JACKSONVILLE – The Ohio Valley Conference championship will be on the line this weekend, when the Jacksonville State volleyball team hosts its final homestand of the season, facing Austin Peay on Friday at 7 p.m. and Tennessee State on Saturday at 2 p.m. Admission is free.

The Gamecocks (21-5, 14-0 OVC), who remain the league's lone unbeaten team in conference play, can clinch the OVC's regular season crown with a win over second-place Austin Peay on Friday. A win over the Lady Govs (19-7, 12-2 OVC) would secure the Gamecocks' fourth OVC trophy in the last five seasons and give them the right to host the conference tournament on Nov. 19-21. Free pizza will be available for all fans during Friday's match.

JSU will then make its final regular season appearance at home on Saturday against TSU and will honor its two seniors in a prematch ceremony.

JSU brings the nation's sixth-longest winning streak into the weekend, but will have to hold off an Austin Peay squad that has won 14 of its last 17 matches. One of those three losses was a 3-2 thriller against JSU in Clarksville, Tenn., on Oct. 3. The Gamecocks haven't lost since Sept. 12.

The Gamecocks have used defense to key their success this season. They currently rank 15th nationally in digs per game with 17.39 and are led on the back row by sophomore Lauren Harkins, whose 4.87 digs per set are 43rd in the nation. Harkins, a Louisville, Ky., native, is closing in on history for the Gamecocks, needing just 30 more digs to break Kisha West's single-season record of 526 set in 2005. She also needs just 21 digs to become the eighth member of the school's 1,000 digs club.

Harkins leads a group of three JSU players with at leads 2.5 digs per set in 2009. Senior Brittney Whitten has picked up an average of 3.75 digs per set, while freshman Alyx Schulte averages 2.52. Whitten, a Boonville, Ind., native, will be one of the two senior honored on Saturday, wrapping up a career that currently has her in third (1,359) on the school's career kills list and second (1,562) in career digs.

Fellow senior Paige Beasley will also be honored prior to Saturday's match. The defensive specialist from Fort Payne, Ala., is wrapping up a two-year career that has seen her pick up 265 digs after transferring from Gadsden State Community College prior to the 2008 season.