BOONE, N.C. - The App State volleyball team will close out the regular season on Nov. 11 and 12 with a pair of clashes with Louisiana at the Holmes Convocation Center in Boone, N.C. Friday's match is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start and Saturday's match will be at 1 p.m. Both matches will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
Friday's match will honor veterans and military personnel for Veteran's Day. Veterans will get in free at the gate and there will be free rally towels for the first 150 fans. Saturday's match will highlight App State's seniors,
Sam Bickley,
Sarah Missroon, and student assistant coach
Morgan Flores for Senior Day. There will also be a t-shirt giveaway at the door.
Last Time Out
App State hosted rival Georgia Southern on Nov. 4 and 5, emerging victorious after a pair of five-set thrillers to improve to 16-9 (9-5 SBC) on the season.
During Friday's five-set battle, sophomore
Lulu Ambrose logged a single-match and team-high 21 kills on the night. Senior
McCall Denny posted a double-double, recording the team's second-most kills (20) as well as a single-match and team-high 19 digs. Freshman
Maya Winterhoff led the Mountaineers in the aces category, serving up four, and Missroon made four blocks on the night. Bickley earned a double-double with a team-high 28 assists and 12 digs.
App State returned to the court for another five-set thriller on Saturday, where Denny, Bickley, and junior
Sophie Cain each recorded double-doubles. Denny led the team in kills with 15 and also recorded 15 digs. Cain notched the most assists for the Mountaineers, recording 26 on the afternoon as well as 12 digs. Bickley earned 25 assists and 14 digs. Freshman
Alyssa McBean posted team highs in the aces (2) and digs category (20). Missroon once again led the team in blocks, this time going up for nine.
Denny continues to lead the team in kills for the season, posting 302, while freshman
Maya Winterhoff has taken the lead in the aces category, boasting 33. Winterhoff holds her lead in the blocks category with 89, while fellow freshman
Kenady Roper remains at the top of the digs list with 277. Cain remains at the top of App State's assists list, tallying 526.
Winterhoff stands second in the conference for hitting percentage for the season and fourth for conference-only play. Missroon checks in at fourth in the blocks category for both season and SBC-only action. In league-only play, McBean checks in at eighth in the aces category and 10th in the digs category.
In the Sun Belt team rankings, App State checks in at fourth in the aces category for the season as well as for league-only action.
Last Time Against Louisiana
The Mountaineers met Louisiana during the regular season as well as in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament last fall. App State defeated the Ragin' Cajuns, 3-1, on Oct. 15, 2021 in Boone. Denny and
Lulu Ambrose both posted 13 kills. Denny and Cain matched each other in the digs category, totaling 13 each. Cain led the team in assists (47) and served up two aces.
On Nov. 11, the Mountaineers and Ragin' Cajuns met in the first round of the SBC Tournament. No. 6 seeded App State fell to the No. 3 seeded Louisiana in three sets. Denny recorded a team-high 11 kills and Bickley led the team in assists with 15. Cain recorded the most aces for the Mountaineers (3) as well as the second-most assists (13) and digs (6) on the team.
Scouting Louisiana
The Ragin' Cajuns are 14-9 (8-6 SBC) this fall and will be coming off of a tight 3-2 loss to Southern Miss. In non-conference action, Louisiana earned 3-0 sweeps of Fairfield (Aug. 27), and Alabama (Sept. 16) and edged past Eastern Michigan (Aug. 26) and UTSA (Sept. 3), 3-2 each. The Ragin' Cajuns notched three consecutive wins shortly after the opening of league play, downing Troy (Sept. 23) and Arkansas State (Sept. 29 and 30). After dropping four in a row, Louisiana went on a five-match win-streak that lasted from Oct. 20 to Nov. 3, picking up wins over Old Dominion (Oct. 20 and 21), ULM (Oct. 28 and 29, and Southern Miss (Nov. 3).
Kelsey Bennett is the Ragin' Cajuns' kills leader, marking 176 on the season. Coco Gillett holds the team-high in aces (30) and digs (292). In league play, Gillett checks in at fifth in the aces category. Louisiana's assists leader is Reka Kotorman with 494 on the season. Cami Hicks leads the team in blocks, totaling 86. Hicks ranks fifth in the conference for the season and sixth in SBC action for blocks. For conference-only play, Hicks stands second in the SBC for her hitting percentage (.382),
Last season, Louisiana went 15-11 (9-7 SBC) and opened the 2021 campaign with three consecutive wins at the Southern Miss Classic (Aug. 27-28). In league play, Louisiana swept Arkansas State (Oct. 8), ULM (Oct. 12 and Nov. 6) and Little Rock (Oct. 30) in three sets and nabbed 3-2 victories over UT Arlington (Oct. 1) and Arkansas State (Oct. 28). After defeating App State in three sets in the Sun Belt Tournament, the No. 3 seeded Ragin' Cajuns fell to No. 2 seeded Coastal Carolina in three sets in the quarterfinals (Nov. 19).
Up Next
The Mountaineers will travel to Foley, Ala. for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, set for Nov. 16-20.
