Volleyball Searching for First GLVC Championship

(#24 AVCA) Truman Volleyball Weekly Notes (Match 32)
Full Notes (PDF)

Match 32 (Live Stats | Live Video):
#24 Truman (21-10, 14-4 GLVC) vs. Southern Indiana (24-7, 15-3 GLVC)

Date: Friday, November 22 (5:00 PM)
Location: Romeoville, Ill. (Neil Carey Arena)
Series Record: Truman leads, 5-1.
Briney vs. USI: 1-1 (-1 set differential)
Last Meeting: November 2, 2013 – Southern Indiana won, 3-1, in Kirksville.

Social Media: @TrumanAthletics || @TrumanVB || #TSUGameDay

Opening Serve:
The 24^th-ranked Truman volleyball team heads to its first Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament this Friday at Lewis University, as the Bulldogs are set for a first round tilt with Southern Indiana at 5:00 pm in Neil Carey Arena.

Truman (21-10, 14-4 GLVC) enters the GLVC tournament coming off a split weekend in St. Louis last Friday and Saturday, as the Bulldogs were stunned 3-1 by Maryville University before bouncing back with a 3-2 win against Missouri-St. Louis. The squad is 5-5 in its last 10 matches after opening the season with 16 wins in its first 21 matches – including a 10-match win streak.

Friday will mark the second meeting between the Bulldogs and Screaming Eagles this season, as USI downed Truman 3-1 on Nov. 2 in Pershing Arena. Four Truman players finished with double-figure kills, but a dominant blocking effort by visiting USI propelled the squad to an upset of the then-20^th ranked Bulldogs. Truman posted an uncharacteristically-high 34 attack errors in the four sets, hitting just .115 for the match and never higher than .220 in an individual set.

On the season, Truman is hitting .213 as a squad while holding opponents to just a .175 mark. The Bulldogs have also served 166 total aces (1.4/set) while averaged 16.2 digs and 2.2 blocks per frame. Meanwhile, Truman has been aced just 119 times, with opponents averaging 16.6 digs and 1.8 blocks per set.

Junior OH Allie Brak leads the Bulldogs offensively with 3.74 kills per set while hitting .212, with sophomore OPP Abby Heise (2.45 kills/set) and sophomore MH Ali Patterson (2.34 kills/set) each hitting better than .260 on the year. Brak (34) leads four Bulldogs with at least 30 aces on the season while also checking in third on the squad in digs per set (2.48).

Junior S Meghan Zimmerman (10.49 assists/set) has been a two-way threat this year by ranking second on the team in digs (2.58/set) behind a team-high 15 double-doubles, while fellow junior DS/L Abby Moser has been sensational in her past five matches along the back line by averaging 6.05 digs per set – raising her season average to 4.24. She needs 21 digs to hit the 500 mark for the third time in as many seasons.

Patterson leads the Bulldogs at the net defensively with 123 total blocks (1.07/set), while both sophomore MH Emilee Walters (89 blocks, 1.00/set) and Heise (96 blocks, 0.84/set) have contributed substantially to the team's high block totals.

Ben Briney is in his fifth season as the program's head coach and has a career record of 117-52 (.692).

Following the Bulldogs:
Full coverage of Truman volleyball is available online at TrumanBulldogs.com, including results, upcoming match information and weekly updates.

When available, links to free online live stats are added to the Bulldog volleyball schedule page as well as the top of each weekly update.

Keep up with the Bulldogs by tracking in-match updates (when available). Follow Truman Athletics on Twitter (@TrumanAthletics). Also be sure to sign up for Text Caster and Newsletter updates on the TrumanBulldogs.com homepage.

GLVC Tournament Preview & History:
The top eight teams will compete for the 2013 GLVC Championship this Friday through Sunday on the Lewis University campus in Romeoville, Ill. In addition to winning the title, the GLVC Championship Tournament winner will receive the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Championship.

The top-three teams from the East (Lewis, UIndy, USI) and West (Rockhurst, Truman, S&T) Divisions, and two wild cards (Bellarmine, UMSL) make up the eight-team field. The single-elimination tournament consists of four first-round matches on Friday, followed by two semifinal games on Saturday evening, and the championship match on Sunday afternoon.

Last year, No. 2 West seed Rockhurst claimed it's first-ever GLVC Championship with a 3-1 victory over No. 2 East seed Lewis. The Hawks bested the Flyers by scores of 25-23, 25-23, 17-25, 25-21. Lewis leads the current conference contingent with eight titles, followed by UIndy's four and then Southern Indiana with two.

Lewis leads the current conference contingent with eight titles, followed by UIndy's four, Southern Indiana's two, and Rockhurst with one.

Opponent Quick Glance:
Southern Indiana
The Screaming Eagles enter the GLVC tournament as the No. 3 seed from the East Division after posting a 24-7 overall (15-3 GLVC) mark during the regular season. Coming off the late-October Crossover event in Chicago, USI had won six straight (including the Nov. 2 match at Truman) before getting swept by UIndy at home last Friday to cost the squad the No. 2 seed in the East. USI is 9-2 in true road matches this year but is just 6-4 in neutral-site affairs.

USI is hitting .205 on the season while allowing its opponents to hit at just a .150 mark. Lauren DeShaney (3.17 k/s), Fawn Ryan (2.89 k/s), Erica Oberbroeckling (2.46 k/s) and Abby Winter (2.30 k/s) are the four go-to's with the USI attack, while Kayla Heldman has patrolled the back line to a tune of 4.99 digs/set.

Winter led all Eagles with 13 kills and a .393 attack line in the team's win in Kirksville, while Oberbroeckling (11K, .175) and Ryan (11K, .139) also reached double-figures.

Leah Mercer is in her ninth season at the helm of the USI program and has a 168-113 career record.

'Dogs Listed Amongst Nation's Elite:
Three Bulldogs find themselves individually in the top-50 of different national leaderboards entering conference tournament week across the country.

Junior Allie Brak ranks 37^th in Div. II in kills per set (3.74) and 47^th in Div. II in points per set (4.18), while fellow junior Meghan Zimmerman is 36^th in the nation in assists per set (10.49). Sophomore Ali Patterson ranks 44^th amongst all Div. II players in blocks per set at 1.07.

As a team, the Bulldogs hold the 11^th most difficult schedule in all of NCAA Div. II, including the most difficult of any Midwest region squad.

Bulldogs Advancing Up Career Charts:
Junior OH Allie Brak continues her moves up Truman's career charts, as she currently sits sixth in both kills per set (3.39) and double-doubles (42), eighth in total attempts (3,477), and ninth in 10+ kill matches (61). The Texas-native is also just 37 kills away from reaching the program's top-ten in career kills, as Satoko Miyame (1990-93) holds the No. 10 slot at 1,184. Earlier this season, the junior became only the 14^th player in Truman history to reach 1,000 career kills back when she surpassed the milestone in a 3-0 sweep of Drury in Pershing Arena.

Junior S Meghan Zimmerman sits fourth all-time in career assists at 3,177 to trail recent graduate Ashley Petak (2007-10) by 284 for third place. The Nebraska-native is also up to an 8.38 assists/set mark and is closing in on Theresa Huff's third place average of 9.02/set.

Junior DS/L Abby Moser moved up another spot this past week into fourth all-time on the career digs chart, surpassing Sarah Shearman's four-year total of 1,714. The Missouri-native – currently at 1,724 – needs just 12 to move past Whitney Boehler (2005-08) to become the program's all-time top libero, as the top two spots in the digs chart are held by outside hitters.

Regional Poll Due Late Wednesday:
The Bulldogs sat seventh in the second (of three) installment of the 2013 Midwest regional poll, announced last Wednesday (Nov. 13) by the Regional Advisory Committee. Truman trailed No. 6 Ashland but was in front of No. 8 Indianapolis, as the top eight teams combining to come out of the GLVC, GLIAC and GMAC leagues will qualify for the NCAA Div. II tournament.

The GLVC and GLIAC both receive an automatic bid for their conference champions.

The third regional poll is due to be released late Wednesday (Nov. 20) afternoon, with tournament selections coming on Monday (Nov. 25) evening at 6:30 pm.

'Dogs Hanging on in AVCA Coaches' Poll:
The Nov. 18 version of the AVCA top-25 coaches' poll moved the Bulldogs back one spot to No. 24 after the squad's 2-1 record last week. Truman earned 75 points to sit between Ferris (Mich.) State and Wheeling Jesuit (W. Va.).

Truman is the only GLVC squad in the top-25, while region-mates Grand Valley State (No. 13) and FSU join the Bulldogs in the poll.

Overall, the Bulldogs have 11 opponents on their 2013 schedule who are listed either in the top-25 or are receiving votes in this week's poll.

As a program, Truman has now been in the top-25 174 total times, pulling even with Cal State-L.A. for 15^th-place all-time in Division II for total weeks ranked.

Up Next:
Should the Bulldogs defeat USI in the GLVC tournament opening round, the squad would face either host-Lewis or Missouri-St. Louis at 7:30 pm on Saturday (Nov. 23) evening. The championship match is set for 2:00 pm on Sunday (Nov. 24) afternoon.

Fans are encouraged to follow the Bulldogs on twitter (www.twitter.com/TrumanAthletics) or via the official athletics website (www.trumanbulldogs.com) for the latest information regarding the conference tournament and national post-season selections.

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