JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State volleyball team hits the road for a big weekend of Ohio Valley Conference play taking on Austin Peay Friday night, and then facing Murray State on Saturday.
It's a battle for first place in the league as this weekend signals the halfway point of the conference season. The Gamecocks (16-9, 5-1 OVC) are even with the Governors (14-7, 5-1) and Racers (10-8, 5-1) at the top of the standings. Since JSU sits on the East side of the conference and APSU and MSU are on the West, this will be the only meeting between the schools during the regular season.
Jax State rolls into Clarksville, Tenn., on Friday as the top blocking team in the nation, having tallied 271 so far this season. The Gamecocks also rank first in the OVC in hitting percentage with a .217 clip, however, APSU is in second at .201, and the Racers are fifth hitting .187.
JSU won a 3-2 thriller over Austin Peay in Jacksonville on Halloween night last season, but the Gamecocks haven't notched a victory in Clarksville since 2012. JSU leads the all-time series against the Govs, 15-11. Austin Peay sophomore Ashley Slay is hitting .294 for the season, fifth-best in the OVC one spot behind JSU's
Allyson Zuhlke. Slay and Zuhlke are also each in the top-10 of the league in kills per set with 3.07 and 3.29, respectively.
On Saturday, Jax State will make its way to Murray, Ky., to face last year's OVC regular-season champions. It marks the first return to Racer Arena since JSU faced Tennessee Tech in the 2014 OVC Tournament. The Racers enter the weekend having won 37 of their last 42 regular-season OVC matches dating back to the end of 2013. MSU has won two-straight against JSU, but the Gamecocks still hold a commanding 15-5 all-time series lead. MSU senior Scottie Ingram joins Slay and Zuhlke as one of the league's top hitters with a 4.24 kill per set average.
Zuhlke leads JSU with 306 total kills, followed by freshman
Kaylee Frear with 205. Junior
Charis Ludtke, sophomore
Mackenzie Rombach and freshman
Sadie Anderson have also reached triple-digit kills on the season. Freshman
Rachel Perucki surpassed 500 assists for the season in Tuesday's win at Jackson State, while
Shayla Schmidt closes in on almost 300 assists.
Across the net, Rombach currently leads the nation with 124 total blocks, the most by any Gamecock since 1997. She's joined inside the top-100 by Frear (22
nd) and Zuhlke (67
th). On the back row, junior
Hannah Kirk leads the OVC with 356 digs. As a unit, JSU is holding opponents to just a .147 hitting mark.
Friday's match against Austin Peay will be streamed on the OVC Digital Network. Saturday's 2 p.m. match in Murray will feature live stats available on JSUGamecockSports.com.
