Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University has had some very good volleyball teams in its history, championship teams, but the current 2017 team has a chance to supplant all the teams that have come before them with two weeks left in the regular season.
To say the Governors have been on a roll this season would be an understatement, as they enter the final two weeks of the season with a 23-4 overall record, but more importantly a 11-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play.
Winners of 17 of their last 19 matches, the Govs have all but wrapped up the OVC regular-season championship, plus a chance to host the conference championship tournament, holding a two-game lead over SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Kentucky – who sit tied for second place – and three games ahead of Murray State with four OVC games remaining on their schedule.
The Govs also hold a tie-break advantage over SIUE by virtue of beating the Cougars twice – including a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 victory on October 28th — while EKU has the tiebreaker over the Govs after handing APSU its only conference loss back on October 7th at the Dunn Center.
If the Govs do win the regular-season title it will mark just the second time in school history, matching the 1992 regular-season championship team.
The Govs did have a first-place finish in the southern division in OVC play back in 1987, but were the top seeded team that season.
Luckily, three of its four final OVC matches (Tennessee Martin, Southeast Missouri, Murray State) are at the Dunn Center – all of which the Govs have already beaten this season on the road by 3-0 finals — with Morehead State being the only road contest in OVC play left of the Govs schedule to close out the season.
Along with a OVC regular-season title chance there are several other milestones/records this team could break along the way.
Currently at 23 wins, if the Govs were to run the table and win their final five regular-season matches it would tie the 1992 team’s single-season school record for wins, with 28.
Wins in the remaining four OVC matches would also tie the 1992 team’s mark of 15-1 in OVC regular-season play.
Also within reach with just three more wins is the program’s regular-season victory total before postseason play (26) – set back in 1992 – and the record for most wins in back-to-back seasons (50) set by the 1991-1992 teams.
Currently, the 2016-1017 Govs teams have 47 victories total over the two seasons of play.
Finally, if they can win out and make it to the finals of the OVC Tournament the Govs have a chance to become the first OVC team since 1995 (Middle Tennessee) to win at least 30 matches in a season.
Some, if not all, of these records have a real chance of being broken by this year’s Governors volleyball team, so if you want to see some APSU sport history set over the next couple of weeks you should head on over to the Dunn Center and cheer this group of talent female athletes on.
