MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Southern Arkansas Volleyball welcomes in two of the top six teams in the Great American Conference into the W.T. Watson Center this weekend as Oklahoma Baptist and defending GAC Tournament Champion Southern Nazarene blanket the weekend's schedule. First-serve on Friday, October 13 is slated for 6 p.m., with Saturday's action scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
QUICK FACTS
- The Lady Muleriders are back at home inside the W.T. Watson Center and Friday's match against Oklahoma Baptist begins a three-game home stand, while four of Southern Arkansas' next six matches are also at home.
- Southern Arkansas is 6-15 overall and 0-7 against Great American Conference teams. Of the seven league losses, five have come in the fourth set or later, while three have been in five sets.
- SAU is tied for 11th with East Central in the current conference standings.
- Southern Arkansas is just three games back of the eighth and final tournament spot with nine league contests remaining on the regular season schedule.
- The Lady Muleriders are currently hitting .143 with opponents attacking at a clip of .205.
- SAU averages 11.17 kills per set and defensively posts 1.74 blocks per set which stands as the sixth-best mark in the conference.
WHO TO WATCH
- Last weekend, senior outside hitter Alexia Southern eclipsed the 200 kill mark for the season and leads the team with 201 kills in a team-high 668 attempts.
- Sophomore Seven Powers (162) and senior Alli O'Banion (157) round out hitters with 100 or more kills, while freshman Bailey Cagle is just three kills from the century mark in her rookie campaign. Cagle owns the club's top hit clip at .244 among players with 135 or more total attacks.
- O'Banion finds herself closing in on several career milestones with just ten games remaining in the 2017 regular season. The Dos Palos, California, native is ten total blocks from 300 for her career and is 91 kills shy from reaching the 1,000 career kills mark. O'Banion could become the third Lady Mulerider to reach 300 or more career blocks in the Rally Scoring Era and just the fourth player to eclipse 1,000 kills in a career in that same time span.
- Over half of SAU's 10.35 assists per set come from setter Alexa Bass as the sophomore owns the league's ninth-best per set mark at 6.43. Bass also leads four Lady Muleriders in double digit service aces with 25. Senior Savannah Pillow adds 3.45 assists per set.
- Cagle and O'Banion have each produced a team-leading 56.0 total blocks, while Southern (30.0), Powers (28.0) and freshman Lauren Smith (27.0) have provided ample support for the Lady Muleriders' front line defense.
- Four Lady Muleriders have recorded 140 or more digs paced by sophomore Whitney Brown's 269 at 3.74 per set. Bass has added 183 assists with Southern (148) and sophomore Riley Marsh (147) also contributing in the backcourt.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13 – MAGNOLIA, ARKANSAS – W.T. WATSON CENTER
OF NOTE
- Oklahoma Baptist is currently 11-9 overall with a 6-1 mark in Great American Conference play.
- The Lady Bison have won two-straight league contests over Ouachita and Henderson State, while their only conference setback came in a five-set loss on the road at Southwestern Oklahoma State.
- Six of the Lady Bison's nine losses have come in the fourth set or later, with four losses coming in five set matches.
- OKB enters the weekend in a three-way tie for second with Harding and Northwestern Oklahoma State and with the opportunity to compete in postseason play for the first time as Division II members after serving the two-year mandatory probation period for new NCAA members.
- In their previous two meetings, Oklahoma Baptist has beaten Southern Arkansas both times but never in straight sets. The two programs played in a five-set thriller in Magnolia in 2015 and a four-set match in Shawnee last season.
- Oklahoma Baptist brings one of the league's top-five attacking offenses across state lines as the Lady Bison attack at .203, while averaging 12.38 kills per set (7th GAC).
- Defensively, OKB boast one of the best front line defenses in the conference as it owns the top blocks per set mark in the GAC at 2.55, while holding opponents to the third-lowest hitting percentage at .148. On the back end, OKB is averaging 16.83 digs per set (8th GAC).
WHO TO WATCH
- Sophia Couto's .287 hitting percentage ranks her 8th in the Great American Conference and her 45 errors are the third-fewest among players ranked in the top ten in attack percentage.
- Hayden Blair is responsible for developing the Lady Bison attack as the junior owns the league's seventh-most assists per set at 8.41. Blair has totaled 657 assists this season. OKB averages 11.12 assists per set as a team.
- Three players, Cadyn Laing, Nicole Fleitman and Couto, rank in the top five of the GAC's blocks per set list as the trio combines to average 3.21 blocks per set. All three players have recorded 75.0 or more total blocks with Laing and Couto having already eclipsed 85.0 total blocks.
- Fleitman and Laing have both captured weekly league honors so far this season with the former earning offensive honors on September 25 while the latter claimed the defensive award this past week.
- Laing boasts the eighth-most points per set in the conference at 3.51 and her 207 kills rank second on the team behind Mikayla Watson's 222. Watson also leads the team in digs at 252, while Suzanny Figueiredo follows with 248 at the league's sixth-best per set clip of 4.86.
- Malia Leatherland averages 2.67 digs per set and 0.41 blocks per set, leads the team in service aces with 24, and owns the third-highest kills per set mark on the team at 2.36.
LIVE COVERAGE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14 – MAGNOLIA, ARKANSAS – W.T. WATSON CENTER
OF NOTE
- Southern Nazarene, the defending GAC Tournament Champions, enters this weekend of play at 9-10 overall with an above-.500 record in conference play at 4-3.
- The Crimson Storm are currently sitting in sixth-place outright in the league standings and have dropped their past two GAC meetings: four-set losses to Henderson State and Northwestern Oklahoma both of which were at home in Bethany.
- SNU is 4-1 against Southern Arkansas since the former joined the GAC in 2012. The Crimson Storm own a 2-1 record in Magnolia. The lone loss came in the first meeting between the two schools as the Lady Muleriders swept the then-first year NCAA program in 2012.
- Southern Nazarene attacks at a clip of .163 and allows opponents to hit .190. The team's 12.99 kills per set ranks as the third-highest per set mark in the league.
- The Crimson Storm also own top-five marks, ranked fourth in each, in assists per set (12.17), service aces per set (1.45) and digs per set (17.56), but owns a league-low mark in blocks per set averaging just 1.16.
WHO TO WATCH
- Crimson Storm players blanket the league's top ten in several statistical categories as Kayla Thomas' .316 hitting percentage is the fourth-highest mark in the GAC. Thomas also owns the seventh-best kills per set mark averaging 2.99, while teammate Bailee Turang sits atop the category as the only player averaging 4 kills per set, while her 4.47 points per set is also a league-best.
- Turang, the league's Offensive Player of the Week on October 2, leads the team in kills with 286 and Thomas follows with 203. Meagan Ellis has added 135 kills this season.
- Kylie Smith is one of four GAC setters averaging 10 or more assists per set as her 10.17 assists per set mark ranks third in the league. She currently has 712 assists this season and joined Turang by earning a weekly GAC honor as she claimed the Setter of the Week award on October 2.
- Ellis and Elyse Berlin are one of three pair of teammates to both rank in the top ten in service aces with Ellis' 0.43 per set standing as the second-highest mark in the GAC. The duo has combined for 55 service aces, while Turang has contributed with 19.
- Berlin's 4.65 digs per set are the eighth-most in the conference and she currently has 330 digs this season. Smith adds 217 digs and Hannah Davis follows with 213.
- Makenna Hunter paces the defensive front line with 41.0 total blocks.
LIVE COVERAGE
HEAD TO HEAD
| Southern Arkansas |
Team Statistics |
OKB |
SNU |
| 21 (78) |
Matches Played (Sets Played) |
20 (78) |
19 (71) |
| 871 (11.2) |
Kills (Kills per Set) |
966 (12.4) |
922 (13.0) |
| 484 |
Errors |
387 |
469 |
| 2,712 |
Total Attacks |
2,857 |
2,777 |
| .143 |
Attack Percentage |
.203 |
.163 |
| 807 (10.3) |
Assists (Assists per Set) |
867 (11.1) |
864 (12.2) |
| 96 (1.2) |
Aces (Aces per Set) |
110 (1.4) |
103 (1.5) |
| 139 (1.8) |
Reception Errors (RE per Set) |
97 (1.2) |
96 (1.4) |
| 1,190 (15.3) |
Digs (Digs per Set) |
1,313 (16.8) |
1,247 (17.6) |
| 136.0 (1.7) |
Total Blocks (Blocks per Set) |
199.0 (2.6) |
82.5 (1.2) |
Bold – League Leader
Italics – League's Top 5
