Austin Peay Lady Govs Volleyball travels to Eastern Kentucky Colonels Saturday

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Volleyball

Richmond, KY – Austin Peay State University’s volleyball team will look to maintain the early pace when it travels to Eastern Kentucky for a 1:00pm (CT), Saturday, Ohio Valley Conference contest.

Austin Peay (8-10, 2-1 OVC West) sits one game behind Southeast Missouri for the divisional lead entering the second weekend of conference play. The Lady Govs have won two straight since losing its OVC opener, including a key four-set victory at Murray State, Tuesday.

In the win at Murray State, the Lady Govs showed off a nice offensive balance with senior Nikki Doyle leading the team with 17 kills while sophomores Jada Stotts and Liz Landon also breached the double-digit kills mark. That balance will be critical as the team enters the heart of the conference slate and opponents begin to focus on Stotts, the team’s leading hitter (3.78 kills per set) through five weeks.

“Having balance offensively is something we have talked about as team,” said Lady Govs head coach Taylor Mott. “Teams are going to focus on both of our outsides and if our middles can’t be productive we’re going to struggle. Against Murray State our middles were able to perform and do their job and that’s something we need to do consistently.”

Eastern Kentucky (3-10, 0-3 OVC East) is wrapping up a four-match homestand and seeking its first OVC win. The Colonels put up a fight against Belmont one week ago, losing a three-set match by seven total points. Eastern Kentucky then stole a set from East Division leading Morehead State, Tuesday, before falling in four sets.

Ashley Edmond (2.69 kills per set) leads Eastern Kentucky’s offense, but has been supported by Alexis Plagens (2.44 kps) and Kelsey Kuehner(2.24 kps) . The Colonels offense has struggled as a whole, ranking 12th among OVC teams in attack percentage (.108) and 11th in kills per set (10.86) through three conference matches.