Kingsville - The TAMUK volleyball team is set for its first weekend of home matches in conference play as it hosts UT Permian Basin on Friday at 6pm and Western New Mexico on Saturday at 2pm.

Friday marks the team's first home LSC match, while Saturday will be TAMUK's annual pink out game, where the first 75 fans will receive a free water bottle and pizza.

The Javelinas enter the weekend with an 8-5 overall record, though they are 0-2 in conference play after falling to St. Mary's and Texas A&M International last week. Serve receive was difficult for TAMUK last weekend, often forcing the offense to play out of system, leading to .165 and .158 hitting percentages against St. Mary's and International respectively. 

"I think that we struggled with our first contact, so serve receive and defense, and then that forced us to have to hit out of system on a very large percentage of our balls," Head Coach Tanya Allen-Gonzalez said. "I think when you have to rely on scoring points on defense, you're at a disadvantage, and I think that's what we did."

Statistically, the Javelinas' defense has been excellent to start the year, ranking second in the LSC in blocks per set (2.20) and third in opponent digs per set (13.14). Offensively, while the numbers have dropped in recent matches, TAMUK's in system offense is still one of the best in the conference. Getting in-system looks, Allen-Gonzalez said, is key to this weekend's matchups.

"Both out of serve receive and defense, we need a good enough pass that we could potentially run our middles," Allen-Gonzalez said. "It doesn't mean we have to set them, but it has to be good enough that if we wanted to, we could run our middles. Otherwise, it puts too much pressure on our pin attackers."

The team will try to even up their in-conference record with a pair of foes who are each 1-1 in Lone Star Conference play.

UTPB, Kingsville's first opponent this weekend, enters its match with the Javelinas fresh off of a home match against No.10 West Texas A&M where the team found itself on the wrong end of a sweep for the first time this season. Prior to that loss, however, the Falcons had won eight straight matches, including four straight sweeps. One of those sweeps came in the team's LSC opener against Eastern New Mexico.

The Falcons boast perhaps the best defense in the conference, as they lead the LSC in opponent hitting %, opp assists, opp kills, blocks, and digs. The front line - backrow combo of seniors Chyra Thompson and Gabby Gregorski lead the way for them defensively. Thompson ranks second in the LSC in blocks per set, while Gregorski's 5.30 digs per set are both second in the conference and 20th in the country.

The Javelinas' Saturday foe provides a different challenge. The best part of WNM's game has come on serve and serve receive, both of which the team is ranked top four in the conference in. Leading the service side of that exchange is junior Chase Kallevig, who sits at second in the LSC in aces per set. It's another talented upperclassmen leading the defensive side: senior Lilouann Bechec, who ranks fifth in the conference in digs per set.

Though the Mustangs carry momentum from a 3-0 sweep of Eastern New Mexico into the weekend, they lost their previous three consecutive matches, all against conference opponents.