Arkansas State (18-13, 8-6) vs Arkansas-Little Rock (13-13, 9-5)
Friday Nov. 15 • 7:30 p.m. CDT
Series: ASU Leads 46-16
SERVING IT UP: The A-State Volleyball team travels to Bowling Green, Kentucky to play in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The fifth seed Red Wolves take on in-state rival UALR, the fourth seed in the tournament, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. The opening round begins at 12 p.m. on Thursday. The semifinals will be held Friday at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. with the championship match starting at 1 p.m. On Saturday. The championship match will available nationally on ESPN3. The winner of the tournament earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. All matches will be streamed live for free on www.sunbeltsports.org.
THE UALR SERIES: Arkansas State holds a 46-16 record against UALR all-time. The teams split their regular season meetings this year with the road team winning each match. ASU swept UALR 3-0 in Little Rock on Oct. 16, while the Trojans defeated ASU 3-2 in Jonesboro on Oct. 28.
REGULAR SEASON COMES TO A CLOSE: Arkansas State wrapped up its 2012 regular season by going 1-1 in the final weekend of play. ASU lost to North Texas 3-1 on Friday night, but bounced back to defeat ULM 3-1 on Sunday to finish 8-6 in league play.
RPI RANKINGS: ASU is the third highest ranked Sun Belt team in RPI at 122, only behind Western Kentucky and North Texas.
TEN STRAIGHT: ASU is making its 10th straight appearance in the Sun Belt Conference, but this is the first time in three years that it will enter the tournament having at least not claimed a share of the SBC West title.
TOURNAMENT DROUGHT: ASU has not won a game in the SBC Tournament since 2000 when it defeated North Texas 3-0. ASU has won the tournament on five different occasions, with its last championship coming in 1999.
CAREER DAY: Allison Kearney enjoyed a career day against ULM in ASU's regular season finale. The senior had a career-high 10 kills and 25 digs and also recorded her first career triple-double by adding 36 assists.
CAN YOU DIG IT: Junior libero Megan Baska moved into third-place on ASU's all-time career digs with 1,536 for her career. Tessa Millikan is second on the list with 1,669 career digs.
FINAL STANDINGS: A-State finished third in the final conference standings. North Texas and UALR both finished 9-5 with North Texas being crowned division champs after the tiebreaker.
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 3,252 assists for her career. Her 59 assists against the Trojans were just seven shy of trying her career high for a single match. She also recently surpassed the 1,000 assist mark for the season, marking the third straight season she's done so.
MY MARIE: Junior Marie Hadar had a career-high .824 attacking percentage against Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday. She connected on 14 kills in 17 attempts and did not have an error. That percentage is also the highest of any A-State player this season. Her 14 kills were also her highest total of the season. The .824 attacking percentage was also the highest of any Sun Belt Conference player this year.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Allison Kearney's 10.93 assists per set clip is the 41st highest ranking in the NCAA this year. As a team, ASU ranks 53rd in both assists per set (12.94) and kills per set with (13.90).
CONFERENCE RANKINGS: ASU is second in the conference in assists per set (12.94) and kills per set (13.90). The Red Wolves are also third in digs with 15.20 digs per set. Individually, Marie Hadar is tenth with a .275 hitting percentage, Jasmine Terry is fifth in kills with 3.35 per set, Allison Kearney is second in assists with 10.93 assists per set, and Megan Baska is fifth in digs with 4.33 digs per set.
MORE RANKINGS: In conference matches, ASU ranks seconds in kills per set (14.08), assists per set (12.92), and digs per set (15.60).
INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCE MATCH RANKINGS: In conference matches only, ASU's Marie Hadar is eighth in hitting percentage with .318, while Kelsie Hodges ranks ninth with a .308 hitting percentage. Jasmine Terry is seventh in kills with 3.33 kills per set. Allison Kearney is fourth in assists with 10.96 assists per set. Megan Baska is second in digs with 4.29 digs per set and Kearney ranks ninth with 3.34 digs per set.
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.
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.
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.
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: MONROE, La. (11/11/12) – The Arkansas State volleyball team closed out the 2012 regular season with a 25-15, 25-27, 25-19, 25-17 victory over Louisiana-Monroe Sunday afternoon.
ASU finished the year with an 18-13 overall record and an 8-6 record in Sun Belt Conference matches. The Red Wolves finished third in the SBC West Division and will enter next week's Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed.
ASU enjoyed solid production from its defensive back line, which was paced by setter Allison Kearney who had a career-high 25 digs. Junior libero Megan Baska added 20 digs and senior Taylor Coughlin finished with 12.
“ULM plays a very unorthodox style that makes it hard to defend,” ASU volleyball coach David Rehr said. “We handled our business when we needed to most and this win gives us some momentum heading into the tournament next week.”
ASU started strong in the first set and jumped out to a 9-3 lead early on and extended the lead to 12-4 following a ULM timeout. A-State took advantage of its sideout opportunities in the set, connecting on 81 percent (13-of-16) of its chances to take the 10-point first set victory.
After dropping the second set, the Red Wolves bounced back in the third and quickly jumped out to a 15-10 edge. Senior Kelsie Hodges paced ASU in the set with six kills, while classmate Jasmine Terry added five kills to give A-State a 2-1 set lead.
The Red Wolves carried the momentum into the fourth set behind the play of Kearney and Kelsey Sullivan. The pair combined for eight kills during the frame, with Kearney collecting her career-high 10th kill on match point.
Kearney finished with 10 kills, 36 assists and 25 digs for the first triple-doubles of her career. Sullivan led the team with 14 kills, while Terry and Hodges finished with eight each.
