Volleyball to Host Eastern Michigan in Home Opener on Tuesday
9/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Youngstown State volleyball team will play its 2011 home opener on Tuesday against Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. at Beeghly Center. The match will be broadcast live on the Horizon League Network, and live stats will be available on YSUsports.com.
The Penguins will look to display the improvement in front of their home crowd that they've shown through the first seven matches of the season. YSU is 0-7, but it has been very competitive through the season's initial two weeks. They have taken four different teams to four sets, which is something they did just once in 2010. The Penguins are coming off of a 3-2 loss to SEMO at the IU adidas Classic on Saturday evening.
Statistically, the Penguins have two sophomores who are among the top 10 attackers in the Horizon League. Right-side hitter Missy Hundelt (St. Charles, Mo.) ranks third in the conference with an average of 3.77 kills per set. Outside hitter Jackie Carlisle (Hubbard, Ohio) ranks ninth with an average of 2.70 kills per set. Both student-athletes recorded more than 20 kills on Saturday against SEMO. Casey D'Ambrose (Addison, Ill.) ranks seventh in assists (8.90 per set) and ninth in aces (0.30 per set), and Erika West is fourth in digs per set (3.77).
Eastern Michigan has won six straight matches since dropping its season opener at Notre Dame. After losing in four sets to the Irish, the Eagles started their winning streak by beating Horizon League member Butler in five sets. Rachel Iaquaniello averages 4.67 kills per set, and the Eagles have a team attack percentage of .209. Haley Stein averages 5.96 digs per set, and Kristen Baker is averaging 1.04 blocks per set. The Penguins are 0-3 all-time against Eastern Michigan, including a three-set loss at EMU last year. The teams have never played at Beeghly Center.
Following Tuesday's match, the Penguins will head back on the road for five matches. They will play three of those matches this weekend at the Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament at UMBC.
