No. 4 seed Volleyball set for First Round Match with No. 5 Florida Atlantic

Marshall C-USA Match Notes

HOUSTON, Texas – The Marshall volleyball team returns to the court on Friday, at 3 p.m. eastern, in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament, hosted by Rice. The Herd as the No. 4 seed will take on the No. 5 seed Florida Atlantic Owls.

The Thundering Herd enters with an overall record of 18-9 and finished 9-5 in conference play. The Owls come in with a record of 15-10 and also finished 9-5 in league play. Marshall earned the higher seed with the five-set win over FAU just 11 days ago.

Match Details
Live Stats: SIDEARM
Live Video: ESPN+ with Matt Pedersen on the call.
Series History: 9th all-time meeting – Marshall leads 5-3
Last Meeting: Nov. 10, 2019 in Boca Raton – The Herd won in five sets.

Marshall has had an eight-win turnaround so far this season under first-year head coach Ari Aganus. The Herd has featured three winning streaks of at least five matches this year including a six-match streak to end the regular season. Marshall bounced back after suffering through a five-match losing streak that including contests against the top three teams in the conference. During the six-match winning streak, the Herd had three sweeps, then two five-set winners and ended with a four-set victory over UAB on Senior Day.

This year Marshall has also found itself among the nation's leaders in blocks per set. The Herd has led Conference USA nearly all season long and was ranked as high as third in the NCAA back on Oct. 2. Currently, Marshall is 12th in the country in blocks per set with 2.82. Leading the way in the swat party has been the middle blocking tandem of junior Destiny Leon and sophomore Isa Dostal. Both players are tied with 127 total blocks, however Dostal has a slim lead in blocks per set (1.37) over Leon (1.31) as Dostal has played four fewer sets. Dostal also enters the tournament ranked 18th in the NCAA and Leon is 32nd.

Redshirt junior Ciara Debell has continued to thrive this season and was named to the All-Conference USA First Team on Wednesday. Debell leads the team with 414 kills, an average of 4.22 per set. She is also second in digs with 248 and third in total blocks with 72. The Ocala, Fla., native ended the regular season selected as the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week in the last two weeks. Sophomore Sarah Schank has had a career season with 228 kills and is second on the team with 23 aces.

Senior libero Amber Weber has had another great run this year with Marshall. Weber has tallied 485 digs, an average of 4.95 per set, and has had at least 10 digs in 30-straight matches going back to last season. The Ocala, Fla., native ended the regular season with 20 or more digs in the final four contests. She has been the floor leader for the team.

Junior Sydney Lostumo and sophomore Gabrielle Coulter have been playing in a two-setter rotation. Coulter leads the team with 540 assists and Lostumo has 456. Lostumo leads Marshall with 35 service aces in her first year with the Green & White. Sophomore Mion Weldon has also stepped up in her second season with career-highs in kills (140) and total blocks (65).

Opponent
The Florida Atlantic Owls rallied after a three-match losing streak to end the regular season with road wins over Middle Tennessee (3-0) and Charlotte (3-2). The Owls landed four players on the all-conference teams with Massiel Matos on the first team. Sigourney Kame, Zuri Smith and Sydney Nemtuda were honored on the second team. Smith also garnered C-USA Defensive Player of the Year honors.

In 2018, FAU finished second in the conference standings behind Rice and then lost to North Texas in the first round of the tournament.

Florida Atlantic features six players who all have over 100 kills this season and two with over 200 in Matos (265) and Nemtuda (264). Matos also leads with 33 aces. The Owls have also been using a two-setter rotation with Nikki Lakman and Stephanie Young. Lakman has played the majority of the minutes with 666 assists and Young has 396.

At the net defensively, FAU is averaging 2.17 blocks per set and had 11 against Marshall when the two teams met on Nov. 10. The Herd also had 11 blocks in the contest. Smith leads the team with 100 total blocks and had 66 in just league games which led C-USA. Smith is averaging 1.20 blocks per set.

Nemtuda is the team leader in digs (289) by a slim margin over Kori Varney (284). Matos also has over 200 digs this season with 213.

Up Next
The winner will advance to the second round on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. eastern, and will take on the winner of No. 8 seed Middle Tennessee and No. 1 WKU. The loser will be eliminated from the tournament.

For all the latest information about Marshall volleyball, follow @HerdVolleyball on Twitter and Marshall University Volleyball on Facebook.

To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules, and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS or Android!

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No. 4 seed Volleyball set for First Round Match with No. 5 Florida Atlantic

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Players Mentioned

Gabrielle Coulter

Ciara DeBell

Isa Dostal

Destiny Leon

Sydney Lostumo

Sarah Schank

Amber Weber

Mion Weldon

Marshall University Athletics