Salukis head to Dayton for Flyer Classic

Friday, September 16

Dayton, Ohio

2:30 PM

Southern Illinois University

Youngstown State

09/15/2016 | 10:52:00 | Women's Volleyball

Flyer Classic Game Notes

The Saluki volleyball team will travel to Dayton, Ohio to take part in the Flyer Classic beginning Friday, Sept. 16. The Salukis will face Youngstown State on Friday, before taking on a pair of ranked opponents Saturday in Loyola Marymount (no. 36) and Dayton (no. 26).

• Live statistics are available for the match and can be found here. Fans can watch SIU's match against Dayton here.

Saluki Notes

• The Salukis are tied with Missouri State and Drake atop the Missouri Valley Conference standings at 8-3. Southern is coming off a sweep of regional rival SEMO, in which the Salukis hit a season-best .343.

• Youngstown State (6-5) is led by fifth-year head coach Mark Hardaway and head to Dayton as winners of four-straight, and five of its last six. Senior middle Lori Vanbeek earned Akron Invitational MVP and Horizon League Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors last week after hitting .500 and notching four kills per set. She set a new career-high with 21 kills in YSU's 3-1 win over Eastern Kentucky. It will mark just the third matchup between the two programs, with each team sporting a 1-1 record against the other. In their most recent matchup, the Salukis came back to defeat the Penguins, dropping thee first two sets, 25-19 and 25-15, before rebounding to win the next three in convincing fashion, 25-12, 25-16, 15-5.

• The Salukis sport a .782 (30-8-1) all-time winnning percentage over Horizon League schools, including seven-straight dating back to 2007. SIU is 2-0 against Horizon League programs under head coach Justin Ingram.

• Loyola Marymount (6-3), under the direction of Tom Black, are winners of four of its last five matches. Black, an assistant with Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics, most recently led his squad to wins over Harvard and Duke at the LMU/Long Beach State Invitational. USarah Sponcil collected 36 kills during the three matches, averaging 4.0 kills per set. Last season the Lions reached the NCAA Tournament for the 13th time in program history, while Saturday's tilt will serve as the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

• It will also mark SIU's first meeting against a current West Coast Conference (WCC) school since 2003, with Southern's last win against a WCC program coming on Sept. 22, 1983, a 2-0 (15-8, 15-5) win over San Francisco.

• The hosts, Dayton (11-0) are riding an 11-match win streak in what is the program's best start since 2007. At the helm of the Flyers is third-year head coach Tim Horsmon, who is in his second stint as the head coach of the Flyers. Dayton is also a NCAA Tournament team from last season, and were picked to win the Atlantic 10 in voting amongst league head coaches. SIU holds a 1-2-1 overall record against Dayton dating back to 1978, with the Salukis defeating the Flyers in four sets a year ago.

• SIU holds a .760 (17-5-1) lifetime winning percentage against current Atlantic 10 schools, and come into Saturday's match riding a four-match win streak against Atlantic 10 programs that dates back to 2007. SIU's most recent win against an A-10 school came earlier this season, when the Salukis swept Duquesne at the IUPUI Invitational on Aug. 26.

• Southern has 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.

• Within the Valley, SIU is joined by Drake as the only teams to have notched 10-plus aces in a match, and the only program to have done so in multiple matches.

• SIU tallied 11.0 total blocks in the 3-2 win over Cincinnati on Sept. 10, 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 18th in the nation, and second in the conference, in total blocks (103.0).

• The Salukis are 36-21 (.631) in non-conference matches under head coach Justin Ingram.

Player Notes

• Andrea Estrada's 17 kills in the three-set win over SEMO are the second-most in a three-set match in the Valley thus far this season. Her 28 attempts to get to 17 kills are the fewest of anyone in the MVC with 16 or more kills in a match this season.

• Speaking of Estrada, her .571 hitting efficiency in the win over SEMO was the second-highest in a single-match in her Saluki career, and is the fifth-best in the Valley amongst hitters with 12 or more kills in a match this season.

• 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. Her .667 hitting efficiency is the second-best in the conference this season.

• Alex Rosignol set a new career-high with 13 kills in the five-set win over Cincinnati on Sept. 10.

• Rosignol also set a new career-best with four service aces in the win over Duquesne on Aug. 27, which ties her for the third-most in a match in the Valley this season. The Mount Carmel, Ill., native also ranks fourth in the conference with 1.27 blocks per set.

• Kolby Meeks has recorded nine or more kills in three of SIU's last five 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 five matches. During that stretch, Meeks is hitting .333 and has the fewest hitting errors (12) of any Saluki with 80 or more attempts.

• Meg Viggars has recorded 5 or more blocks in four matches this season, and has done so 21 times in her career. She has only done so in back-to-back matches three times, including earlier this season.

• Viggars is closing in on a milestone. With 23 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 1,713. With eight 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.

• Andrea Estrada has five double-doubles in 11 matches this season, including 17 kills-13 digs in SIU's sweep off SEMO on Sept. 13. She now has 33 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.

• Setters Meg Viggars and Hannah Kaminsky also have recorded double-doubles this season, as Viggars has four and Kaminsky notched her 26th career double-double with 24 assists and 11 digs in SIU's 3-1 win over IUPUI on Aug. 27.

• 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 in five-straight 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.

• Mariana Pilon notched double-digit digs in eight-straight matches from Aug.27 to Sept. 10. Her longest such streak is 11 matches, which she set last season from Sept. 18, 2015 to Oct. 17, 2015.

• Nellie Fredriksson continues to set career-bests. She set a new career-best with a .571 hitting efficency in SIU's sweep of SEMO on Sept. 13, after tying her career-high for kills (14) and attempts (33) against Northern Arizona on Sept. 3.

• McKenzie Dorris currently leads the Missouri Valley Conference with a 1.36 blocks per set average, as she has recorded multiple blocks in all eight matches she has appeared in this season.

• In SIU's win over SEMO, Abby Barrow matched her season-best by hitting at a .333. Against Western Kentucky on Sept. 3, she also hit .333, finishing with 6 kills on 18 attempts with no errors. It marked the first time in the Metamora, Ill., product's career that she did not record a hitting error.

• Hannah Kaminsky's 2,747 career assists are the sixth-most in school history. With 50 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 64 digs, with her previous best, set last year, being 107.

• Edelen tallied double-digit digs in back-to-back matches for the first time in her Saluki career, finishing with 11 digs in SIU's win over IUPUI and recording 10 in the Salukis victory over UCF. She has notched double-digit digs in six matches during her career.

• Abby Barrow has recorded 10 or more kills in five matches this season, while Estrada has done so in six matches so far, including in each of the past two matches. The Salukis are 7-1 this season when their Estrada hits .200 or better.

• Alex Rosignol has notched at least one service ace in five of SIU's 11 matches this season, including four in Southern's 3-0 win over Duquesne on Aug. 26.

• Rosignol has 206 career block assists, and needs 53 to crack SIU's all-time top-10 in the category in just her third season.