MONROE, La. – The ULM volleyball team is looking to keep its winning streak alive on Friday (Sept. 21) when they open up Sun Belt play against West Division leader Texas State. The Warhawks will host UT-Arlington on Sunday (Sept. 23) to close out ULM's four-game home series.
The Warhawks are tied with Texas State for the second-longest current win streak in the Sun Belt. First year head volleyball coach
Russ Friedland has already surpassed the 2017 win total from last season after tallying a 5-28 mark a year ago.
Texas State (9-5) is traveling to Monroe after an impressive showing at the Sparky Classic hosted by Arizona State. The Bobcats headed into the tournament feeding off a 3-0 win at UTSA just the Tuesday before, and finished with three straight wins over Gonzaga, Northern Arizona, and Arizona State- winning nine of their ten sets played.
The Bobcats currently rank first in the Sun Belt in kills (13.73 per set), but the Warhawks play a heavy defensive game. ULM sits at number three in the conference in blocks (2.43 per set) and second in opponent hitting percentage (.160).
Leading Texas State in kills is Cheyanne Huskey, who has tied senior Warhawk
Catherine Griffith for the second best single-match performance in the Sun Belt (.722 hitting percentage).
Bobcat setter Emily DeWalt recently earned Sun Belt Freshman and Setter of the week after leading Texas State to a 4-0 weekly finish. Her success also earned her tournament MVP at Arizona State and recognition by PrepVolleyball.com as the Non-Power 5 National Freshman of the Week.
ULM is 2-42 all-time against the Warhawks in a rivalry dating back to 1984. The Bobcats are also on an 11-match win streak in the series dating back to 2005. ULM traveled to San Marcos in 2017 for the season closer and fell to the Bobcats, 3-0.
Sunday's match against UT-Arlington will be one of vengeance for the Warhawks, as they fell to the Mavericks (3-2) in Arlington last season, after rallying back from a two-set deficit.
UTA (6-4) saw the end of a 6-match winning streak on Saturday (Sept.15) in the finale of the Maverick Invitational, the streak was UTA's longest since 2016. The Mavs picked up a 3-1 win over Grand Canyon in the opener and swept Belmont on Saturday. With a matchup that pitted two squads that were 2-0 going to the finale, Sam Houston State took control early to top UTA 3-0.
The Warhawks are 3-47 against the Mavericks, after dropping the last five meetings between ULM and UTA. ULM does hold the advantage on its home court this season, headed into the weekend undefeated at home, while UT-Arlington is only 1-1 on the road.
Maverick libero Madelyn St. Germain picked up SBC honors this week, as the junior was named Defensive Player of the Week after averaging 5.50 digs per set. She had at least 15 in all three matches, including 21 against Grand Canyon.
Despite the defensive award for UTA, ULM's middle blocker
Taylor Wood leads the Sun Belt in blocks (1.48 per set) and ranks 13
th in Division I. Freshman
Kate Blasingame leads the Warhawks with 111 digs and has four additional teammates with 50+ digs.
Friday's match will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum and Sunday's match against UTA will begin at noon. Links to live stats and video for this weekends' matches 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.
