MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Currently in a four-way tie for fourth place and 7-6 in Great American Conference play, the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Volleyball team will have another chance to improve their standing before mid-November's league tournament in Hot Springs, but they will again have to do it on the road against the GAC's best in Arkansas Tech (23-5, 13-0 GAC) tonight at 6 p.m. inside Tucker Coliseum.
 
The Lady Muleriders (16-12, 7-6 GAC) clinched a berth in the upcoming Great American Conference Tournament presented by Subway by defeating Harding in five sets for the first-time ever on the road on Tuesday evening and in the process swept the regular season series against the Lady Bisons for the first time in the Rally Scoring Era (2000).
 
Riding a five-game winning streak, Southern Arkansas owns the fourth-best hitting percentage in the league at a mark of .213 and are holding opponents to a swing clip of .173, third-best in the GAC.
 
Offensively, SAU boasts top-three averages in kills per set (12.71/3^rd GAC), assists per set (11.99/3^rd GAC), and service aces per set (1.63/3^rd GAC). The Lady Muleriders are tops in the conference in total kills (1,360), assists (1,283) and service aces (174).
 
Junior Serena LeDuff leads the SAU offensive attack with 3.81 kills per set, the third best average in the conference. LeDuff also places fourth in the GAC with 4.25 points per set. Senior Shelby Lauterbach and sophomore Alli O'Banion combine to average over 2.5 kills per set. Senior setter Taylor Reaume engineers the attack at 10.2 assists per set.
 
The Lady Muleriders place three players in the conference's top-10 in service aces per set led by junior Paige Mays' .33 per set and followed by LeDuff (.32) and junior Gillian Newman (.30).
 
Defensively, junior Hannah Rice paces a back row with the league's second-best digs per set average at 5.42, while as a team the Lady Muleriders are third in the conference averaging 16.8 per set. Mays chips in with 2.75 digs per set. O'Banion and junior Kaitlyn Reiner lead a defensive attack on the front row as both have produced 50 or more blocks this season lead by O'Banion's 58 and Reiner's 56.
 
Arkansas Tech boasts the top offensive swinging average in the GAC at .230 and on the defensive side they hold opponents to an average hitting percentage of .171; the league's best mark. The Golden Suns own the top mark in kills per set (13.99) and assists per set (13.02), while ranking second in service aces (1.66). Defensively, ATU places fourth in blocks at 1.73 per set and fifth in digs with 16.37 per set in the conference.  
 
A pair of freshmen facilitates the Tech attack as Hunter Eshnaur leads the league in points per set at 4.46, is second in the GAC in kills per set with 3.85, and places fourth in service aces per set with .40. Classmate Sarita Stegall averages 10.2 assists per set; the third-best mark in the conference, while sophomore Madison Nagel commands a back row defense at 5 digs per set.

In their first meeting this season, the Golden Suns escaped with a five-set win (19-25, 25-12, 25-19, 20-25, 15-13) in Magnolia.
 
Fans can follow tonight's matchup in Russellville through live stats (http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=95039) or live video (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR6pOBwwxY3SmJAwI9m_XQ). Be sure to check out muleriderathletics.com for all your pregame and postgame recaps and other updates regarding Lady Mulerider Volleyball.