The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Volleyball team enters the third weekend of their 2016 campaign prepared to face yet another slate of formidable opponents as the program competes in the Peggy Martin Crossover Challenge in Warrensburg, Missouri, on September 15-16.
The three-game set begins with an 11 a.m. first-serve on Friday with Newman University of the Heartland Conference. The Jets have won six out of their last seven matches. Saturday's action consists of a pair of matches with MIAA-regional opponents Northwest Missouri State and Central Missouri. SAU squares off with NMSU, which is 8-0 and receiving votes in the latest AVCA DII Top-25 poll, at 9 a.m, before concluding their stay with a 1 p.m. tilt against #11-ranked Central Missouri. It will be the second-straight weekend that Southern Arkansas battles a top-15 ranked team having done so with a matchup against #10 Northern State last weekend in Arkadelphia.
Most recently, Southern Arkansas (3-6, 0-1 GAC) is coming off a road loss in their Great American Conference opener to league preseason number one Arkansas Tech.
Statistically, Southern Arkansas is currently in the top-five in five Great American Conference categories: service aces (1st | 52), service aces per set (2nd | 1.49), digs (3rd | 593), opponent hitting percentage (4th | .171) and digs per set (5th | 16.94).
The Lady Muleriders are paced atop the conference in service aces in large part to seniors
Paige Mays and
Serena LeDuff. Mays is tied for third in the leage with 16 service aces at .46 per set, while LeDuff is ranked sixth with 14 service aces at .41 per set. Mays is also second in the GAC in digs (166) and fourth in digs per set (4.74). LeDuff is second behind Mays for the Lady Muleriders with 113 digs at 3.32 digs per set. Freshman
Katy Cooper ranks sixth in the league with 8.73 assists per set. and eighth in total assists at 227. Offensively, juniors
Alexia Southern and
Alli O'Banion lead SAU with 89 kills each, while senior
Kaitlyn Reiner owns a team-best .217 attack percentage for players with at least 150 attacks. Three players have collected 18 blocks this season as Reiner, O'Banion and junior
Brittany Lampkin average .51 blocks per set.
Links for live stats for all of Southern Arkansas' matches this weekend as well as their lone live video match with host #11 Central Missouri can be found on muleriderathletics.com under the volleyball schedule tab.
Be sure to check out the new muleriderathletics.com for all pregame and postgame updates and recaps of Lady Mulerider Volleyball throughout the 2016 season.
