Marshall University Athletics
Volleyball Heads West to Play in Billiken Invitational
9/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 16, 2010
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall University volleyball team travels to St. Louis, Mo., to take part in the Billiken Invitational hosted by Saint Louis University on Friday, Sept. 17 and Saturday, Sept. 18. The Thundering Herd will play three different opponents, starting off with a 5:30 p.m. EST tilt with Western Kentucky on Friday. MU will follow up with a pair of matches on Saturday with Lipscomb (11 a.m.) and Saint Louis (5:30 p.m.).
Marshall (4-5): The Thundering Herd dropped a mid-week match to West Virginia, 3-0, but are winners of four of its last six. In the contest versus the Mountaineers, senior Elizabeth Fleming produced her fourth double-double of the season with 35 assists and 10 digs. She is averaging 9.43 helpers per set for the season.
Freshman Dorothy Rahal collected a match-best 22 digs at WVU and has posted 10-or-more digs in all three matches since taking over the libero position. Classmate Laura Der has tallied three double-doubles on the season as an outside hitter, while senior Elizabeth Herman has connected for 14-or-more kills in seven-of-eight matches played this season.
Western Kentucky (8-3): The Hilltoppers won three-of-four matches at home while hosting the WKU Invitational last weekend. Tiffany Elmore is tops on the team in kills (116) and has tallied 2.97 per set while hitting at a strong .399 clip. She also has 42 total blocks, including 16 solo deflections.
Lindsay Williams has been a dynamic player at middle blocker for WKU, averaging 1.08 blocks and 2.26 kills per set, while Sarah Rogers corrals an average of 3.49 digs per stanza.
WKU leads the all-time series with Marshall, 4-1.
Saint Louis (3-6): The tournament-host Billikens hold a perfect 21-0 in their home arena - Chaifetz Pavilion - but have had tough luck in long matches, dropping all three game that have lasted five frames in 2010.
Saint Louis dropped back-to-back matches in four sets to Missouri State and Oklahoma before sweeping Utah at the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational. At the tournament, Megan Boken led the Billikens tallying 3.45 kills per set, while setter Hannah Kvitle dished out 12.18 assists per frame.
The Billikens own the all-time series 1-0 with the lone meeting taking place in 1980.
Lipscomb (9-3): Alex Kelly has been the steam engine running the Bison offense. Lipscomb has won seven-straight games, with six of them being three-game sweeps. Kelly is averaging a robust 4.43 kills and 3.92 digs per set, leading the squad in both statistics.
It will mark the first time the Herd and Bison will meet.
GameTracker will be available for the entire tournament by logging onto HerdZone.com.
