Spartan Volleyball Gears Up for Two Matches this Week
10/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The USC Upstate volleyball team (7-16, 2-7 A-Sun) closes out its four-match homestand at the Hodge Center tomorrow (Oct. 25) with a 7 p.m. non-conference contest against Presbyterian College (8-16), before heading to Atlantic Sun Conference foe Kennesaw State (10-12, 5-2 A-Sun) Saturday, Oct. 29 for a 3 p.m. match.
The Competition:
Upstate leads the all-time series 29-22 against Presbyterian, including a 13-7 mark in the Hodge. In the teams' most recent meeting, the Blue Hose claimed a 3-0 victory at home Sept. 22, 2009. Most recently, Presbyterian dropped a 3-0 decision to Liberty Oct. 22. PC is led by Presley Mabrey with 318 kills and Ashtin Frank with 778 assists, while Kelly Berryman posts 76 blocks. Mary Trimpe has a team-high 369 digs.
KSU holds a 5-2 overall advantage over Upstate with a 3-0 record at home. The Owls beat the Spartans last week in Spartanburg 3-1 Oct. 21. KSU also won last year's meeting 3-1 in Kennesaw, Ga., Nov. 6, 2010. Kennesaw is fourth in the A-Sun standings with a 5-2 mark in conference play, winning its last six contests. Most recently, KSU defeated ESTU 3-0 Oct. 22. The Owls are led by Justine Young with 306 kills and Sara Matroka with 831 assists. Holly Knight boasts a team-high 66 blocks, while Camille Pedraza has 268 digs to lead KSU.
Spartan Leaders:
Senior Morgan Thomas and junior Mindy Quimby lead the Spartans with 240 and 161 kills, respectively. Junior Emily Sanders has dished out 631 assists, averaging 7.89 per set this season. Defensively, sophomore Morgan Page has a team-best with 343 digs, followed by Sanders with 275. Thomas leads the defensive charge at the net with 53 total blocks on the season, while freshman Kayla McAvoy tallies 47.
Record Watch:
Sanders is the A-Sun's active leader in career-assists with 2,229. She ranks sixth in Upstate history, passing Holly Mauldin's (2005-08) mark of 2,045. She is 49 assists away from Lisa Wilson's (1989-92) fifth-place notch of 2,278 and 50 assists shy of Morgan Bucciferro's (2006-09) fourth-place mark of 2,279.
Thomas registered her 900th career-kill Oct. 14 at Florida Gulf Coast. She has 962 career-kills, ranking third among conference active career-kill leaders. The senior is also making record waves on defense as well. Thomas broke into the school record books Oct. 22, after recording two blocks to tie Trina Beaty's (1990-91) 10th-best mark of 302 career-blocks. She is seven rejections shy of Kendall Harper's (1998-01) ninth-place mark of 309. The senior ranks fifth all-time in career-block assists at Upstate with 232, just three shy of Harper's fourth-place mark of 235.
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