Regular Season Finale On Deck For Volleyball

Friday, November 12

Edwardsville, Ill.

6 p.m.

Murray State

SIUE

Photo by: Sierra Gilmore

11/11/2021 5:57:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Murray State closes out 2021 regular season at SIU-Edwardsville

In the final weekend of the regular season, the Murray State Racers volleyball team (15-11, 9-7 OVC) travels to SIU-Edwardsville (6-21, 3-13 OVC) for a pair of matches

MURRAY STATE VS SIU-EDWARDSVILLE
Friday, November 12 | 6 p.m. CT
Live Stats

Saturday, November 13 | 2 p.m. CT
Live Stats

LAST TIME OUT
- The Racers beat Austin Peay 3-1 in the Racers home regular season finale.
- It was final game at Racer Arena for the three seniors, Becca Fernandez, Emily Matson and Kolby McClelland who went 36-8 on their home court, including 8-1 this season.
- The Racers honored Murray State's All-Time Digs Leader, Fernandez, pre-game for her accomplishment with a commemorative volleyball. The Carol Stream, Ill. native has amassed 2,477 career digs in her time as a Racer.
- Offensively, Brooke Lynn Watts led the team with 16 kills.
- Joining Watts with double-digit kills was McClelland, who hit 14 kills and no errors for a .483 attacking %, her fifth match hitting .400 this season and Jayla Holcombe added 10 kills.
- McClelland added one solo stuff and three block assists while Fernandez picked up 20 digs and served three aces.
- DeMier notched her 11^th double-double of the season, dishing out 43 assists and digging 10 balls.

REDEMPTION
- The Racers lost a five-set battle to the Govs last month sending MSU's losing streak to five games but won last night in four sets at Racer Arena to split the series with the Govs.

OVC TOURNAMENT
- The top eight teams will make the 2021 OVC Tournament, hosted by the #1 seed
- Morehead currently sits first but the Eagles travel to third-place SEMO which could have big impacts on standings.
- The Eagles just have to win one game at SEMO to host the OVC Tourney for the second year in a row
- If Southeast Missouri wins both over Morehead State, the Redhawks will host.
- Murray State has secured a spot in the tournament going into the last weekend of the regular season with a 9-7 conference record

HOMECOMING
- Edwardsville, Illinois is home to freshman outside hitter Alexa Harris.
- Sophomores Jayla Holcombe and Darci Metzger also hail from nearby in East St. Louis and Collinsville, Illinois, respectively.

NUMBER TEN FOR #12
- Freshman Brooke Lynn Watts has claimed ten honors, seven Newcomer of the Weeks and three Offensive Player of the Week.
- Austin Peay's Kristen Stucker was the last player in the conference to win 10 weekly awards. Stucker won Setter of the Week 10 times in the 2017 season.

CAREER MILESTONES
- Freshman setter Bailey DeMier surpassed 1,000 career assists (1,020) over the weekend, dishing out 71 helpers.
- Freshman outside hitter Brooke Lynn Watts has recorded double-digit kills in all but one match, for a total of 430 kills.

SINGLE-SEASON RECORD WATCH
- Fernandez surpassed her 2019 dig total (521) on Wednesday with 20 digs, collecting 536 so far to tie her for eighth with Kayleah Sauer's 2009 dig total.
is five digs away from her 2019 dig total (521), which is 10th-most in the a single-season.
- DeMier needs 87 assists to move into 10th on Murray State's single season record list
- Watts is just 28 away from the 10th spot in the Racers' single-season record books.

HOME SWEEP HOME
- Murray State finished the season with an 8-1 at Racers and 25-5 in sets won, sweeping six of their nine 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 out digging them with 15.74 digs per set to 12.63 digs per set.

OVC HONORS
- The Racers have collected OVC honors in nine of the eleven weeks of the season, totaling 15 honors so far, the most of any team in the conference.
- Freshman Brooke Lynn Watts has won ten weekly honors, the most in the OVC
- 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 (Sept. 6; Oct. 4).
- Freshman setter Bailey DeMier has won two Setter of the Week awards (Oct. 18; Oct. 25)

2021 SENIOR CLASS
The Racers recognized three seniors Becca Fernandez, Emily Matson, and Kolby McClelland and student manager, Drew Langston, for the 2021 season.
- The four have collectively been to three OVC tournaments, including an NCAA appearance in 2018, and they will be making their 4th OVC tournament advancement this year
- Libero Becca Fernandez is Murray State's All-Time Dig Leader, tallying 2,412 career digs.
- Fernandez has played in 129 career matches, 10th-most in Racer history with 127 in the libero jersey.
She has won 12 OVC Defensive Player of the Week awards.
- Matson has played in a total of 70 games for the Racers. For her career, she has amassed 243 kills, 32 aces, and 131 digs.
- McClelland is second on the team in kills, notching 192 kills with an average of 2.49 kills per set, 16 aces, and 225 points and is third in the OVC with a .284 hitting percentage.

THE OVC STACK UP
- Murray State sits fourth overall in the OVC standings going into the last weekend of play.
- As a team, Murray leads the OVC in assists per set (13.16), kills per set (14.28) and digs per set (17.13) and is third in hitting percentage (.220).
- Watts leads in the OVC in kills per set (4.67) and points per set (4.99). She 14th in the NCAA in KPS and 22nd in PPS.
- Libero Becca Fernandez's 5.61 digs/set is best in the OVC and fourth overall in the NCAA.
- Freshman setter Bailey DeMier is first in the OVC in assists per set, averaging 11.09 assists/set and 12th in the nation. She is also seventh in the OVC in aces per set, at 0.31 aces per set.
- Middle blocker, Kolby McClelland is third in the OVC with a .296 hitting percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
- Murray State leads the overall series 19-5 with the Racers holding a 7-5 advantage in Edwardsville.
- Last season, SIU-Edwardsville took both matches, winning in five sets before closing out the series with a 3-0 sweep.

SCOUTING SIU-EDWARDSVILLE
- After finishing fourth in the OVC in 2020, the Cougars have had a rough go in 2021.
- SIUE in second-to-last in the conference, hold a 6-21 overall record and 3-13 OVC record.
- The Cougars have picked up wins over Eastern Illinois, Belmont and Tennessee State.
- SIUE split their weekend series last weekend with TSU, falling in straight sets on Friday before winning in five on Saturday.
- SIUE was led by Annie Ellis, who registered a season-high 20 kills on the day and hit at a team-best .385 clip.
- Savannah Christian was not too far behind, recording 18 kills of her own and adding a pair of digs.
- Alyse Drifka led all players with 31 assists, followed closely by true freshman Grace Beekman with 24.
- Nicole Kijowski notched 17 digs, while Grace Hurst added 10.
- The Cougars are coached by head coach Kendall Paulus (5th season) and assistant coach Luke Young.