HARROGATE, Tenn. -- A pair of late-season South Atlantic Conference volleyball matches with major postseason implications await the Lady Railsplitters (12-12, 9-9 SAC) this weekend as they tour the Palmetto State for road tilts against Anderson (10-14, 8-10 SAC) and Newberry (9-14, 5-12 SAC). Lincoln Memorial squares off against the Trojans at 7 p.m. in Anderson, S.C. on Friday before taking on Newberry at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
 
The Lady Railsplitters return to action following a 2-1 week that featured a mixed bag of emotions.
 
Lincoln Memorial began last week by capturing an emotionally-charged, straight-set victory over league-leading Carson-Newman, who entered that contest having won 13 of its last 14 matches overall and nine consecutive SAC contests. The Lady Railsplitters recorded a season-high .358 attack percentage while holding the normally-efficient Eagles to a paltry .097 clip, ending a three-match losing skid against their in-state rivals.
 
After earning a relatively stress-free 3-1 victory at Coker on Friday night, the Lady Railsplitters ended up on the other end of a dominant performance on Saturday evening, as nine-time defending South Atlantic Conference champions Wingate tallied a program-record .551 attack percentage in a 3-0 win. The Bulldogs racked up 53 kills with only four errors in that match while Lincoln Memorial was limited to 24 kills with 10 errors and a .175 hitting percentage.
 
"We had such a fantastic win with a great crowd, great atmosphere and great energy against Carson-Newman on Tuesday," LMU head volleyball coach Jenny Michael said. "After that, I told the girls 'this is great and you should feel awesome about it, but understand that you're never as good as your biggest win and you're never as bad as your worst loss'. And we kind of got to see those two extremes all in one week. We had a great win on Tuesday and a horrible loss on Saturday, and we're somewhere in the middle. If we look at our overall body of work, we have been playing our best volleyball in this last half of the season, and that's the direction we need to keep moving. We need to keep focusing on the overall picture."
 
Even when considering the mild letdown at Wingate, it was a good week for the Lady Railsplitters, who knocked off one of the league frontrunners and improved their SAC record to 9-9 to put themselves in a two-way tie for fifth place. There's still a lot to be decided in the coming week, though, as only three games separate fourth and ninth place in the league standings, and only the top-eight teams in the final standings earn a bid to mid-November's South Atlantic Conference tournament. 
 
"We've been talking to the girls for the last couple of weeks about controlling our own destiny and not allowing the determining factors of our postseason standing to be put in anybody else's hands," Michael said. "And if we come out, play strong and play together, then we have an opportunity to be successful on the road. That's really what we need to do. We've been trying to take things day-by-day, practice-by-practice and work to get a little bit better every day. We're going to take it one day at a time, focus and play for Friday, and then move on regardless of the outcome and focus on Saturday."
 
Like the Lady Railsplitters, both Anderson and Newberry have a tremendous amount on the line this weekend. The Trojans enter play a game behind Lincoln Memorial at 8-10 in SAC play and alone in seventh place while the Wolves are hoping to play their way back into the postseason conversation, as they are currently sitting in 10th place with a 5-12 league record.
 
In the first go-around with Anderson and Newberry back in early October at Mary Mars Gym, the Lady Railsplitters turned in arguably their most impressive two-match stretch of the season. Lincoln Memorial hit .192 and pulled out a 27-25, 26-24, 25-20 victory over the Trojans in the Friday night match, snapping a three-match losing streak against Anderson. The Lady Railsplitters then accounted for a .271 attack percentage in a wholly dominant 25-13, 25-16, 20-25, 25-18 triumph in the Saturday match versus Newberry. Liz Brock (Lima, Ohio) combined for 25 kills over those two matches, including 17 kills on a season-high .519 attack percentage against the Wolves. Brooke Fleeman (Nashville, Tenn.) had 11 kills against Anderson and 10 against Newberry. 
 
"I was pleasantly surprised with how we played that weekend," Michael said. "Anderson had our number last year and started the season really strong, and for us to come out and play as well as we did was really nice. And we have had quite a history with Newberry. They had beaten us the last three years on our home floor, so knowing that about our Saturday match was a little daunting. But we came out and took care of business."
 
Anderson has lost eight of its last 11 matches since visiting Mary Mars Gym on October 2, including back-to-back 3-1 losses at Brevard and Lenoir-Rhyne this past weekend. The Trojans have seen a sharp decline in their hitting percentage since the calendar flipped to October, as they cumulatively hit .186 over the first month of the season but have since hit just .159.
 
The Trojans are led offensively by Marissa Mitter (2.97 kills/set, .207 %), Serena Jackson (2.70 k/set, .282 %) and Jessica Harris (2.14 k/set, .216 %). Priscilla Irizarry is compiling 9.30 assists and 2.86 digs per set while Emily Conard has accounted for 4.38 digs per frame. Jackson led the Trojans with nine kills in the first meeting with the Lady Railsplitters while Irizarry compiled 35 assists and 16 digs.
 
Newberry is 3-6 since losing to Lincoln Memorial on October 3, but most recently captured a 3-0 win at Brevard. Offensive production has been a key factor in the Wolves' struggles this season, as they are ranked 10th in the league in kills per set with 11.33 and ninth in attack percentage with .151.
 
Logan Hayward is averaging nearly one kill more per set than any of her teammates as the junior is producing 2.80 kills per frame. Madison Darby-McClure (1.95 kills/set) and Mary Siebert (1.91 k/set) are the next highest contributors for the Wolves. Maggie Marsh leads Newberry with 7.13 assists per set while Kensley Jordan is producing a team-best 4.73 digs per frame. Heyward had 10 kills in the first meeting against LMU while Siebert contributed nine kills.
 
Live stat and video links for both of this weekend's matches will be available at www.LMURailsplitters.com, the comprehensive online home of Lincoln Memorial University athletics.