Volleyball readies for SEMO on Tuesday

Tuesday, September 13

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

6:30 PM

Southern Illinois University

SEMO

09/12/2016 | 5:18:00 | Women's Volleyball

By: Will Becque, SIUSalukis.com

• The Saluki volleyball team will travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to take on the SEMO Redhawks on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The matchup will mark the 34th meeting between the two schools with SIU holding a 22-11 all-time advantage over its regional counterpart. The Salukis have won two-straight and eight of the last nine meetings dating back to 2005.

• Live statistics are available for the match and can be found here.

Saluki Notes

• The Salukis (7-3) split their four matches last week, defeating Murray State and Cincinnati. SIU dropped a pair of matches to ranked opponents, falling to no. 23 Western Kentucky and Michigan State, the first team receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll. The Salukis win over Murray State extended their unbeaten streak at home against the Racers to 14 matches dating back to 1979, while their win over Cincinnati at the Western Kentucky invitational was their first over the Bearcats since 1978.

• SEMO (1-9) comes into Tuesday's matchup riding a nine-match losing streak, having won their season opener in four sets over New Orleans. The Redhawks dropped a pair of matches to common opponents, having lost to Duquesne, 3-2 and Central Michigan, 3-1. Junior Krissa Gearring currently leads the Ohio Valley Conference in kills with a 4.8 kills per set average while senior Jade Mortimer leads the OVC in digs, averaging 5.03 per set. The issue for the Redhawks may lie within their opponents' hitting percentage, as they are currently allowing the team across the net to hit at a .226 clip.

• The Salukis have already recorded 10-plus service aces in a match twice this season. In SIU's 3-0 win over Duquesne, the Salukis tallied 10 aces, marking the first time since Nov. 23, 2013 that SIU has reached double-figures in aces. In their next match, a 3-1 victory over IUPUI, the Salukis once again tallied 10-plus aces, making it the first time SIU has accomplished the feat twice in a single-season since 2008.

• SIU tallied 11.0 total blocks in the 3-2 win over Cincinnati on Saturday, marking the fifth time this season the Salukis have recorded 10-plus total blocks as a team. SIU is tied with Drake for the most matches with 10-plus blocks in the Valley this season. The Salukis currently rank second in the conference in blocks per set (2.65).

Player Notes

• Kolby Meeks has recorded nine or more kills in three of SIU's last four matches, including a season-high 10 in the five-set win over Cincinnati on Sept. 10. The junior transfer from Norcross, Ga. continues to get more involved in the Saluki offense, with 16 or more attempts in SIU's last four matches. During that stretch, Meeks is hitting .352.

• Meg Viggars has recorded 5 or more blocks in each of the past two matches. Viggars has now recorded five or more blocks in 21 contests in her illustrious Saluki career, but has only done so in back-to-back matches three times.

• Viggars is closing in on a milestone. With 27 more digs, the Stokes-on-Trent, England native will become the 11th Saluki to join the 1,000-dig club, and the first to do so since Alex Rivera did so in 2014. She will also join Debbie Barr as the only Salukis with 1,000 career assists/1,000 career digs, and she currently sits in 12th on SIU's all-time list for career assists with 1,688. With 31 assists, Viggars will pass Kim Cassidy (1991-94) for 11th on SIU's all-time list. Viggars, who was an alternative to represent Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, has also tallied 305 block assists, the sixth-most in school history.

• Breanna Cullen made her collegiate debut in the loss to Western Kentucky on Sept. 9, recording four digs and an assist in two sets.

• Fellow freshman Ginger Perinar has played at least a set in each of the Salukis last four matches, and hit .444 in SIU's three-set win over Murray State. She finished with four kills on nine attempts with no errors and added a pair of digs.

• Andrea Estrada has four double-doubles in 10 matches this season, including 13 kills-19 digs in SIU's five-set win over Cincinnati on Sept. 10. She now has 32 double-doubles on her career, and has twice recorded streaks of five-straight matches in which she has tallied kill-dig double-doubles, both of which came in 2015.

• Mariana Pilon has notched double-digit digs in eight-straight matches. She's approaching her longest such streak, 11 matches, which she set last season from Sept. 18, 2015 to Oct. 17, 2015.

• Nellie Fredriksson tied her career-best with 14 kills against Northern Arizona on Sept. 3. She also tied her career-high in attempts with 33.

• Shannon Hagen set personal-bests in hitting efficiency (.667), kills (13), and total blocks (3.0) in SIU's win over Murray State on Sept. 6.

• McKenzie Dorris currently leads the Missouri Valley Conference with a 1.40 blocks per set average, as she has recorded multiple blocks in all seven matches she has appeared in this season.

• In SIU's match against Western Kentucky, Abby Barrow tied a season-best by hitting at a .333 clip, finishing with six kills on 18 attempts with no errors. It marks the first time in the Metamora, Ill., product's career that she did not record a hitting error.

• Hannah Kaminsky's 2,725 career assists are the sixth-most in school history. With 72 more assists this season she will pass Kim Golebiewski for fifth on SIU's all-time list. The Woodridge, Ill., native is one of four Salukis to record 2,000-plus assists and 100-plus service aces, joining Holly Marita (2003-06), Lisa Cummins (1982-85), and Sue Sinclair (1984-88) in that club.

• Ashley Edelen set a new career-high with a pair of assists in the match against Western Kentucky on Sept. 9. The Louisville, Ky. native is well on her way to posting a career-high in digs for a season, as she currently has 57 digs, with her previous best, set last year, being 107.

• Alex Rosignol set a new career-high with 13 kills in the five-set win over Cincinnati on Sept. 10. She previously set a new career-best with four service aces in the win over Duquesne on Aug. 27. The Mount Carmel, Ill., native ranks fourth in the conference with 1.27 blocks per set.