The Music City Comes Calling To Upstate
11/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 4, 2009
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate volleyball team will play its final two matches of the season inside the friendly confines of the Hodge Center looking to finish at .500 at the building for the first time in the D-I era this weekend, needing to sweep Atlantic Sun Conference perennial powers Lipscomb and Belmont in order to finish 7-7 at the Hodge this year. The matches will be a farewell of sorts to the building, as Upstate volleyball will play its matches off campus in 2010 while the Hodge Center's $4 million renovations are completed before Upstate returns to the Hodge Center in 2011.
The match against league-leading Lipscomb on Saturday will also mark the last matches at home for two Spartan seniors, Karla Andree and Morgan Bucciferro. Andree, a two-year letterwinner, has posted 159 digs in her career as a defensive specialist and Bucciferro will finish her four-year career in the top five in career assists. The setter also has posted more than 600 digs in her career.
Quick Hits
• Head coach Jennifer Calloway needs one more win in A-Sun play to post her 100th career conference win. Calloway, in her 14th year at Upstate, won 89 matches in 11 years in the Peach Belt Conference.
• Junior Megan Healey moved into seventh place in school history as she posted a match-high 14 digs on Oct. 30 at Kennesaw State. The junior has 1,055 career digs, just 17 behind Lindsay Richardson's sixth-best mark of 1,072 set from 1992-95.
• Sophomores Morgan Thomas and Kelsie Queen became the third and fourth players in the school's D-I era to post back-to-back 200-kill seasons on Oct. 30 at Kennesaw State. Thomas posted nine kills in the match and Queen added four.
• Junior Erin Jacobsen needs 11 blocks in the last four matches to become the first player in Upstate's D-I era to reach 100 in a season.
• Senior Morgan Bucciferro enters the week with 2,207 career assists, just 71 shy of Lisa Wilson's fourth-best mark of 2,278, set from 1989-92.
• With her two blocks at Mercer on Oct. 31, junior Katie Downey became the second player in Upstate's D-I era to reach 150 blocks, joining sophomore Morgan Thomas.
• Senior setter Morgan Bucciferro has a career-high 40 kills this season and is hitting a solid .337 in her limited 101 chances. She leads the Spartans with a 4.75 assist-per-set average.
Senior Soiree
The weekend's home matches against Belmont and Lipscomb will mark the final home ones in the careers of both seniors Karla Andree and Morgan Bucciferro. Both players have been important parts of the squad as Upstate made the transition to Division I volleyball.
Andree, a 5-8 defensive specialist, has appeared in 54 career matches. A great natural athlete, Andree has 159 career digs and 21 career aces despite fighting illness and injury during her time at Upstate. A transfer from Cypress Community College and the first player in school history from California, Andree made a solid debut with Upstate by posting a D-I era record six aces against Savannah State on Aug. 24, 2007. Andree also earned A-Sun All-Academic honors in 2007.
Bucciferro, a 5-9 setter, carried on Upstate's great tradition of Illinois setters that goes back to when head coach Jennifer Calloway was the team's setter in 1994. Heading into this weekend, Bucciferro has posted 2,207 career assists, which is fourth in school history, while playing in a 6-2 setting rotation during her whole career. She has notched 21 career double-doubles and also has 611 career digs and 120 career kills. A four-time member of conference honor rolls, Bucciferro has also been active in Upstate's SAAC and the Spartan Street Team.
Megan's Mark
Junior Megan Healey became the first player in the D-I era to reach 1,000 career digs and the eighth in school history to reach the plateau with her 10th of 14 digs on Oct. 20 at Gardner-Webb. The St. Louis, Mo., native has played libero in all but two matches during her career at Upstate and has quickly moved closer to the top of the all-time digs category, entering the weekend seventh with 1,055 digs, just 17 shy of the sixth-place mark of Lindsay Richardson, who posted 1,072 from 1994-97.
The libero also posted two aces against Stetson on Oct. 2 to become the first player in the D-I era to reach 100 in a career. The two-time team captain is currently 18th in school history with 105 career aces.
Fresh Faces
The three Upstate freshmen have made as valuable an imprint on the team as any rookie trio in the A-Sun. Between Emily Sanders, Mindy Quimby and Paige Weiland, the trio has combined for 14 double-doubles and all three are currently amongst the conference's freshmen leaders in sets played. Sanders, who leads Upstate with nine double-doubles, leads all conference freshmen in assists, posting 446 on the season while her 212 digs is second. Weiland, who has posted three double-doubles, is third amongst A-Sun freshman in kills (1.78) and sixth in digs (1.89). Quimby, who has come on strong late in the season to post two double-doubles, is fourth among A-Sun freshmen in kills per set (125), third in digs (183) and fourth in blocks (28).
