watts broke the Racers' Single Match (4-set) Kills Record with 34 kills in the win over Georgia Southern on a .387 hitting efficiency.
- Fernandez broke the Murray State's Single Match (3-set) Digs Record with a career-high 41 digs against Morehead State.

PRESEASON POLL
- The Racers were tabbed to finish seventh in the preseason OVC poll collecting 74 points.
- 2020 OVC Tournament Champion Morehead State was tabbed as the preseason favorite as they received 161 points and 17 of 20 first-place votes while Southeast Missouri (136 points, three first-place votes) and Austin Peay (121 Points) was picked second and third, respectively.
- Senior Becca Fernandez was named to the Preseason All-OVC team for the third year in a row and sophomore Jayla Holcombe was named for the first time in her career.

NONCONFERENCE SEASON
- The Racers went 6-4 in non-conference to start the 2021 season, going 5-1 at neutral sites and 1-3 on the road with tournaments at Mercer, Saint Louis, Georgia Southern and Evansville.

SERIES HISTORY
- Austin Peay leads the overall series 42-39 with the Govs holding a 15-22 advantage in Clarksville.
- Last season, Austin Peay took both matches, winning in four sets before closing out the series with a 3-0 sweep.

SCOUTING AUSTIN PEAY
- Austin Peay holds a 12-7 overall record, 5-1 in conference play to sit second in the OVC standings.
- In conference play, the Govs opened 4-0 before dropping their first conference in the weekend split with Tennessee Tech.
- The Govs lost in a close five-set match (27-25, 21-25, 17-25, 25-23, 13-15) before taking the win in the four-set match the next day (25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 25-17)
- Junior right-side hitter Mikayla Powell was named OVC Newcomer of the Week after recorded 37 kills (3.08/set) and a .264 attack percentage across the Govs' three-match road trip.
- Powell is currently second on the team in both kills (174) and blocks (48).
- Brooke Moore, the Govs other OVC honor winner, took home Offensive Player of the Week honors last week, finishing the week with 37 kills (6.17/set) on a .417 attack percentage.
- Moore is fourth all-time in career kills in Austin Peay's record books with 1351 career kills, tallying 244 kills so far this season.
- In the stats, the Govs are leading the league with a .222 hitting percentage and fourth in kills per set (12.90), assists per set (11.71), service aces per set (1.33), fifth in blocks per set (2.39) and sixth in digs (15.11)
- The Govs are coached by head coach Taylor Mott (10th season), assistant coaches Travis LeBlanc and Connor Crawford.

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Players Mentioned

Bailey DeMier

Becca Fernandez

Alexa Harris

Jayla Holcombe

Kolby McClelland

Brooke Lynn Watts

Murray State University Athletics