MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Mulerider Volleyball (11-17 | 5-9 GAC) looks to take a little hiatus from the Great American Conference (GAC) scene, as well as the NCAA scene. The Blue and Gold are set with a solid task this Saturday (Nov. 8), as the Muleriders will set their sights just west of the Arkansas-Texas state line into Bowie County for a weekend match with the Texas A&M-Texarkana Eagles (23-5 | 9-1 RRAC), the NAIA's Red River Athletic Conference regular season champions for the second-straight campaign.
 
A Look at SAU
Southern Arkansas looks for a huge bounce-back game after nearly pulling off the reverse sweep while at Arkansas Tech on Thursday night (Nov. 6). After starting down 2-0 going into the third set, the Muleriders willed themselves back into a tight contest with the Golden Suns after forcing a fifth set with two extra point set wins (26-24, 28-26). After being up 10-6 in the final set of play, the Golden Suns caught fire, as they blazed to a 15-10 fifth set win with a 9-0 run.
 
Still leading Southern Arkansas in points and kills this season is junior Brinklee Dauenahauer. The native of Springtown, Texas, enters the weekend having earned her 300^th kill of the year, now sitting at 306. For points, with her 26 service aces and 23 block assists, the Mulerider leads her squad with 343.5 points. In last night's match in Russellville, Dauenhauer tied for the game lead in kills with her 18 kills.
 
Still recording the top attack percentage for the group, with at least 300 attacks, is junior Allie Cooper. Cooper, a native of Brownsboro, Texas, entered Russellville with the third-best hitting percentage in the GAC (.335), and walked out with improvement, now recording a .339 attack percentage. For the junior this season, Cooper has accounted for 225 kills with 52 errors on just 510 attacks. Not only has she been efficient offensively, but the Texan is also the team's leader for total blocks with 62.0 (14 solo | 48 assists). Just three blocks shy of Cooper is fellow junior Claire Johnson with 59.0 total blocks (15 solo | 44 assists).
 
Sticking with defense, the Blue and Gold still houses one of the top receivers in the nation with senior Sadie Kabisch leading the team, the conference, and the nation for digs per set, as she has averaged 6.12 per set. For total digs, Kabisch sits just shy of the top, as she ranks second in the GAC and NCAA DII with her 624 total digs.
 
SAU vs. TAMUT | Nov. 8 | 2:00 PM
1st Meeting, Series tied 0-0
First Meeting: 11/8/2025 – 2:00 PM (Texarkana, Texas)

While these two squads are only 61 miles apart, which would be shorter than any other trip for SAU in the GAC, they will meet for just the first time in either program's history. The reason for that is pretty simple, since the Eagles have not started playing volleyball until 2022. In the program's four years, TAMUT has tallied a record of 84 wins and just 38 losses. As mentioned, the squad has already claimed its second-straight RRAC regular-season title with the Muleriders scheduled as its final bout of the regular season.
 
The Eagles have been incredibly efficient with scoring, as the group currently has two players with 300+ kills this season in both Paulina Dobreva (354) and Kaitlyn Cabral (341). Over the course of 98 sets played, the two have also recorded impressive kills per set numbers, with Dobreva averaging 3.61 per set and Cabral averaging 3.48 per set.
 
Not only does the Madrid, Spain native lead the Eagles in scoring, but the senior is also second on the team for total digs, as she has tallied 360 with an average of 3.67 per set. Leading TAMUT in that category is Lauren Herz, as she has accounted for 401 digs with an average of 4.01 per set over the course of 100 sets.
 
Broadcast Information
Coverage links for tomorrow's battle between the Muleriders and the Eagles can be found at the top of this article.
 
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