APSU Sports Information: APSU Volleyball
Clarksville, TN – After playing 13 matches and spending the season’s first month on the road, Austin Peay State University’s volleyball team will finally have an opportunity to play in front of its home crowd when it hosts a pair of Ohio Valley Conference matches this weekend at the Dunn Center. The Lady Govs will host Eastern Illinois in a 7:00pm, Friday home opener before meeting SIU Edwardsville at 1:00pm, Saturday.
Austin Peay will open its home schedule after a finishing its season-opening road trip with just two wins in 13 tries. The Lady Govs opened OVC play last weekend in “Death Valley” falling to both Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State in four sets. Those losses extended APSU’s current losing streak to six matches.
“It’s great to finally be at home,” said Lady Govs head coach Bill Egbert. “We’ve been gone the first four weekends so we’ve had a lot of travel. It’s been a less stressful week for the team, they haven’t had to worry about missing class and making up study hall. We’ve been able to focus on the task at hand and we’ve had three of our best practices this week.”
As Austin Peay nears the regular season’s halfway point it is still seeking to button up a defense that has been porous at times. The Lady Govs have allowed opponent’s to post a .268 attack percentage this season, ranking 10th among conference members. That percentage was exacerbated in its opening OVC weekend as Austin Peay saw Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State combine to hit .273 against its defense.
On the offensive side of the ball, Austin Peay ranks among the middle of the OVC pack in each of the league’s offensive statistics, including attack percentage where it ranks fourth (.185).
The Lady Govs continue to take steps forward with a pair of freshmen – setter Cami Fields and middle blocker Hillary Plybon – well entrenched in the starting lineup. However, that starting group has been very fluid this season with nine different players starting at least one match this season. Sophomore middle blocker Lauren Henderson, junior outside hitter Nikki Doyle and Fields are the only players to start all 13 matches this season.
“We are continuing to work hard on improving every day,” said Egbert. “We have some young players who have had to adjust to playing at the Division I level. Our returnees also have had to make adjustments to the way they play. I believe we’re going to get better as the season progresses.”
Eastern Illinois (3-11, 1-2 OVC) visits the Dunn Center fresh off recording its first OVC win this season, a five-set decision against SIU Edwardsville, Thursday. That win followed a pair of OVC losses last weekend – a three-set decision at Southeast Missouri and a four-set loss at Murray State. The Panthers enter the weekend ranked 10th in attack percentage (.143) but are led by sophomore Reynae Hutchinson who ranks ninth among the league’s hitters with 2.77 kills per set.
SIU Edwardsville (6-8, 1-2 OVC) opened OVC play with a 1-1 mark in its opening weekend, falling to Murray State in four sets before downing Southeast Missouri in three sets. The Cougars suffered a five-set loss at Eastern Illinois, Tuesday, to fall to 1-2 in league action. SIUE is ranked second among the league’s offense with a .199 attack percentage and third with 12.89 kills per set despite not having a player ranked among the top 10 in kills. Six Cougars are averaging more than 2.0 kills per set this season.
Season Notables To Date
After finishing the 2010 campaign ranked second nationally in service aces per set (2.06 saps), Austin Peay has not been nearly as dangerous from the serving line in 2011, entering the weekend ranked 316th (0.66 saps) out of 322 Division I teams.
Junior outside hitter Nikki Doyle saw her 10-match streak of recording at least 10 kills end at Lipscomb, September 14th. However, she opened OVC play with 12 kills against both Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State.
Sophomore middle blocker Lauren Henderson ranks third among the league’s blockers, averaging 1.00 block per set. Only three Lady Govs players have ended the season averaging at least one block per set, the last being Jaimie Thill (1.01 bps in 2004).
Freshman setter Cami Fields continues to do her learning on the job and ranks fourth among the league’s setters with 9.70 assists per set and is one of only two freshman – along with Eastern Kentucky’s Abbey Cvelbar – ranked among the league’s top 10.
