Volleyball Heads to the Music City to Face Belmont

The Murray State Racers volleyball team (12-9, 6-5 OVC) will travel to Belmont (8-14, 6-6 OVC) in Nashville, Tennessee at the Curb Event Center.

MURRAY STATE AT BELMONT
Friday, October 29 | 6 p.m. CT
Live Stats

Saturday, October 30 | 2 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 extended their winning streak to four games, sweeping the series against Tennessee State at Racer Arena, to improve to 6-5 in conference
- Murray State improved to 6-0 at Racer Arena with an 18-1 sets record.
- The Racers swept the Tigers both Thursday and Friday night during Murray State's Homecoming Weekend, winning 25-17, 25-18, 25-20 the first game and 25-22, 27-25, 25-15 the following day.
- Watts had a big weekend for the Racers, with a match-high 18 kills on a .333 attacking clip on Thursday and followed it up with another match-high 13 kills on a .385 attacking %, adding three blocks assists in each match.
- DeMier propelled the Racer offense to a .249 hitting percentage, averaging 12.75 assists per set.
- Watts claimed another two OVC weekly honors, Offensive Player of the Week and Newcomer of Week after averaging 5.17 kills per set on a .354 attacking percentage this past weekend.
- DeMier picked up her second straight OVC honor, winning Co-Setter of the Week

BACK ON TRACK
- After sweeping their initial conference series, the Racers fell in their next five, dropping three five-setter in that time.
- Murray State completed its two-week homestand, going 4-0 with three sweeps to win four straight conference games for the first time since 2019.
- The Racers hit two of their highest hitting percentage of the season in the four matches, hitting .308 versus TTU and .292 versus TSU, led by Brooke Lynn Watts and Alexa Harris.

HOME SWEEP HOME
- Murray State is 6-0 at Racers and 18-1 in sets won.
- The Racers have swept five of their six home games
- The offense is averaging 14.53 kills per set at a .252 hitting percentage compared to opponents 10.21 kills per set on a .139 swing rate and outdigging them with 15.74 digs per set to 12.63 digs per set.

CRITICAL ROAD SERIES
- The Racers hold a half a game lead over the Bruins in the conference standings sitting fifth and seventh, respectively.
- The top 8 teams will make the conference tourney
- On the road this season, Murray State is 1-8

OVC HONORS
- The Racers have collected OVC honors in eight of the first nine weeks of the season, totaling 14 honors so far, the most of any team in the conference.
- Freshman Brooke Lynn Watts has claimed nine honors, six Newcomer of the Weeks and three Offensive Player of the Week.
- Freshman Alexa Harris claimed her first career OVC honor, Newcomer of the Week (Sept. 20).
- Senior Becca Fernandez has won OVC Defensive Player of the Week twice so far this season (Sept. 6; Oct. 4).
- Freshman setter Bailey DeMier has won two Setter of the Week awards (Oct. 18; Oct. 25)

THE OVC STACK UP
- Murray State sits fifth overall in the OVC standings after the fifth weekend of conference play.
- As a team, Murray leads the OVC in assists per set (13.24), kills per set (14.41) and digs per set (17.58) and is second in hitting percentage (.220).
- Watts leads in the OVC in kills per set (4.87) and points per set (5.17).
- Libero Becca Fernandez's 5.78 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 11.22 assists/set and ninth in the nation. She is also seventh in aces per set, at 0.31 aces per set.
- Middle blocker, Kolby McClelland is third in the OVC with a .296 hitting percentage.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
- Three Racer freshmen and three sophomores see significant playing time on the court.
- Freshmen Bailey DeMier, Alexa Harris and Brooke Lynn Watts and sophomores Jayla Holcombe, Darci Metzger and Dahlia Miller
- 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.
- Watts has collected nine total OVC weekly honors, three Offensive and six Newcomer while DeMier has two Setters and Harris has one Newcomer.

THE NATIONAL LEADERBOARD
- As a team, Murray State is fifth the nation in Kills Per Set (14.41), eighth in Assists Per Set (13.24) and 11th in Digs Per Set (17.58).
- Freshman outside hitter Brooke Lynn Watts is sixth in the NCAA in Kills Per Set, averaging 4.87 kills per set. The 2021 Gatorade State Player of the Year (Maryland) has recorded double-digit kills all but one match to start the season.
- Watts' 34 kills against Georgia Southern are the third-most in the NCAA for a 4-set match this season.
- Senior libero Becca Fernandez is in second in the NCAA in Digs Per Set, averaging 5.78 digs per set.
- Fernandez's 41 digs were second-most in a 3-set match this season in the NCAA.
- Freshman setter Bailey DeMier is ninth in the nation in Assists Per Set, averaging 11.22 assists per set.

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.

SERIES HISTORY
- Last season, the Racers did not play the Bruins in the COVID-shortened season.
- In 2019, Murray State swept Belmont in straight set, 25-19, 25-19, 25-9.
- The Racers hold a 10-4 all-time record against the Bruins with the MSU having a 6-2 record on the road.
- The Racers have won the last four over the Bruins with Murray State last lost coming in 2015.

SCOUTING BELMONT
- Belmont is 8-14 on the season with a 6-6 mark in OVC play.
- The Bruins fell in straight sets two nights in a row to league-leading Austin Peay, snapping their three-match conference win streak.
- On Friday, despite playing the Govs tight, netiher team led by more than two in the first set, the Bruins fell 3-0, 26-24, 25-16 and 25-21.
- Belmont was dominated by Austin Peay's high-powered attack as the Govs hit .440 in Saturday's match and at the line as the Govs served 12 aces to win in three, 25-12, 25-14, 25-14.
- Offensively, the Bruins were led by Mary Catherine Bell, who finished the weekend with 14 kills on a .379 attacking %.
- Taylor Floyd is tenth in the OVC at 2.92 kills per set and points at 3.36 points per set.
- Belmont runs a 6-2 offense utilizing both Carly Mason and Izzy Schauer in the setting position. Schauer averages 5.99 assists per set with Mason 5.59 assists per set.
- At the net, Kailee Bass is the Bruins largest presence, putting up 0.94 blocks per set for 13 solo blocks and 55 block assists
- Defensively, Rachel McBride averages 4.28 digs per set, good for sixth in the league. McBride picked up 16 digs in the series against Austin Peay.
- At the Curb Event Center, Belmont is 6-2 this season, their only losses coming to Indiana State (Sept. 4) and UT Martin (Sept. 25).
- The Bruins are coached by head coach Katelyn Harrison Sutton (3rd season) and assistant coaches Justin Wells and Courtney Johnson.

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Players Mentioned

Bailey DeMier

Becca Fernandez

Alexa Harris

Jayla Holcombe

Kolby McClelland

Darci Metzger

Dahlia Miller

Brooke Lynn Watts

Murray State University Athletics