Clarksville, TN – While Austin Peay State University (APSU)’s volleyball team is off to one of it’s best starts in school history, the football team can now put all its focus on getting ready for Ohio Valley Conference play after it’s season-opener at nationally-ranked Georgia and building a resume for a post-season berth.
The APSU Governors volleyball team enters its third week of play sporting a perfect 6-0 record — the second-best start to the season in program history — trailing only the 1984 squad that opened the season winning their first eight matches, after going 3-0 at the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroo Klassic and the Middle Tennessee Raider Bash.
Austin Peay has been outstanding both offensively and defensively to start the season, despite the losses of two All-OVC performers (Ashley Slay and Christina White) from last year’s conference championship team by hitting over .200 in all but one of their matches so far this season while only allowing opponents to hit above .200 only once.
One thing that has made the Govs so tough so far this season is their deep and balanced attack, with four different Govs (Cecily Gable, Brooke Moore, Jenna Panning, Logan Carger) averaging over two kills per set and two-time OVC Setter of the Year Kristen Stucker looking to make it three in a row averaging a conference-best 11.91 assists per set.
The APSU Govs will look to continue its win streak with a couple more contests away from the Dunn Center this week at the University of Evansville-Dunn Hospitality Tournament before hosting their first home match of the year on September 11th versus Alabama A&M.
While the volleyball team looks to continue its winning ways this week, the Governors football team will now put all its entire focus on building its possible post-season resume and an OVC regular-season championship after opening the season versus last year’s national championship runner-up Georgia – the only NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team they will face this season.
That was one point that the NCAA Selection Committee committed on last year, with the Govs playing three FBS teams last season instead of FBS teams and was one of the reasons the Govs fell just short of making the postseason field.
The Govs will open the home part of their schedule, 6:00pm, September 8th at Fortera Stadium versus Presbyterian, with a road game at Morehead State next week before opening OVC play with two road games at Tennessee-Martin on September 22nd and defending OVC champion Jacksonville State on September 29th.
Austin Peay’s football team may have suffered a loss at Georgia to open the season, but the next 11 weeks that are the most important for the Govs and their hopes for an OVC championship or to put together an overall season the NCAA Selection Committee can’t overlook when putting together their postseason tournament field in November.
