10/3/2019 | Women’s Volleyball

PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico volleyball will take on Texas Woman’s on Friday night and Midwestern State on Saturday afternoon inside Greyhound Arena.

First serve for the two Lone Star Conference matches is set for 6 p.m. on Friday night and noon on Saturday.

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS

Texas Woman’s picked up wins against UT Tyler and Cameron to start off the conference schedule after winnning four matches in non-conference play. The Pioneers have alternated wins and losses in their last five matches and won both matches against Eastern New Mexico last season.

TWU will present a balanced attack and enters the weekend ranked 10th in team hitting percentage (.177) and 11th in opponent hitting percentage (.181) in the Lone Star Conference. The Pioneers have been strong at the net all season and rank fourth in the LSC with an average of 2.20 blocks per set. Sophomore Trixie Oche averages 1.00 block per set, fifth best in the LSC, and has totaled 49 blocks so far this season.

Oche also leads the Pioneers with a hitting percentage of .296 for the season while senior Courtney Noel leads the team with 119 kills on the season. Oche, Noel and junior Tabitha Spray have all totaled 100 or more kills thus far.

Senior Katy Ranes is back to lead the Pioneer offense once again and averages 5.43 assists per set while Bailey French leads the team defensively with 215 digs.

HISTORY WITH THE PIONEERS

Texas Woman’s will enter this weekend’s match with an overall record of 25-20 against the Hounds, but have lost three out of the last five matches inside Greyhound Arena. The Greyhounds fell last year on their home court to the Pioneers 3-2 after beating TWU 3-0 at home the previous season.

The Hounds have won just four matches in 10 tries against Texas Woman’s since 2013.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS

Midwestern State will enter the weekend coming off of their first LSC win of the season over UT-Tyler. The Mustangs won just two games against non-conference opposition and were defeated 3-0 by Cameron and 3-1 by UAFS and Texas A&M-Commerce to begin league play.

The Mustangs have struggled defensively all season, ranking 17th in the conference with an average of just 13.43 digs per set. Midwestern State averages 11.40 kills per set, 13th in league, and enters the weekend with a team hitting percentage of .160.

The Mustang offense will center around senior Sarah Eakin, who leads the team with 126 kills on the year. Eakin has scored 10 or more kills in seven out of her last eight matches.

The other two main offensive options for Midwestern will be Rockelle Gholson and Rachel Howes, who have totaled 96 and 89 kills respectively.

Despite the defensive struggles throughout the year, junior Audrey Lopez and Gholston have each averaged 3.43 and 2.89 digs per set.

HISTORY WITH THE MUSTANGS

Eastern New Mexico leads the all-time series with Midwestern State 20-18 and holds an 8-9 record against the Mustangs inside Greyhound Arena. Eastern has lost three out of the last four matches against Midwestern State and split the series last season 1-1.

IT`S TURN AROUND TIME

Eastern New Mexico will need to turn their season around in a hurry and home matches against Texas Woman’s and Midwestern State seems like the perfect time to do so. The Hounds face an almost must-win situtation this weekend if they hope to keep their postseason hopes alive and enter the weekend in sixth place in their division.

The Greyhounds will head to San Angelo and Lubbock next weekend for games against divisional front-runners Angelo State and Lubbock Christian, making this weekend’s matches even more important moving forward.

EFFICIENCY IS KEY

Senior Lauryn Bresnahan and junior Jasmine Gannon both had extremely efficient nights on the offensive side of the ball in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss at the hands of West Texas A&M. Gannon had eight kills on 19 swings for a hitting percentage of .316 while Bresnahan recorded six kills of 10 swings for a percentage of .400.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

Freshman Gracelyn Stubbs has recorded five kills in back-to-back games against St. Edwards and West Texas A&M and sports a hitting percentage of .274 for the season. She has teamed up with fellow freshman Qitana Spaiga to provide fresh options off of the bench for interim head coach Katie Burnett.

Sapiga has recorded 11 and 14 assists in the last two games to provide support for her sister Rae Sapiga at the setter position.