MONROE, La. – The ULM volleyball team is back in familiar territory this weekend, after back-to-back matches on the road, the Warhawks return to Fant-Ewing Coliseum for ULM's Homecoming weekend. The Warhawks are slated to host Georgia State on Thursday evening (Oct. 18) and Georgia Southern on Friday (Oct. 19).
Its crunch time for the ULM Warhawks and the other Sun Belt teams as the league nears the arrival of the conference tournament, set to begin on November 15
th in Atlanta, Georgia. The Warhawks sit in last place in both the West Division and overall, with two crucial matches headed for Monroe this weekend.
Half the conference schedule is behind us and with eight conference matches still left on the schedule, ULM is far from out of the race and can very much still punch its ticket to Atlanta next month.
Georgia State (5-13, 2-6) travels to Louisiana with a four-game losing streak in their rearview, including two sweeps by West Division leader Texas State and East Division leader Coastal Carolina. Last season Georgia State defeated ULM 3-2 at the GSU Sports Arena, dropping the Warhawks to 1-7 in the overall series against the Panthers.
The Warhawks rank just above the Panthers in hitting percentage and service aces. Leading the way for ULM is redshirt-junior
Catherine Griffith. Griffith has been a consistent threat at the net for ULM's opponents, hitting .288 and just shy of ranking eighth in the conference.
Georgia State's senior outside hitter Crystal Lee is averaging a team-best 3.02 kills per set, her primary setter, senior Sarah Renner has recorded 457 of the Panthers' 686 assists, averaging 8.31 assists per set.
ULM runs a multi-setter offense, with a trio of Warhawks with triple-digit assists. Seniors
Presleigh Williams and
Tara Jenkins lead the assist efforts with 4.38 and 3.92 assists per set respectively. Following Williams and Jenkins is freshman
McKinley Thiede, who as registered 142 assists this season across 41 sets played.
ULM has had an impressive season on the defensive side of the ball, ranking fourth in the SBC in team blocks. Senior middle blocker
Taylor Wood stands second in the conference with 1.35 blocks per set.
Both Georgia Southern and Georgia State will give ULM a run for its money in said category, ranking second and third in the Sun Belt with 2.49 and 2.42 blocks per set respectively. Particularly, Georgia State's Meisheia Griffin (1.61 blocks per set) and Sydney Stroud (1.19 blocks per set) rank second and fourth in the conference respectively.
The Warhawks are averaging 2.3 blocks per set, which is less than Georgia State or Georgia Southern, but ULM's opponents are also averaging only 1.8 blocks per set, a substantial drop from the Panthers' and Eagles' averages.
Georgia Southern (8-14, 2-5) to has dropped its last four conference match-ups, with its most recent loss to South Alabama. The Eagles took both Troy and UTA to five-sets, losing by four or less points in each of the dropped sets against UTA. The Warhawks are 2-4 against the Eagles since the series began and 1-2 when hosting, in 2017 ULM dropped its second SBC match of the season to Georgia Southern in a 3-0 decision.
The Eagles are anchored by Lauren Reichard, a senior middle from Wrightsville, Pa. Reichard boasts a .310 hitting percentage through 86 sets. She averages 2.52 kills preset and is tied for third on the team with 11 service aces. She also leads GS with 18 solo blocks, more than ten more than the next in line.
Both Thursday's match against Georgia State and Friday's match against Georgia Southern will begin at 6:30 p.m. Admission to all home volleyball matches is free of charge. Links to live video and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com. Follow the Warhawks on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @ULM_VB to stay up to date on team happenings, schedule changes, live in-game updates, and much more.
