Kingsville - With six matches left on its regular season schedule, the Javelina volleyball team is headed to Texas Woman's and Midwestern St. this Friday and Saturday for its final two road matches of the year.

This weekend is a big one for the Javelinas, who are currently two games back from a coveted top eight spot in the Lone Star Conference standings, which would earn them a trip to the LSC Tournament. Both Friday and Saturday's matches pit Kingsville against teams ahead of them in the standings, heightening the significance of the contests.

"The two teams we play this weekend have high level attackers and are overall very good at offense," Head Coach Tanya Allen Gonzalez said. "We have to step up our defense, including our serving, to match their kills with our own kills."

TAMUK is coming off of a pair of three-set losses at home this past weekend, when they fell to UT Tyler and Dallas Baptist. Both matches saw the Javelinas battle until the end, playing highly-contested third sets, even forcing extra points against UTT. Senior middle blocker Ayanna Jackson led the team with 22 kills and seven total blocks across six sets.

Jackson has been fantastic for Kingsville all year, leading the team in kills with 2.83 per set while hitting the sixth-best percentage in the nation, .421. She is also second in the conference in blocks/s with 1.14, more than an entire Lone Star team averages together. Led by Jackson, the team ranks third in the conference in blocks with 2.22/s. The Javelinas also allow the third fewest opponent digs/s in the LSC with 13.62.

The road trip begins in Denton against Texas Woman's at 6pm on Friday. The Pioneers are tied at fourth in the conference standings with an 8-2 LSC record and have won eight straight matches heading into their Friday tilt with the Javelinas.

TWU has excelled in the back row defensively, averaging the 28th most digs/s in the nation. Senior libero Luna Franca leads them in that department, averaging 4.63 digs/s, the fifth-most in the LSC. She enters Friday's match fresh off of a 23-dig performance in a four-set win over Cameron last weekend.

Their offense is equally potent, boasting the 24th-most kills/s in the nation with 13.83. Sophomore Kady Hansen and fifth-year Cara Pool more than pull their weight offensively as they both rank top ten in the conference in hitting percentage. Hansen hits .359 (fourth) and Pool hits .329 (ninth)

TAMUK's Saturday opponent, Midwestern St. is back above .500 on the season following a win over non-conference East Central on Tuesday, but is still below .500, sitting at 4-6, in conference play. They lead the Javelinas by one game in the LSC standings heading into the weekend.

Before being swept at the hands of Oklahoma Christian on last Saturday, the Pioneers had put together a four-match winning streak, beating St. Edwards, St. Mary's, Southwestern Oklahoma, and Cameron to help climb above .500 and rise in the conference standings. Perhaps most impressive about the run is the fact that MSU lost just two total sets across the four matches.

First serve for Friday's match against Texas Woman's is set for 6 p.m. central, while the team's Saturday bout with Midwestern St. is set to begin at 2 p.m..