APSU Sports: Austin Peay Volleyball
Clarksvile, TN – Austin Peay State University’s volleyball team will put its six-match home win streak on the line when it hosts Murray State in a 7:00pm, Tuesday, Ohio Valley Conference contest at the Dunn Center.
Austin Peay (16-14, 9-5 OVC West) has secured a berth into next week’s OVC Volleyball Championship, but now is playing for seeding. The Lady Govs are among three teams tied for third place with a 9-5 record in OVC action with two matches remaining.
The Lady Govs extended their home win streak with a come-from-behind five-set victory against OVC West leading Southeast Missouri, Saturday. Austin Peay is 6-0 at the Dunn Center this season, the lone home loss came in its home opener against Jacksonville State, September 21st, which was moved to The Red Barn due to electrical problems.
“We have done our job at home so far this season,” said Lady Govs head coach Taylor Mott. “When you get into conference play you have to win your home matches to have any success. We have two critical, difficult matches ahead of us and we have to keep playing at our best with the end in sight.”
Individually, junior middle blocker Lauren Henderson was impressive last weekend with a team-best 13 kills and five blocks in the win against UT Martin followed by a 14-kill, three-block effort against Southeast Missouri. Senior opposite hitter Alex Sain also had a quality weekend, including career highs in kills (18) and digs (25) against Southeast Missouri.
“It was nice to see a couple of our other hitters step up and perform well,” said Mott. “Nikki (Doyle) and Jada (Stotts) have carried a lot of the load this season. However, I know we have very capable hitters throughout the lineup and we saw that last weekend.”
Murray State (5-19, 3-11 OVC West) ended a six-match losing streak, Saturday, with a four-set win against UT Martin. The Racers have had trouble on the road this season, posting a 1-10 mark overall and are winless in six OVC road trips.
Austin Peay won the previous meeting in four sets, September 25th. It wasn’t an easy win as the Lady Govs finished with only a five-point advantage at the end of four sets. Doyle led APSU with 17 kills and Stotts added 15 kills. Murray State’s Taylor Olden recorded 15 kills against the Lady Govs.
