Volleyball Welcomes Austin Peay for Home Finale

In the final week of the regular season, the Murray State Racers volleyball team (14-11, 8-7 OVC) hosts Austin Peay (19-9, 12-3 OVC) in the regular season home finale at Racer Arena on Wednesday.

MURRAY STATE VS AUSTIN PEAY
Wednesday, November 10 | 6 p.m. CT
Live Video (ESPN+) | Live Stats

LAST TIME OUT
- The Racers split the weekend series with Southeast Missouri, falling in four sets the opening day before producing a dominant sweep of the Redhawks on Senior Day.
- Murray State honored its three seniors and student manager pre-game on Saturday for their outstanding contributions and dedication to the program.
- Brooke Lynn Watts won her seventh Newcomer of the Week award after posting a pair of double-digit kill matches. This is Watts' tenth weekly award of the season.
- Taylor Beasley faced off against her sister, Zoey, a junior for the Redhawks and finished with 10 kills on a .304 hitting clip, including a season-high six kills on Saturday.
- Bailey DeMier produced 71 assists, dishing out a 39 assists and 11 digs for a double-double on Friday against the Redhawks. The following day, DeMier recorded 32 assists to pair with 8 digs and four kills on senior night.
- On her Senior Weekend, Fernandez led the Murray State defense with 41 digs in the split with SEMO. She collected 24 digs in the opening match before adding 17 digs and had 7 assists.

REDEMPTION TIME
- The Racers lost a five-set battle to the Govs last month sending MSU's losing streak to five games.
- Since then, the Racers have turned it around, going 6-2 including winning five straight.

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.
- Second-place Austin Peay visits the Racers Wednesday before heading to Eastern Illinois
- Murray State has secured a spot in the tournament going into the last weekend of the regular season with an 8-7 conference record

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 is five digs away from her 2019 dig total (521), which is 10th-most in the a single-season.
- DeMier needs 130 assists to move into 10th on Murray State's single season record list
- Watts is just 44 away from the 10th spot in the Racers' single-season record books.

HOME SWEEP HOME
- Murray State is 7-1 at Racers and 22-4 in sets won, sweeping six of their eight 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.

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 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 sixth overall in the OVC standings with three games of conference play left.
- 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
- Austin Peay leads the overall series 43-39 with the Racers holding a 21-13 advantage in Murray.
- Last season, Austin Peay took both matches, winning in four sets before closing out the series with a 3-0 sweep. The Govs won in five sets over Murray State earlier in the season.

SCOUTING AUSTIN PEAY
- Austin Peay moved into second in OVC standings over the weekend after taking both matches from UT Martin.
- The Govs are 19-9 on the season with a 12-3 mark in OVC play.
- Austin Peay won a five-set, reverse sweep of UTM, 14-25, 17-25, 25-19, 25-18, 15-10, before downing the Skyhawks in tight straight sets on following night, 26-24, 27-15, 25-23.
- Brooke Moore became Austin Peay's career kills leader this week. She opened the weekend with 15 kills and a .371 attack percentage in the five-set victory against UTM. She ended the week with 10 kills in the three-set win against the Skyhawks.
- In the stats, the Govs are leading the league with a .234 hitting percentage, third in service aces per set (1.48), fourth in kills per set (13.27) and assists per set (12.10), fifth in blocks per set (2.05) and digs (15.48)
- Austin Peay leads the overall series 43-39 with the Racers holding a 21-13 advantage in Murray.
- Last season, Austin Peay took both matches, winning in four sets before closing out the series with a 3-0 sweep. The Govs won in five sets over Murray State eariler in the season.
- The Govs are coached by head coach Taylor Mott (10th season), assistant coaches Travis LeBlanc and Connor Crawford.

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Players Mentioned

Taylor Beasley

Bailey DeMier

Becca Fernandez

Alexa Harris

Emily Matson

Kolby McClelland

Brooke Lynn Watts

Murray State University Athletics