Arkansas State (16-11, 6-5)
Vs.
Louisiana-Lafayette (15-13, 6-6)
Friday Nov. 2 • 7 p.m. CDT
Series: ASU Leads 40-11
Arkansas State (16-11, 6-5)
Vs.
Missouri (10-12, 6-4)
Sunday November 6 • 7 p.m. CDT
Series: Missouri Leads 3-1
SERVING IT UP: The Arkansas State volleyball team play its final home game of the year against Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. The Red Wolves will then travel to Columbia, Mo., to play Missouri in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday. Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.
THE ULL SERIES: ASU holds a 40-11 all-time lead over the Ragin' Cajuns, but ULL won the first meeting between the two schools earlier this season 3-1 in Lafayette.
THE MISSOURI SERIES: Missouri holds a 3-1 advantage over A-State. The last meeting between the two schools occurred in 1988, with the Red Wolves earning a 3-1 victory.
SENIOR NIGHT: ASU will honor its five seniors, Taylor Coughlin, Amanda Chaparro, Kelsie Hodges, Jasmine Terry and Allison Kearney, in a ceremony after the ULL match on Friday night.
BASKING IN THE GLORY: Arkansas State junior libero Megan Basaka was named the Defensive Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week on Oct. 22 for the second time this season and the 10th of her career, which set the record for the most DPOW awards in SBC history.
ASSIST ME: Senior setter Allison Kearney had a season-high 59 assists against UALR and moved into fourth-place on ASU's all-time career assist list. Kearney now has 3,112 assists for her career. Her 59 assists against the Trojans were just seven shy of trying her career high for a single match.
CAN YOU DIG IT: Junior libero Megan Baska has 1,475 career digs. She is 22 digs for moving into a for third place on the all-time career digs list at ASU.
SENIOR MILESTONE: Kelsie Hodges surpassed 200 kills on the year over the weekend and now has over 600 for her career. She also has 73 blocks on the year and 231 career blocks.
MY MARIE: Marie Hadar had a career-high .571 attacking percentage against UALR on Oct. 16. She also had a career-high 10 kills against SEMO on Oct. 2 and then tied her career-high again on Oct. 20 against Middle Tennessee.
STANDINGS: ASU is in third place in the SBC West Division, but in fifth-place overall in the bid to secure a berth in the SBC Tournament. Only the top eight teams will make the postseason tournament.
DOUBLE-DOUBLES: Senior setter Allison Kearney recorded her 14th double-double of the season against UALR on Oct. 28. She is the only ASU player to register more than one double-double performance this season and now has 36 career double-doubles.
RANKING HIGH: Arkansas State ranks second in the Sun Belt Conference with 13.89 kills per set and second in the conference with 12.97 assists per set.
MORE RANKINGS: Keslie Hodges ranks third in the conference in hitting percentage with a .336 clip, while Allison Kearney is second in the conference with 11.02 assists per set. Jasmine Terry is third in the conference with 3.56 kills per set.
RANKINGS IN CONFERENCE MATCHES: In conference games, ASU ranks second with 12.90 assists per set, while it also ranks second with 14.05 kills per set. The team is also second in the conference with 15.44 digs per set.
CONFERENCE RANKINGS: Allison Kearney ranks second in the conference in conference games with 11.06 assists per set, while Baska leads the conference with 4.38 digs per set.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Kearney's 11.06 assists per set clip is the 32nd highest ranking in the NCAA, while Hodge's .335 hitting percentage ranks 92nd. As a team ASU ranks 45th in kills per set (13.95) and 46thrd in assists per set (12.98).
SWEEPING THE HONORS: Jasmine Terry and Megan Baska were named the Sun Belt Conference's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week for the Week of Oct. 1-7. It was the first time this year an ASU player had received either honor. The award was the second of Terry's career and the ninth career award for Baska.
REWRITING HISTORY: Arkansas State junior libero Megan Baska moved into fourth place on the all-time ASU career digs list with 1,383 for her career. Baska passed Caitlyn Mitchell who had 1,382 career digs. Erin Neely is third on the list with 1,497 career digs.
JAZZ IT UP: After tying her previous career-high of 18 kills against North Texas, senior Jasmine Terry broke new ground with a career-high 24 kills against Southeast Missouri State. She also had a career-best 56 attacking attempts in the match.
RE
HOME SWEET HOME: Starting Sept. 28, ASU played in Jonesboro for the first time since Aug. 28 when the Red Wolves defeated Memphis 3-0. A-State had played 13 straight road or neutral site matches since defeating the Tigers. ASU is currently in the midst of playing four of its next five games in Jonesboro. The homestand will conclude this weekend.
CAREER-HIGHS: Junior Sadie Clark had a career-high four blocks against South Alabama.
IT'S JUST A COUGH: Taylor Coughlin had a career-high 17 digs against Southeast Missouri State.
DOMINATING THE COMPETITION: ASU continued its dominance over the Warhawks with a sweep on Sunday. The Red Wolves have lost just three sets to ULM since 2005 and have not lost a set since 2007.
MILESTONES: Senior Jasmine Terry surpassed 800 career kills against ULM with 18 against ULM. She has 811 for her career and leads A-State with 230 kills so far this season.
MORE MILESTONES: Senior Taylor Coughlin hit the 500 career-dig mark on Sept. 30.
FIRST WIN: First-year head coach David Rehr won his first career Sun Belt Conference game with a 3-1 victory over Florida Atlantic on Sept. 21.
MAKING A NAME: Junior Kelsey Sullivan had a season-high seven digs against Florida-Atlantic and also recorded her first solo block of the season against the Owls.
NEW HEIGHTS: Senior Kelsie Hodges set a career-high with 16 kills against McNeese State. She also had a career-high .560 hitting percentage in the match. That hitting percentage is also the highest of any A-State player this season.
MAKING AN IMPACT: Junior Kelsey Sullivan had a career-high 19 kills against Northern Iowa, which is also the most of any ASU player this season. She also added a career-high four blocks against Long Beach State and Bradley.
CAREER WEEKEND: Sophomore outside hitter Marie Hadar enjoyed one the best weekends of her career at the CEFCU Classic. Hadar had season-high in kills and career-highs in attacks and blocks. She had eight kills against Long Beach State, 16 attacks against Long Beach State and Northern Iowa and seven blocks against Bradley, which is the most of any ASU player this season.
SENIOR LEADING THE WAY: Kelsie Hodges' .476 attacking percentage against Bradley was the second-highest of any ASU player this season.
TEAM HIGH: ASU had a team-high 83 digs against Northern Iowa and team-high 11 blocks against Bradley.
ATTACKING THE COMPETITION: As a team, the Red Wolves recorded their three highest team attacking percentages on the year at McNeese State Big Daddy Invitational. The team's .333 percentage against Bethune-Cookman has been the highest so far this season, while the .330 percentage against McNeese ranks second. The .311 percentage against Hampton ranks as the third highest.
FIRST VICTORY: Head Coach David Rehr collected his first victory as a Division I head coach with the win over Rice Aug. 25.
KILL IT: Jasmine Terry tied her career high for digs with 18 against Rice. She previously had 18 digs against Troy in 2010 as a sophomore.
DIG IT: Taylor Szypulski set a new career-high with 16 digs against Rice.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Kelsie Hodges and Megan Baska were each named to the Rice Invitational All-Tournament team.
Allison Kearney and Kelsie Hodges were selected to the All-Tournament at the McNeese State Big Daddy Invitational.
Junior Kelsey Sullivan earned All-Tournament honoro as the CEFCU Classic.
NEW FACES: ASU welcomed three new faces to the 2012 squad. Freshmen Hannah McRee and Haley Townsend join the squad after enjoying solid prep careers. Kelsey Sullivan joined the team after transferring from Pittsburg State and will have two years of eligibilty remaining.
THE REHR FILE: David Rehr was named the seventh head coach in ASU volleyball history after serving as the head volleyball coach at Blinn College the previous nine years. During his time at Blinn he led the Buccaneers to two NJCAA National Championships (2008 and 2011), was a two-time NJCAA National Tournament Coach of the Year, a three-time AVCA Southwest Region Coach of the Year and a nine-time NJCAA District Coach of the Year.
LOOKING AHEAD: As another volleyball season approaches, the excitement surrounding the Arkansas State Red Wolves volleyball program continues to build. There have been of changes over the last year that have raised the level of excitement around the program.
The Red Wolves enjoyed a successful 2011 campaign that saw them finish the season with a 20-11 record and 12-4 record in conference play which earned the squad a third straight Sun Belt Conference Western Division Crown and their first Western Division crown outright since 1998.
Building on the momentum from three straight winnings seasons, Director of Athletis Dr. Dean Lee announced Jan. 11 that David Rehr had been selected as the seventh head coach in school in school history, giving the coach his first Division-I head coaching job after enjoying a successful stint at the junior college level. Rehr came to Arkansas State after serving as the head coach at Blinn College the previous nine years. During his time at Blinn he led the Buccaneers to two NJCAA National Championships (2008 and 2011), was a two-time NJCAA National Tournament Coach of the Year, a three-time AVCA Southwest Region Coach of the Year and a nine-time NJCAA District Coach of the Year.
Rehr worked quickly to establish his first coaching staff, and hired Jessicca Weynand to serve as assistant coach. Weynand previously worked with Rehr at Blinn College where she helped lead the team to the 2011 NJCAA National Championship with a perfect 38-0 record that ended with four-set victory over Western Wyoming in the championship match. Rehr also added assistant coach Jeremy Thornburg in August to serve as the team's travel coordinator, video coordinator and assistant in the day-to-day operations of the volleyball program.
Upon being named head coach, Rehr immediatly began working on his first recruiting class that included a junior college transfer from Pittsburg State and an incoming freshman. The pair will have large task to fill the void left by Cayla Fielder, who was one of the most successful players in A-State volleyball history.
With a strong recruiting class a talented group of returning players the excitement for the 2012 season is high. The Red Wolves return 12 lettermen, including five starters and its libero. Among the returning players are All-SBC second team selections Allison Kearney and Ashley Tipps. Kearney, a senior, is among the best setters in the SBC and ranks eighth on the all-time ASU career assists lists. Tipps enjoyed a career season finishing with career bests in kills, hitting percentage, matches played and a career low in hitting errors.
Senior Jasmine Terry will anchor the front line attack for A-State. In 2011 she was second on the team with 314 kills and a .255 hitting percentage. Junior Shelby Crncic also returns and was among the team's best servers, while seniors Kelsie Hodges, Taylor Coughlin and Amanda Chaparro will provide leadership and will see increased time in 2012.
Libero Megan Baska will anchor the defense after another strong year. She is 11th on ASU's all-time career digs list and had a career-high 40 digs against Alabama-Birmingham which was the third most in the rally scoring era in Sun Belt Conference history.
LAST TIME OUT: JONESBORO, Ark. (10/28/12) – The Arkansas State volleyball team dropped a heartbreaking five-set match to Arkansas-Little Rock 23-25, 25-22, 15-25, 27-25, 15-6 Sunday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
A win would have secured a berth in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament for the Red Wolves (16-11, 6-5 SBC) and given the squad sole possession of first-place in the SBC West Division. Instead, the Trojans (11-12, 7-4) snatched the lead in the division and secured a berth in the conference tournament.
Senior Allison Kearney moved into fourth place on the all-time career assist list at ASU after finishing the match with 59 assists. She now stands at 3,112 for her career in just three years.
A-State enjoyed solid numbers and a balanced attack throughout the afternoon. Taylor Szypulski paced the team with 16 kills, while Jasmine Terry added 14. Marie Hadar, Kelsey Sullivan and Kelsie Hodges each had 13 kills on the day, while Hadar led the team with a .526 attacking percentage.
Kearney led ASU defensively with 23 digs, while libero Megan Baska added 20 and Shelby Crncic finished with 15. Kearney's double-double was her 14th of the season and the 37th of her career.
ASU held a 2-1 match lead after the first three sets after stealing the first set from the Trojans. In the first set, ASU took only its second lead of the game at 20-19 after forcing the Trojans into six attacking errors. UALR briefly took the lead back at 22-21, but Szypulski and Sullivan responded with a pair of kills to give A-State the advantage at 23-22. A Trojan attacking error setup a match point opportunity for the Red Wolves, which Sullivan put away one point later.
After losing the second set, ASU came out firing in the third set and quickly built an 11-5 advantage. ASU never trailed in the set and had a .447 hitting percentage to go along with a sideout percentage of 75. Szypulski paced the team with six kills in the set as the Red Wolves went up 2-1 in the match.
A-State erased a 16-11 UALR lead in the fourth set and took its first least since early in the set at 22-21, which prompted a UALR timeout. After trading points, ASU had two set point opportunities but failed to convert on both allowed UALR to tie the score at 24-24. The Red Wolves went up 25-24 after a service error from the Trojans, but again could not put the match away as the Trojans won the set's final three points to tie the match at 2-2.
UALR carried the momentum from its fourth set victory over into the fifth set. The Trojans finished the set on a 9-1 run to win the set 15-6 and take the match.
