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Spartanburg, S.C. - The USC Upstate volleyball team is set to host a pair of A-Sun volleyball matches this weekend as Belmont and Liscomb come to town Friday and Saturday. The Spartans will host Belmont at Wofford College Friday evening at 7:00, while Upstate will host Lipscomb Saturday afternoon at 3:00 at Converse College.

Belmont owns a 5-0 lead in the series, including a 3-1 win over the Spartans last year in Nashville and a 3-0 sweep in Spartanburg. Lipscomb owns a 5-0 lead in the series, including a pair of 3-0 victories last year.

Scouting The Competition
Belmont opened the A-Sun season last weekend and split its matches with Kennesaw State and Mercer. The Bruins dropped a tough, 3-2, victory to Kennesaw State to open A-Sun play, but came back the next day and swept Mercer. Belmont hits the road for the first time in conference play this year when it travels to Spartanburg and Johnson City, Tenn. (ETSU) this weekend.

Following a 13-7 mark in the A-Sun last year, Belmont was picked to finish third in the A-Sun preseason coaches poll. Junior Maggie Johnson was named to the preseason all-conference team.

Lipscomb enters the weekend with a four-match winning streak, including a pair of A-Sun wins over Mercer and Kennesaw State to open league play. The Bisons have recorded sweeps in the last four victories.  Lipscomb is hitting the road for the first time in conference play this season, facing ETSU Friday night and Upstate on Saturday.

Following a perfect 20-0 conference record and the A-Sun Tournament championship in 2009, Lipscomb was picked to win the regular season and tournament titles again this year in the preseason coaches poll. Senior Stefine "Jack" Pease was named the preseason player of the year and was joined on the preseason all-conference team by fellow seniors Meghan Hinemeyer and Alex Kelly.

Dig It
Upstate is currently ranked first in the A-Sun for digs/set with a 16.62 average. The Spartans have notched 1,080 digs on the season thus far, 77 over the next highest, Campbell with 1,003.

Currently sitting in second is Lipscomb with 16.38 digs/set average with 983 over 60 sets and in third is Campbell, 14.43, with 1,003 digs over 65 sets.

Looking To Stay In The Pack
Upstate has split its first two conference games of the season, taking a 3-1 victory over Stetson (Sept. 16) and dropping a 3-1 decision to Campbell (Sept. 29) in Spartanburg. The Spartans are one of six teams in fourth place at 1-1 in the A-Sun.

Harris Hitting Her Stride
Freshman Cori Harris has proven to be quite a spark plug this season for the Spartans. She has reached double figure kill totals in nine matches this year, including five of the last six. She topped Upstate with 14 kills last week against Campbell. She also tops all Spartan attacking players with six double-doubles on the year.