Spoiler Alert
11/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2008
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - There's no place like home and now the USC Upstate volleyball team won't have to leave the friendly confines of the Hodge Center for the duration of the 2008 season, hosting their final four Atlantic Sun Conference matches before welcoming six teams into the Hodge Center for Mr. Gatti's Provisional Invitational. The Spartans will start their home stand this Friday when they face off against second-place Lipscomb, looking to play the spoiler, as an Upstate win coupled with a Florida Gulf Coast win at Campbell would end Lipscomb's hopes of a regular-season title. On Saturday, the Spartans will face Belmont, which enters the week with an 18-7 overall record and a 12-4 mark in the A-Sun and features the league's preseason player of the year in Cat Mundy.
The Youth Connection: USC Upstate head coach Jennifer Calloway and Belmont coach Deane Webb have more in common than coaching in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Calloway, with 252 career wins, and Webb, two months older than Calloway and with 272 career wins, are the youngest coaches in Division I with more than 200 wins. Calloway has coached at USC Upstate since she was 23, starting her career in 1996, leading the Spartans to two NCAA Division II Tournaments and eight 20-win seasons. Webb, meanwhile, has coached at Indiana Wesleyan, ETSU and Belmont during his 12-year career.
DI Firsts
Sophomore Sandra Campbell became the first player in Upstate's Division I era to post back-to-back 50-block seasons thanks to three rejections at North Florida on Nov. 1. Sophomore Megan Healey looks to join Campbell in the DI superlatives this week, needing just two digs to become the first player in the Spartans' DI era to record back-to-back 250-dig seasons.
A Thousand Helping Hands
Senior Holly Mauldin enters the week just 28 assists shy of becoming the first player in Upstate's Division I era to reach 1,000 assists. The Columbia, S.C., native is currently sixth in the school's record book with 1,806 career assists and she leads the Spartans with 525 helpers, an average of 6.40 per set, this season.
Mauldin is also just four service aces away from reaching 100 in her career, a mark reached by just 17 others in school history.
The Race For 500
Sophomore Sandra Campbell and senior Jovana Lubura are both on pace to reach Upstate's 500-career kill club by the end of the season. The only question is which one will become the first player in the DI era to reach the mark. Campbell is currently ahead by 17 kills, as she enters the week with 466. Lubura, with 449, has caught up since the start of the A-Sun season, as the 6-2 Serbian is averaging 3.07 kills per set while Campbell averages 2.42. The two players could join just 28 others in Upstate's 500-kill club.
Serbian Sensation
Senior Jovana Lubura has put together one of the most impressive streaks in the Spartans' short Division I tenure, as the 6-2 Serbian strung together four straight double-doubles from Oct. 18 to Oct. 25. Lubura, who has averaged 13.4 kills and 11.1 digs per set in the last 11 matches, started her run of consecutive double-doubles with 14 kills and 14 digs at Mercer. She followed that with 16 kills and 10 digs against The Citadel, 19 kills and 16 digs against Stetson and 12 kills and 11 digs against Florida Gulf Coast. The run ended on Oct. 31 at Jacksonville, as she managed just three kills and nine digs, but against North Florida the next night, Lubura started another streak with 18 kills and 10 digs. Lubura has moved into seventh in the conference in kills per set, averaging 2.74. In conference play, Lubura is averaging 3.07 kills and 2.52 digs per set.
