MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Four Great American Conference matches highlight the remaining regular season slate for the Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Volleyball team. Tonight in Searcy, SAU faces one of the league's best in Harding in a Halloween showdown scheduled to start at 6 p.m. from inside Rhodes-Reaves Field House. Live coverage links of all the action can be found below or at www.muleriderathletics.com.
 
QUICK FACTS

• The Lady Muleriders (8-19, 1-11 GAC) are coming off their first league win of the season: a 3-1 victory over Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday night in Magnolia.
• SAU attacks .156 as a team averaging 11.41 kills per set, while owning top ten marks in the GAC in blocks per set (6^th | 1.79) and service aces per set (7^th | 1.32).
• Southern Arkansas and Harding have met 13 times since the two joined the Great American Conference in 2011. Harding holds a 10-3 lead during that span including having won three straight including a pair of victories in 2016 and a four-set win on the road in Magnolia in late September.
• The three GAC wins that SAU has over the Lady Bisons since 2011 all came in the 2015 season as the Lady Muleriders swept Harding at home in straight sets, and won in five sets in Searcy, before winning a five-set thriller in the opening round of the league tournament that season.
• Harding (23-3, 11-1 GAC) enters Tuesday night's Halloween showdown having won six matches in a row and ten out of their past 12.
• The Lady Bisons' three losses have come at the hands of a pair of ranked opponents (No. 15 Central Missouri, No. 24 Arkansas Tech) and Arkansas-Fort Smith which is currently 21-6 and atop the standings in the Heartland Conference.
• HU owns some of the best statistical marks in the conference ranking second in the league in hitting percentage (.233), opponent hitting percentage (.129), assists per set (12.92), and kills per set (13.75), while claiming top five marks in blocks per set (3^rd | 2.10) and digs per set (5^th | 17.81).

 
WHO TO WATCH

• Three Lady Muleriders have recorded 200 or more kills this season led by senior Alexia Southern's 274 at 2.77 kills per set. Senior Alli O'Banion (224) and sophomore Seven Powers (203) round out hitters with 200 or more kills, while freshman Bailey Cagle is fourth with 121 kills at a team-leading .246 hit clip.
• In SAU's first league win of the season over UAM last week, O'Banion collected four total blocks including three assisted as she became the program's All-Time leader in Block Assists in the Rally Scoring Era with 266 total. The Dos Palos, California, native added nine kills and is now just 24 kills shy of becoming the fifth SAU player in the RSE with 1,000 career kills. Earlier this season, O'Banion became just the third Lady Mulerider in the Rally Scoring Era to eclipse 300 career blocks.
• Newcomer Alexa Bass has been scary good in the month of October as the Fort Worth, Texas native became just the third Lady Mulerider to record a triple-double in the RSE with a 10 kill, 29 assist, 10 dig effort vs. Oklahoma Baptist (10/13). The sophomore followed that performance up with a 14 kill, 38 assist, 11 dig showing at East Central (10/21) to become the first SAU player with two triple-doubles in the RSE. Only four triple-doubles have been recorded since 2000 and Bass owns two of those, while falling three kills shy of her third such performance in the win over UAM.

• Over half of SAU's 10.65 assists per set come from Bass as she owns the league's ninth-best per set mark at 6.47. Senior Savannah Pillow adds 3.62 assists per set.
• Bass also leads five other Lady Muleriders in double digit service aces with 42 and has been on a tear in the month of October recording 19 service aces in eight matches, which includes a pair of five ace performances. She currently ranks second in the GAC in service aces per set with 0.42.
• Cagle has played a pivotal role in SAU's front line defense during her rookie campaign as she leads the team with 83.0 total blocks at 0.83 per set. O'Banion follows with 71.0 total blocks, while freshman Lauren Smith (43.0), Southern (41.0), and Powers (32.0) have provided ample support for the Lady Muleriders' front line defense.
• Four Lady Muleriders have recorded 200 or more digs paced by sophomore Whitney Brown's 374 at 3.90 per set. Bass has added 239 digs with Southern (232) and sophomore Riley Marsh (206) also contributing in the backcourt.

 
HARDING

• Zoe Hardin, the GAC's reigning Player of the Year, leads the Lady Bisons as a front line force. She owns a league-best mark of 1.26 blocks per set and ranks fourth in the GAC in hitting percentage (.320) and points per set (3.99).
• Hardin's 268 kills pace three other HU players with 200 or more including Emma Reeves who has tallied 215 kills and also joins Hardin in the top ten in hitting percentage averaging the league's tenth-best clip at .286.
• Hardin's 115.0 total blocks are a league-high, while five other Lady Bisons front liners have registered 30.0 or more total blocks this season. She also has produced a team-leading 27 service aces.
• Rachel Heussner is atop the conference leaderboard in assists per set averaging 10.69 per set, while her 973 total assists are the second-most in the GAC.
• Taylor Lake has produced 420 digs and ranks sixth in digs per set at 4.77. Heussner follows with 261 digs and Selena Foster has added 260 digs.

 
LIVE COVERAGE

• Live Video – https://thelink.harding.edu/tv16/harding-athletics/
• Live Stats – http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=181892

   

Southern Arkansas	Team Statistics	Harding
27 (102)	Matches Played (Sets Played)	26 (91)
1,164 (11.4)	Kills (Kills per Set)	1,251 (13.7)
603	Errors	435
3,597	Total Attacks	3,503
.156	Attack Percentage	.233
1,086 (10.6)	Assists (Assists per Set)	1,176 (12.9)
135 (1.3)	Aces (Aces per Set)	108 (1.2)
167 (1.6)	Reception Errors (RE per Set)	91 (1.0)
1,575 (15.4)	Digs (Digs per Set)	1,621 (17.8)
183.0 (1.8)	Total Blocks (Blocks per Set)	191.0 (2.1)