MONROE, La. – Coming off of a 2-1 weekend at the Louisiana Tech Invitational, the ULM Warhawks are ready to turn around and travel to Lake Charles Friday to battle Grambling State at 3:30 p.m. before taking on McNeese State at 6 p.m. ULM will then come back to Fant-Ewing on Sunday for its first matches at home. The Warhawks will take on McNeese State again at 1 p.m. before ending the weekend against Alcorn State at 5 p.m.
"We had one of our best practices to date this week and we're looking to keep that momentum going in to this weekend," head coach Charlie Olson said.
ULM (6-4) has had a great start to the season, amassing 420 kills, 411 assists, 510 digs, and 59 service aces in 10 games. Mikaela Worley and Kate Blasingame have a combined 203 of those kills while McKinley Thiede and Darby Fisher have a combined 350 assists.
Albany Schaffer leads the team with 126 digs while Thiede and Ina Gosen lead the Warhawks with 11 aces a piece. ULM ranks 33rd in the country with 1.81 aces per set after picking up 65 aces through the first 10 matches.
"Getting a team out of system is a skill that you have full control of and we're going to use that to our advantage," Olson said.
The Warhawks' first matchup of the weekend will be a rematch with Grambling State (2-7). ULM swept the Tigers 3-0 earlier on in the season. Grambling is coming off of a gritty 3-2 win over Dillard.
Grambling has only gained 182 kills, 158 assists, 35 blocks and 18 service aces on the season.
"They aren't going to be the same team," Olson said. "After you've played with each other for a few weeks, you start to gel and understand what your cohesive unit is doing. They'll be better this time."
ULM will then take on McNeese State (5-4) on Friday in Lake Charles before facing them again on Sunday in Fant-Ewing.
McNeese is coming off of back-to-back sweeps over Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M.
McNeese will be led by Keegan Nelms who had 73 kills and 12 aces on the season. She will be joined by Allison Lippert, who has 55 kills, 15 aces and 36 blocks, and Kendall Kilchrist, who has 157 assists and 10 aces. Libero Angela McGownd is also averaging over five digs per set.
"McGownd is stellar," Olson said. "You want to keep the ball away from her as much as possible."
The last matchup of the weekend for ULM will be against Alcorn State. Alcorn (2-6) won their first two games of the season before losing its last six. The last game between the two teams in 2017 saw the Warhawks sweep Alcorn 3-0 to move to 4-0 all-time.
Alcorn hasn't had a great start to the season and has only gained 193 kills, 176 assists and 34 blocks. They have also committed 65 service errors.
"At any given time, a team can catch you off-guard if you let your guard down," Olson said. "They've had some down time to rest and prepare, but we'll be ready."
Links to live coverage, including live video and stats for the two games in Lake Charles and live video for Sunday's games at Fant-Ewing, can be found on the volleyball schedule page at ULMWarhawks.com. Follow along with all things Warhawk Volleyball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @ULM_VB.
