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LAKE CHARLES, La. – The HBU volleyball team will look to continue their winning ways with two Southland Conference road matches, beginning Thursday. The Huskies will visit McNeese State in a 7 p.m. first serve on Thursday, before heading to Nicholls for a 1 p.m. match on Saturday.
HBU (11-11, 4-4 SLC) is coming off a 2-0 showing in Sharp Gym last week, defeating Abilene Christian (Oct. 15) and Incarnate Word (Oct. 17) by scores of 3-2 and 3-1.
On the season, junior outside hitter
Jessica Wooten is 14th in the nation (third in the conference) with 35 service aces and 34th overall (third in the conference) with a 0.43 aces per set average. The native of Humble, Texas, also ranks seventh in the SLC with 3.16 kills per set and captains the back row for the Huskies with 2.71 digs per set.
Junior setter
Kayla Armer ranks third in the conference, averaging 9.47 assists per set. Against UIW in the team's last time out, Armer amassed a season-high 50 assists to move into fourth place all-time at HBU with 3,281 for her career.
Senior middle blocker
Allison Doerpinghaus ranks seventh in the conference with a .303 hitting percentage, while defensively her and sophomore middle blocker
Blair Gillard rank third and fourth in blocks, averaging 1.12 and 1.00 blocks per set.
As a team, the Huskies are third in the Southland in blocks (2.26 per set), fourth in hitting percentage (.203) and fifth in opponent hitting percentage (.193).
HBU is already familiar with McNeese, having played the Cowgirls at the Jaguar Invitational on September 12. The Huskies defeated the Cowgirls, 3-1, marking head coach
Trent Herman's 100th victory.
McNeese (9-13, 4-3 SLC) has been one of the hottest teams in the league of late, winning its last four matches. The Cowgirls have defeated Central Arkansas (Oct. 8), Texas Southern (Oct. 13), Nicholls (Oct. 17) and Louisiana-Lafayette (Oct. 20), taking their last three matches in straight sets. Their four-match win streak only trails league-leader Texas A&M – Corpus Christi, winner of its last 10 matches.
Junior libero Bridget Justis captains McNeese on defense, ranking sixth in the conference with 4.01 digs per set, while the Cowgirls rank fourth as a team at 14.42 digs pet set. Senior outside Malina Sanchez leads the offense with 2.90 digs per set.
Following Thursday's match, HBU will visit Nicholls on Saturday. The Colonels enter their Thursday host match against TAMU-CC with a 5-14 overall record and 0-7 mark in SLC play.
A trio of outside hitters lead Nicholls on both sides of the net. Junior Kayla Mashburn ranks third in the conference with 3.30 kills per set and fourth in service aces with 0.39 per set, while freshman Anna Niederhauser ranks fifth with 0.38 aces per set. Defensively, sophomore Stephanie Tobison ranks eighth in the SLC with 3.52 digs per set.
Next week, the Huskies will host three matches, welcoming Texas Southern (Oct. 27) in the team's non-conference finale, before facing Sam Houston State (Oct. 29) and Lamar (Oct. 31).
