The Eastern New Mexico volleyball team is ready for its final road match of the regular season as the Hounds will travel to Silver City, N.M. on Tuesday to take on Western New Mexico at 6 p.m. before returning home to face Texas A&M-Kingsville at 6 p.m. on Friday.

LAST TIME OUT
The Hounds are coming off their toughest stretch of the season as they went 0-3 last week, dropping three road matches against three of the top four teams in the Lone Star Conference.

On Oct. 16, the Hounds fell 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-21) at West Texas A&M (15-9, 10-6 LSC). Eastern battled with the Lady Buffs in the third set, never trailing by more than four points, but we’re unable to muster a rally late in the set. Senior middle blocker Jennifer Martinez led the Hounds attack with eight kills on a blistering .438 attack percentage while senior libero Alba Ontiveros set a personal-best 20 kills in a three-set match.

Eastern then travelled to Stephenville, Texas on Friday, falling to No. 13 Tarleton State (23-2, 15-0 LSC) by a score of 3-0 (25-12, 25-12, 25-21). Down two sets to none, the Hounds once again fought hard against the Texans, coming to within two at 23-21. However, the Texans scored the final two points to put away the match. Junior middle blocker Christelle Kialanda led Eastern with eight kills on a .238 hitting percentage while Ontiveros turned in another strong performance on the backline with 17 digs.

The Hounds closed out their road trip on Saturday with a matchup at Angelo State (19-7, 12-4 LSC), dropping a 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-17) decision to the Rams. Sophomore outside hitter Jasmine Gannon led Eastern with 10 kills while sophomore middle blocker Julie Tucker tied a career-high seven blocks.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
Western New Mexico (8-15, 4-10 LSC) enters the week ranked ninth in the LSC conference. Last week, the Mustangs snapped a six-match losing streak, picking up a 3-1 (25-22, 24-26, 25-18, 25-18) win at Cameron on Saturday after falling to Midwestern State 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-15) on Friday.

The Mustangs frontline attack is led by freshman outside hitter Bria Augustine with 263 kills on a conference-leading 3.70 kills per set average. Freshman setter Madelynn Culp leads the team’s passing efforts, totaling 460 assists and averaging 5.23 assists per set.

Defensively, junior libero Gabi Lau’s 428 digs leads the team and her 4.86 digs per set ranks fourth in the LSC. On the frontline, junior middle blocker Deyzha Samuelu has the most blocks on the team with 68.

HISTORY WITH THE MUSTANGS
Eastern leads the all-time series against Western New Mexico with a 30-13 mark in the series that dates back to 1976. Recently, the Hounds have controlled the series, winning four of the last five matches.

In their last meeting back on Sept. 21 in Portales, the Hounds swept the Mustangs 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-18). Martinez had a monster game for the Hounds, finishing the match with 17 points with 11 kills on a .563 attack percentage while also tallying seven total blocks. Gannon also put together a solid game, finishing with 11 kills and seven digs while senior setter Kaitlyn Kluna dished out 20 assists.

The Hounds are 7-4 all-time against WNMU on the road, with their last win coming on Nov. 8, 2016 in a 3-1 decision.

SCOUTING THE JAVELINAS
Texas A&M-Kingsville (15-11, 7-8 LSC) is currently sixth in the conference standings, just a game and a half ahead of the Hounds. The Javelinas split in their two home matches last week, falling 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 25-20, 25-19) to No. 22 Texas A&M-Commerce before bouncing back with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 25-21) victory against Texas Woman’s.

The Javelinas frontline attack is led by one of the best right side hitters in the Lone Star in senior Madison Brabham, who leads the LSC with 340 kills on a 3.70 kills per set ratio with the eighth-best attack percentage in the conference at .274. The leading passer for the Javelinas is freshman setter Emily North, who has the third-most assists in the league with 681 on a 6.61 assists per set ratio.

Defensively, freshman defensive specialist Nicole Murff effectively patrols the backline, recording the second-most digs in the Lone Star with 511, averaging 4.96 digs per set. Senior middle blocker Haley Hutchinson will lead the frontline defense for TAMUK as she leads the team with 90 blocks, the sixth-most in the conference.

HISTORY WITH THE JAVELINAS
The Hounds lead the all-time series against Texas A&M-Kingsville with a 39-28 overall record in the series that dates back to 1979. However, Eastern will be looking at snapping a two-match losing streak to the Javelinas.

In their meeting earlier this season on Sept. 29 in Kingsville, the Hounds were able to score the final three points of the first set to pull out a hard-fought 25-23 win, but ultimately fell 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 16-25, 25-27) to TAMUK.

The last time the Hounds and Javelinas met in Portales was on Sept. 15, 2017 when Eastern came away with a hard-fought 3-1 (25-13, 20-25, 25-21, 26-24) victory. Sarah Tuioti-Mariner led the Hounds with 17 kills to go with nine digs while Gannon added nine kills.

ROAD RASH
The Hounds are seeking to soothe their recent road struggles with a win at Western New Mexico tomorrow. Eastern has lost its last eight road matches and is in a must-win situation against the Mustangs, who are only a half-game back of the Hounds for the No. 8 spot in the LSC standings.

HOME STRETCH
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Hounds final three matches of the regular season will be at home. Including tomorrow’s WNMU match, the Hounds have played eight of the last 10 matches on the road. It will be an important stretch for ENMU, who is fighting to qualify for one of the eight spots in the conference tournament. The matches this week have major implications with the Mustangs being a half-game back of eighth and the Javelinas only 1.5 games ahead of the Hounds, who are currently sixth in the conference standings.

DEFENSIVE DYNAMO
Despite losing all three of their matches last week, the Hounds found a bright spot in the defensive play of Ontiveros. In the three matches combined, Ontiveros tallied 50 digs, averaging 5.55 digs per set. In the West Texas A&M match, she averaged 6.67 digs per set, which is the highest average she has ever recorded in a single match in her four-year Greyhounds career.