Pivotal Weekend Lies Ahead For Volleyball at Earl K. Long Gym

Contact: Matt Hebert

UL Weekly Volleyball Update (PDF) | Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot Media Luncheon Video

LAFAYETTE – The Ragin' Cajuns volleyball team seeks to stay in the race for the Sun Belt West division title this weekend as the squad welcomes two of the division's front runners to Earl K. Long Gym this weekend.

Louisiana (10-11, 2-4 Sun Belt) is coming off of a split of the Florida road swing, taking a four-set affair from FIU last Friday before the five-set bug caught the squad in Boca Raton against Florida Atlantic.

The Cajuns' challenge is to forget about the missed opportunity of a sweep in Florida and turn their attention two very formidable division foes.

Louisiana starts the weekend at E.K. Long facing Arkansas State on Friday, Oct. 12. On Saturday, Oct. 13, the Cajuns meet UALR. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.

UALR (9-9, 5-1 Sun Belt) is the current SBC West leader. ASU (14-8, 4-2 Sun Belt) is tied with North Texas for second place. UL sits in fourth place with a 2-4 league record. A pair of wins would help the Cajuns climb back into the division race. Unsatisfactory results would make the drive for a division title much tougher.

“They (ASU and UALR) are similar teams in terms of the type of offense they run,” head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot remarked. “`UALR has the No. 1 hitter in the country, right now (Edina Begic), who is averaging nearly seven kills per set. Our focus is not to try and shut her down, but just limit what she does and shut down what the other players do. And Arkansas State has really talented outside hitters.

“What I have been focusing on with our team is not to worry about so much what the other team is doing, because when we control our side it's really nice volleyball,” Mazeitis-Fontenot added. “If we can do that then we can capitalize on the biggest thing we have going for us which is being the No. 1 serving team in the conference…we will put pressure on you to try and run your offense off of our serve. That's how we've been successful this season.”

Louisiana enters the weekend after recording its 10^th win of the season last Friday at FIU, signaling double digits in wins for a third straight season (17 in 2010 & 14 in 2011). UL has posted double digit wins in three straight seasons for the first time since 2000-02.

This weekend's homestand could also be momentous for senior setter Mandi Gavin. Gavin is on the doorstep of becoming only the fourth player in program history to amass 3,000 career assists. Her magic number for the 3,000 plateau is 97 entering the ASU/UALR weekend.

The next kill will give junior outside hitter Lavinia Tataran 200-plus kills for the first time in her career. Tataran is UL's offensive leader in 2012, averaging 2.55 kills per set (199 in 78 sets).

Junior defensive specialist Taylor Meade has a chance to land a UL milestone as well. Meade needs three service aces to surpass Lindsay Brown for the most career aces in the rally scoring era (Meade has 118, Brown finished with 120 from 2007-10).

The Cajuns lead the Sun Belt Conference in service aces, with 125, and have a quartet of players with 20-plus aces – Mandi Gavin (28), Andrea Hole (26), Lavinia Tataran (22) and Taylor Meade (21).

Leading the Cajuns back row charge is libero Caitlyn Auxilien, who last weekend in Florida collected her 14^th and 15^th double figure digs outings of the season. Auxilien to increase her season total digs to 322 which has surpassed her total from her freshman campaign (308) with 11 regular season matches remaining. Auxilien is on pace to become only the third player to reach 400-plus digs in the rally scoring era (Lindsay Brown and Erika Castro the others).

ASU has won four straight matches since a sweep at the hands of North Texas on Sept. 28. The Red Wolves started their current win streak with a sweep of UL-Monroe at home on Sept. 30.

As a team, ASU ranks 41st in the nation with 13.96 kills per set and 46th in the nation with 12.92 assists per set. Senior setter Allison Kearney ranks 43rd in the nation with 10.97 assists per set, while Jasmine Terry is 88th in the nation with 3.77 kills per set. Kelsie Hodges is 90th in the nation with a .339 hitting percentage. Junior libero Megan Baska recently moved into fourth place on the all-time ASU career digs list with 1,383 for her career.

UALR began SBC play with five straight wins before Troy ended the hot streak last Sunday in a four-set affair at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. Sophomore Edina Begic leads the nation in both points (6.06) and kills (5.37) per set.

Senior Emily Pepperman, the UALR career leader in digs, currently leads the team, is eighth in the conference and 175th nationally with 4.03 digs a set. Begic is second on the team while sophomore Allison Wyatt is third with 2.70 digs. Marleen De Zoete ranks second in the SBC and 38th in the nation with 11.07 assists per set. Earlier this year, she tied a school record and recorded the most assists in a match (71) in five years among SBC volleyball players.

Begic is not the only Trojan hitter having a great season. Senior Eva Xie is turning in her best season of her career with 2.85 kills per set, half a kill better than her sophomore season. She has double-digit kills in 12 matches this season, including the last three.

The Ragin' Cajuns seek to break a two-match losing streak at Earl K. Long Gym which began two weekends ago on the WKU-MT homestand. Louisiana has won 22 of the past 31 matches at Earl K. Long Gym and hasn't lost three straight in the friendly confines since 2009.

Live coverage, both video stream and live stats, is available on RaginCajuns.com.

For all of the latest news and information on Ragin' Cajuns Athletics, visit RaginCajuns.com. Fans can also follow the athletics department on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/ULRaginCajuns along with @ULRaginCajuns on Twitter.

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Pivotal Weekend Lies Ahead For Volleyball at Earl K. Long Gym

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