HARROGATE, Tenn. -- As the calendar flips to October, the Lady Railsplitters (4-6, 2-5 SAC) look to turn the page on a forgettable month as they welcome Anderson and Newberry to Mary Mars Gym for a South Atlantic Conference volleyball weekend.
 
Lincoln Memorial hosts the Trojans (7-5, 5-2 SAC) at 7 p.m. on Friday before welcoming the Wolves (6-6, 2-5 SAC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
 
Friday will be Social Media Night at Mary Mars as fans are asked to tweet their most creative selfies while at the match to the official LMU Athletics Twitter account (@LMURailsplitter) using the hashtag #BeatAU. Those responsible for the best tweets will be entered to win LMU prize packs.
 
The Lady Railsplitters wrapped up the month of September by dropping five of their last six matches and slipping into a four-way tie for eighth in the SAC but showed some signs late in the month that things might be heading in the right direction.
 
After falling just a bit short in a gritty five-set match at Carson-Newman last week, the Lady Railsplitters snapped a four-game losing skid against Coker on Friday night, hitting a season-high .208 in that four-set win. That briefly carried over into Saturday's showdown with Wingate, as the Lady Railsplitters pounded the Bulldogs 25-15 in the first frame, attacking at a ridiculous .400 clip while limiting Wingate to an .026 effort.
 
Lincoln Memorial competed hard in the remainder of that match against the nine-time SAC champions, but Wingate won the next three sets by scores of 25-18, 25-22 and 25-19.
 
Liz Brock (Lima, Ohio) and Kiera Holland (Columbia, S.C.) seem to have hit their stride on the outside for the Lady Railsplitters. Brock, who is second on the team with 2.44 kills per set, has 11 kills in four of her last five matches. Holland has 10-plus kills in three of her last five, including a season-best 15 kills against Coker, but she will look to rebound from a six-kill, 10-error performance against Wingate.
 
Brooke Fleeman (Nashville, Tenn.) still leads the Lady Railsplitters with 2.60 kills per set. She posted a career-high 18 kills against Carson-Newman last week.
 
Live stats and a video broadcast, compliments of the LMU Sports Network, will be available via www.LMURailsplitters.com. Admission is completely free of charge to all home volleyball matches.
 
Know the Opponents
 
Anderson - Friday at 7 p.m. Live Stats | Video
 
Despite experiencing the departure of head coach Craig Mosqueda, who left to fill the head coaching vacancy at The Citadel, and graduating a pair of All-Region attackers in Hailey Pittman and Shannon Gillespie at the end of the record-breaking 2014 season, Anderson has shown little signs of slowing down. First-year coach Gene Krieger has led Anderson to a 7-5 overall record and a 5-2 South Atlantic Conference mark through the first month of the season. 
 
The Trojans enter the weekend alone in fourth place in the SAC standings with wins in five of their last eight matches, but all three losses over that span have come in five sets. Most recently, Anderson lost a five-set thriller (14-25, 25-15, 27-25, 18-25, 15-17) against Lenoir-Rhyne, the hottest team in the league.
 
In SAC play alone, Anderson is ranked first in kills with 379, second in kills per set with 13.07, fourth in attack percentage with a .212 clip and first in service aces per set with 2.14. The Trojans are hitting nearly 40 percentage points better in SAC play than outside of it (.212 to .186) while piling up a .198 attacking clip in road contests.
 
Marissa Mitter leads the Trojans offensively with 2.96 kills per set, a .276 attack percentage and 2.21 digs per set. Serena Jackson is accumulating 2.58 kills per set on a league-leading .326 attack percentage, while Tinsley Hallman has produced 2.46 kills and 3.20 digs per set. Jessica Harris has provided 2.18 kills and 0.71 blocks per set on a .240 attacking clip.
 
Mitter has double-digit kills in two of her last three appearances, including a 23-kill outburst against Lenoir-Rhyne. Jackson has surpassed the 10-kill mark in three straight matches and hit above .300 in seven of her last eight.
 
Priscilla Irizarry is averaging 10.14 assists per set in SAC matches, which is the third-best mark in the league. She is also contributing 2.76 digs per frame. Emily Conard leads the Trojans defensively with 4.15 scoops per set.
 
The Lady Railsplitters hold an 11-5 advantage in the all-time series against Anderson, but that is thanks in large part to an eight-match winning streak that spanned the 2009 and 2012 seasons. Since the start of the 2013 campaign, the Trojans have won four of the five meetings. Anderson defeated the Lady Railsplitters three times last season, winning 3-2 in Anderson, 3-0 in Harrogate, and 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the SAC Championship. 
 
Newberry - Saturday at 2 p.m. Live Stats | Video
 
The Wolves come into the weekend and Friday night's contest against SAC-leading Carson-Newman having lost four consecutive matches and five of their last eight. They had to grind out their last two wins as well, defeating Queens and Mars Hill in five sets in mid-September.
 
Newberry slipped to 6-6 overall and 2-5 in SAC play last Saturday in a 3-1 home loss to Brevard, a match in which they could muster only a .102 attack percentage with 31 attack errors.
 
That contest has been a microcosm of the ways in which the Wolves have struggled this season. Newberry is ranked 11th in the SAC in kills per set with 11.33, first in total attack errors with 286 and ninth in overall attack percentage with a .157 clip. They have not hit above .200 since the opening weekend of the season, going 10 straight matches without accomplishing that feat.
 
Though it's a small sample size, the Wolves have been significantly better on the road than at home, hitting .173 while averaging 12.31 kills per frame.
 
Logan Hayward leads the Newberry attack with 2.92 kills and 3.67 kills per set, while freshman Mary Siebert has posted 2.17 kills and 3.42 digs per frame. Madison Darby-McClure has accounted for 2.06 kills per set and a .226 attack percentage. Alexus Horton is the Wolves' most efficient hitter with a .252 attack percentage and 1.96 kills per frame.
 
Newberry's rotation features freshmen at setter and libero. Maggie Marsh leads the team with 8.90 assists per set to go along with 2.45 digs per. Kensley Jordan has a team-best 4.85 digs per frame.
 
Hayward has double-figure kills in 10 of her 12 appearances this season, but she also leads the SAC with 81 attack errors.
 
The Lady Railsplitters have won 15 of the 21 all-time meetings against Newberry but have not defeated the Wolves in Mary Mars Gym since 2011. Newberry defeated Lincoln Memorial for the third straight time in Harrogate last season in four sets. The Lady Railsplitters mustered just a .103 attack percentage in that contest, as Holland led the team with 10 kills.