MAGNOLIA, Ark. – After a weekend off, the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Volleyball team is set for possibly their toughest stretch of the season beginning in Searcy, Arkansas, tonight with a 6 p.m. first-serve with Harding, a team they swept a month ago in Magnolia.
 
The Lady Muleriders' (15-12, 6-6 GAC) matchup with the Lady Bisons begins a three-game road swing that will take Southern Arkansas to Russellville on Thursday, November 5, and to Arkadelphia a week from tonight. SAU will close out the 2015 regular season schedule on November 12, in Magnolia, against Henderson St.
 
Currently tied for sixth in the latest Great American Conference standings and riding a four-match winning streak, Southern Arkansas remains in a tight race for tournament seeding that could see them possibly move into the fourth spot for mid-November's GAC Volleyball Tournament presented by Subway.
 
Offensively, the Lady Muleriders attack at a clip of .213 (4^th/GAC) and are led by a trio of players in junior Serena LeDuff, senior Shelby Lauterbach and sophomore Alli O'Banion. LeDuff paces Southern Arkansas with 381 kills (3^rd/GAC), while Lauterbach is just four kills shy of 300. O'Banion follows with 240 kills and boasts the second-best kill percentage for players with 600+ total attacks at .221, behind LeDuff's team-leading mark of .239.
 
Senior setter Taylor Reaume leads the GAC with 1,061 assists (2^nd/GAC), at an average of 10.2 assists per set, while SAU leads the conference with 1,283 assists. Seven Lady Muleriders have recorded double-digit service ace totals, while a pair of players have 30 or more led by junior Paige Mays' 35 service aces (8^th/GAC) followed by LeDuff's 32 (9^th/GAC).
 
Defensively, junior Hannah Rice, who has twice been named GAC Defensive Player of the Week, leads a back row with 574 digs at 5.42 digs per set (2^nd/GAC), while O'Banion (56) and junior Kaitlyn Reiner (52) pace a front row defense with 50+ blocks apiece. As a team, SAU is holding opponents to an attack percentage of .173; the third-best mark in the GAC.
 
For the Lady Bisons (13-13, 7-5 GAC), they boast one of the top defenses in the conference as they hold opponents to the second-lowest hitting percentage at .172 and lead the GAC in blocks with 355 and in blocks per set at 2.27. HU averages 16.40 digs per set, the fourth-best total in the Great American Conference.
 
Leading the defensive effort for Harding is freshman Zoe Hardin who leads the conference with 128 blocks at a GAC-best 1.35 per set. Junior Anna Leigh Cargile has the ninth-best digs per set mark in the GAC at 4.14 per set.
 
Harding ranks fifth in the conference in hitting percentage (.197), kills per set (12.34), and assists per set (11.47). Individually, junior Sara Smith as well as Hardin place in the conference's top-ten in kill percentage. Smith leads the GAC with a clip of .327, while Hardin is sixth at .306.
 
Be sure to visit muleriderathletics.com for live game links, post-match updates, the coach's show with head coach Steven Gream and other news concerning Lady Mulerider Volleyball.