Ragin' Cajuns Visiting Division Foes in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball begins a two-match weekend in Arkansas on Friday taking on the Little Rock Trojans at 6:30 p.m. inside the Jack Stephens Center.

Following Friday's contest, the Ragin' Cajuns (4-12, 1-1 Sun Belt) travel to Jonesboro, Ark., to wrap up the weekend at Arkansas State in a 6 p.m. match at the Convocation Center.

Louisiana is on the road in Sun Belt Conference play for the first time this season. The Ragin' Cajuns began league play last weekend at Earl K. Long Gym, sweeping Georgia State in straight sets then falling to Georgia Southern in five sets.

It was a weekend of team and individual achievements for the Ragin' Cajuns as Sun Belt play began. The squad hit a season-high .325 vs. Georgia State, then Stacey Reilly (26 kills), Sydney Davis (32 digs) and Jessica Bartczyszyn (57 assists) all recorded career-highs in the Georgia Southern match.

Head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot was pleased to see her squad soundly defeat an opponent after grabbing a 2-0 lead in the match (defeated Georgia State 25-11 in the third set) and bounce back from a 0-2 deficit to force a fifth set (took Georgia Southern to 23-21 in the fifth set).

Reilly, who has eclipsed 200 kills in a season for the second time in her career, has been the headliner for Louisiana's offense this season. The junior outside hitter has accumulated 224 kills, placing her within striking distance of her career-best 250 recorded during her freshman season in 2014.

Reilly ranks third in the Sun Belt Conference averaging 3.56 kills per set. The Houston native has generated double figures in all but two outings and has 10 double-doubles to her credit.

The Ragin' Cajuns have begun to see new contributors to the offense. Katherine Young produced nine kills on 13 swings vs. Georgia State in her first start at right side hitter and Dree'Ana Abram subbed in and provided five kills on eight swings vs. Georgia Southern.

Bartczyszyn ranks second in the Sun Belt for assists per set at 9.64. The Cary, Ill., product has reached the 600-mark in a season for the first time in her career (617 actual). She's handed out 40-plus assists nine times and directed Louisiana to 50-plus kills nine times.

Davis, who leads the Ragin' Cajuns averaging 3.86 digs per set, is well on her way to surpassing her freshman season total. The squad's libero, she has scooped 247 digs and has 15 more matches remaining to catch last year's 376 digs.

McKeznie John and Hannah Henry were added to the back row last week to help Davis solidify that area. The duo each collected 15 digs in the Georgia Southern match.

The Ragin' Cajuns are making their first Arkansas road swing since the 2012 season. Louisiana has been to Little Rock and Jonesboro since, but not on the same weekend.

With the Sun Belt's return to divisions, Louisiana is paired with both Little Rock and Arkansas State in the West Division. As divisional foes, the squads will meet a second time with those matchups occurring in just two weeks at Earl K. Long Gym as ASU visits on Oct. 14 and Little Rock on Oct. 16.

Milestone Watch
>> Stacey Reilly is 26 kills shy of matching her career single-season best total of 250 kills that she produced during her freshman season in 2014.
>> Stacey Reilly is two service aces away from equaling her career-best output of 19 as a freshman in 2014.
>> Jessica Bartczyszyn needs nine digs to set a personal single-season mark. She enters the weekend with 100 digs, just short of the 108 she collected last season.
>> Chanelle Gardner's next service ace will set a new personal single-season best. She currently has 12 aces, tying her current career-best amount recorded in 2015.
>> Chanelle Gardner needs 27 more kills to move past Tonice White (894 kills) into fourth place on the rally scoring era career chart. Gardner currently has 868 kills.

Coach Mazeitis-Fontenot's Thoughts
"Right now we're in a really a big acceleration, in terms of a learning curve, and it's a fun time to be there because you see kids doing things they've never done before.

Most importantly, this team believes in themselves They don't play as their record shows and we don't treat them that way. Last Saturday showed me some things I hadn't seen before and they just played wide open with big hearts.

In the past, we've had some good luck at Little Rock. Arkansas State is one of the top teams in our conference, so we'd love to go there and play great. We have a couple of kids in our arsenal, who are in that learning curve, who are really doing some fun stuff in practice, so this weekend against those two opponents it'd be fun to send them out there and see what happens."

Series Notables
Little Rock: Little Rock holds a 36-8 all-time series lead…The Ragin' Cajuns are 6-9 vs. the Trojans with Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot, the most wins by any coach in program history in the series…Little Rock holds an 18-3 edge in matches played on its home court…Series began in 1991 when the Cajuns and Trojans joined the Sun Belt Conference.

Arkansas State: The Red Wolves hold a 43-14 series lead… ASU has won 12 of the 16 meetings during the Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot era…Louisiana seeks its first win in Jonesboro since 2013…This is the 35th straight season (1982-2016) that the Cajuns and Red Wolves are conference foes…The conference partnership includes the Southland Conference (1982-86), American South Conference (1987-90) and Sun Belt Conference (1991-present).

Up Next
The Ragin' Cajuns return to Earl K. Long Gym for a four-match homestand that begins next week with matches against Southeastern Louisiana (Oct. 5) and ULM (Oct. 8). The second half of the homestand features rematches with Arkansas State (Oct. 14) and Little Rock (Oct. 16).

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Players Mentioned

Dree'Ana Abram

Jessica Bartczyszyn

Sydney Davis

Chanelle Gardner

Hannah Henry

Stacey Reilly

Katherine Young