KINGSVILLE, Texas – The last few weeks of the regular season are starting to dwindle away and in the midst of a battle for postseason positioning, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's volleyball team will pay a visit first to the No. 25 West Texas A&M Lady Buffs, who they'll play on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Box in Canyon, Texas, then travel to Portales, N.M. for a Saturday soiree with the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds at 1 p.m. inside Greyhound Arena.
This season's Lone Star Conference Tournament returns to the 2019 format where the top four teams in the league will receive a first-round bye with seeds five through eight playing host to the squads that finish nine through 12 in the opening round on Nov. 16th. The surviving eight squads will then converge on the campus of the No. 1 seed for the final seven matches, ending with a champion being crowned on Nov. 20th.
The Javelinas, who are 12-5 overall and 6-5 in the LSC, enter Friday's match in possession of the eighth spot, a half-game ahead of the team they will see on the final day of the regular season, Arkansas-Fort Smith. The three schools immediately behind UAFS are also teams TAMUK will play before the postseason begins, including ENMU, which sits two games behind the Javs.
The Lady Buffs, who recently broke into the national rankings for the first time in the fall, will challenge the Javelinas to deal with a team that is at or near the top of the conference in nearly every statistic. Kendra Potts' charges boast the best hitting percentage in the conference and they've held opponents to an .099 kill rate, third-best in the country. They also average more blocks per set than anyone in the LSC and own the second-best rate of aces per set.
The stars of the show for the Buffs have been middle blocker Kayla Elliott and outside hitter Torrey Miller. In the LSC, only St. Mary's Alissa Tolbert has collected more kills than Miller's 242 and her average of 3.90 kills per set puts her third in the conference. Elliott's hitting percentage of .378 is the conference's second-best mark and she's also second in the LSC in aces per set at 0.43. Elliott hasn't committed more than two errors in any of her last 11 matches.
ENMU has had a far more challenging season than WT, as the Greyhounds dropped their first seven matches and 15 of their first 16, but they enter the weekend having won three-in-a-row.
Part of the reason for ENMU's recent success has been the outstanding play of former All-LSC First-Team selection Jasmine Gannon, who averaged 3.75 kills per set in those three triumphs. In the Greyhounds' win over Midwestern State on Saturday, Gannon recorded 13 kills and hit .345 while also setting a career-high with six aces, just one shy of the most by any LSC player in a match this season.
Trying to slow down these heavy hitters will be a Javelina defense anchored by junior libero Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) and freshman middle blocker Ayanna Jackson (San Antonio, Texas). Murff continues to sit atop the conference leaderboard in digs per set at 5.59, a figure that is also 18th in Division II. The junior from San Antonio would appear to be the favorite to claim the LSC's Libero of the Year award, which would make the first Javelina to ever do so.
There are only two players in the LSC averaging more blocks per set than Jackson, who's crafted a rate of 1.07. That mark includes the six rejections Jackson was credited with on Friday, when she also hit .650 with 13 kills and zero errors in a win over Western New Mexico. Jackson's kill rate against the Mustangs was the highest by a Javelina with at least 10 kills in a single match since 2017.
Fans can follow all the action in both matches by visiting Javelinaathletics.com, where there will be links to live video and stats and a recap following the conclusion of each match. Stay up-to-date with everything related to Javelina volleyball all season long by following @Javelina_VB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter, @JavelinaVB and @JavelinaSports on Instagram, liking TAMUK Volleyball on Facebook, subscribing to the Javelina Athletics YouTube Channel and visiting Javelinaathletics.com.
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