EDWARDSVILL, Ill. - SIUE volleyball returns to First Community Arena for the first time this season for the two-day Cougar Classic. The Cougars open their weekend with Chattanooga on Friday (12:00 PM) before taking on Murray State (7:00 PM) and Bellarmine (1:00 PM) on Saturday.
HOME OPENERS: SIUE will play its first game in First Community Arean this Friday. The Cougars have a 15-12 record all-time in home openers.
SCOPING THE COMPETITION: Chatanooga played int their Chattanooga Classic Sept. 6-7. They went 3-0, defeating Tennessee State, Charleston Southern and Belmont. As a team, they totaled 183 kills hitting at .249 clip this past weekend.
Murray State last played at the Elon Phoenix Classic, going 3-0 with wins over North Carolina Central, Elon, and UNC Greensboro. For the weekend, Murray State totaled 389 attacks with 162 of them being kills, hitting at a .267 percent.
Bellarmine hosted UAB, IU Indianapolis, and University of Cincinnati in the Bellarmine Classic. Overall the Knights went 1-3, defeating UAB (3-1) and losing to IU Indy (1-3) and Cincinnati (0-3).
LAST WEEKEND: The Cougars went 0-3 at the ND/NDSU tournament. As a team, SIUE had 137 kills, hitting at a .146 clip. They had 19 service aces and 25 total blocks over the weekend. Freshman
Kyndia Smith had an individual game high with a hitting percentage of .280. against UNI.
Olivia Hogan had in individual game high of 14 digs in four sets against UNI.
ON THE OFFENSE:
Sydney Hummert leads the team with 72 kills this season. She is followed by Ainsley Rantead with 50 kills averaging two per set;
Nicole Medlin with 41 kills averaging 1.58 a set; and
Bree Schreimann with 40 kills averaging 1.54 a set.
DEFENSIVE LOOKS: Freshman
Taya Nordmann leads the team with 30 total blocks.
Nicole Medlin follows with 21 blocks.
Olivia Hogan leads the team in digs with 69.
