MAGNOLIA, Ark. – After a pair of road contests in central Arkansas, Southern Arkansas Volleyball returns to the W.T. Watson Center this weekend for a pair of pivotal Great American Conference matches with Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southwestern Oklahoma State. The Muleriders welcome in the Rangers on Friday night, September 28, for a 6 p.m. first-serve and will play host to the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon, September 29, in a 1 p.m. contest.
 
"My team and I are so excited to start playing the Oklahoma side of the conference this week. These past two weeks is exactly the kind of confidence boost the girls needed," remarked third-year head coach Britney Davis.
 
SAU (6-11, 1-4 GAC) has won three of their last four matches which includes the team's lone league victory: a five-set win over Arkansas-Monticello which snapped a nine-match losing streak. Southern Arkansas also defeated Williams Baptist (3-0) and Hendrix College (3-1). The Muleriders are currently in tenth place in the GAC standings, but are one game back of creating a four-team tie for seventh place.
 
Davis added, "They are finally playing the way they know they are capable of. Practice has been fast paced and competitive, they have expressed each day how much they are loving it and how they are feeling united as a team. They know how important this weekend is and they are prepared to fight for every point."
 
Southern Arkansas will be presented multiple opportunities to improve upon their standing entering the back-half of the season as 11 of the team's final dozen matches are against conference opponents with seven of those matches at home inside the W.T. Watson Center.
 
The Muleriders have been impressive during their three-of-four match wins window as the team is attacking at .203 and has delivered 187 kills led by freshman Rylea Brimhall's 50 at 3.33 kills per set. Brimhall, along with sophomore Bailey Cagle who has recorded 32 kills during this stretch, are both attacking at .256, while sophomore Lauren Smith owns a team-best attack clip of .269 in the past four matches.
 
Freshman setter Lexi Kruse has accounted for 117 assists in the last four matches including a career-best 45, which she has reached twice in her past three trips to the court, in the road win at Hendrix. Classmate Caitlin Murdock recorded 31 assists, a three-set match high for SAU this season, in the straight sets victory over Williams Baptist.
 
In the past four matches, Cagle has delivered ten total blocks, while Smith and Gross have each recorded eight. That same stretch has seen five players register 25 or more digs led by Bihary's 72.
 
Among the Great American Conference leaders, several Muleriders hold top ten marks. Bihary ranks fifth in the league in digs per set at 4.54. Her 277 digs this season rank seventh in the GAC. Smith and Cagle both own top ten blocks per set averages with Smith ranking seventh in the GAC at 0.86, while Cagle is currently placed tenth at 0.77. Kruse's 0.33 service aces per set is the eighth-highest mark in the GAC.
 
Junior Kayley Davis follows Bihary with 102 digs on the season, while Kruse and sophomore Alana Perez have combined for 170. Bihary leads the team with 19 service aces, and is second behind Kruse's aforementioned service aces per set clip. Kruse has recorded 17 service aces, while Smith has added a dozen with Davis having chipped in 10.
 

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Friday's opponent in Northwestern Oklahoma State (13-7, 2-3 GAC) enters having dropped two straight matches and is 3-5 on the road this season. NWOSU owns league wins over Southern Nazarene and East Central and this weekend the team faces the Arkansas side of the conference for the first time this season.
 
The Rangers hold a new set of challenges for the Muleriders as they enter with a .225 attack percentage, fourth-best in the league, and are holding the opposition to the GAC's second-lowest hitting percentage at .162. Additionally, NWSOU owns a service aces per set clip of 1.77; the league's second-best mark.
 
Brooklynn Hesson (.294 | 8^th) and Jennifer Eubanks (.281 | 10^th) hold top ten rankings in hitting percentage in the GAC and Eubanks also ranks ninth in the league with a 0.80 blocks per set clip. Hannah Williams' 3.11 kills per set is currently the seventh-highest average and she also ranks seventh in points per set at 3.53. Hesson joins Williams in the league's top ten for kills at ninth with an average of 2.97 per set.
 
Kaitlyn Robinson produces 7.21 assists per set; the sixth-best mark in the GAC, while Tobi Barker is the conference's leader in service aces per set at 0.60.
 

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Southwestern Oklahoma State (11-4, 4-1) heads to Monticello before swinging back through to Magnolia for a 1 p.m. match. The Bulldogs are currently in a three-way tie for second, but have lost two straight. However, SWOSU has proved confident on the road as the team holds a 4-1 mark in true away games this season.
 
The Bulldogs are hitting .188 as a team and own the same opponent attack percentage as Northwestern Oklahoma State at .162. SWSOU averages 12.34 kills and 1.50 blocks per set and the team's 1.70 service aces per set ranks third. The league's top digs per set team comes to Magnolia as Southwestern Oklahoma averages an impressive 19.11 digs per set in the team's 56 sets this season.
 
Sofia Gruden is the Bulldogs' top attacker holding the league's fourth-best attack percentage at .312 and ranks eighth in blocks per set averaging 0.85. Elizabeth McVicker ranks ninth at .288, while Danusia Sipa Borgeau is sixth in the GAC in kills per set at 3.12. Sipa Borgeau (3.46) and McVicker (3.43) rank eighth and tenth respectively in points per set.
 
The offense runs through Alli Hoang who ranks fifth in the conference in assists per set at 7.93. Kaitlyn Dillon's 0.45 service aces per set ranks third, while the junior's 5.21 digs per set is the standard in the Great American Conference.
 
Live coverage links, including live stat and video links, for both matches this weekend are available under the volleyball schedule tab at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.