JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State volleyball team will make its way to Nashville, Tenn., this weekend to continue Ohio Valley Conference play against Tennessee State and Belmont.
JSU (12-8, 2-0 OVC) opened league play last weekend with consecutive home wins over Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky. The Gamecocks now enter the second weekend of conference action as one of four teams without an OVC loss.
JSU struggled offensively against MSU and EKU, failing to hit over .200 as a unit in either match or see any individual reach double-digit kills. It was the Gamecock defense, led by junior libero
Hannah Kirk, that proved vital in early staged of conference play.
It's been a season of turnarounds so far for the program in 2016, and the Gamecocks hope to keep that trending continuing this weekend as they visit the Music City, a road trip which they were swept on last year.
Junior
Allyson Zuhlke enters the weekend hitting .320 with 252 kills to pace the offense. Along with Zuhlke, four other Gamecocks have also tallied over 100 kills including:
Charis Ludtke,
Mackenzie Rombach and freshmen
Sadie Anderson and
Kaylee Frear. The offense has been directed by freshmen
Rachel Perucki and
Shayla Schmidt who collectively have stepped in to fill the role of JSU's 2,000-assist setter,
Jennifer Hart.
On the defensive side of the net, Jax State is playing as well as many of the top teams across the country. JSU continues to lead the nation in total blocks after an impressive pre-conference run, with Rombach ranking sixth-nationally in individual rejections. Frear and Zuhlke join the Ottawa, Ill., native in the top-100 individually. On the back row, Kirk is tied for the OVC lead in total digs with 284 and sits 30th overall. The Katy, Texas, product leads a young supporting cast as four of JSU's next five dig leaders behind Kirk are all newcomers including transfers
J'Nae Fraser and
Katie Will.
JSU will face Tennessee State (8-8, 1-2) on Friday night at 7 p.m., on the TSU campus, before making their way across town to meet defending OVC Tournament champions, Belmont (8-4, 2-0) at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Live state will be available for both matches and Saturday's contest will feature video streaming on the OVC Digital Network. Fans can also keep up with the Gamecocks by following them on twitter (@JaxStateVB) or liking them on facebook (JaxStateVBall).
