HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lady Railsplitters (13-13, 8-10 SAC) conclude the regular-season schedule this weekend when they welcome Queens and Wingate to Mary Mars Gymnasium for a pair of South Atlantic Conference tussles.
Lincoln Memorial opens the weekend on Friday night when the team celebrates Senior Day and hosts the Royals (19-6, 13-5 SAC) at 7 p.m. The Lady Railsplitters then close out the regular-season slate against the 11-time defending SAC champion Bulldogs (22-2, 16-2 SAC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
The Basics
Friday, November 10 vs. Queens – 7pm
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Saturday, November 11 vs. Wingate – 2pm
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Quick Hits
- The Lady Railsplitters head into the final weekend of the regular season following a disappointing 25-13, 25-20, 25-14 loss at the league-leading Anderson Trojans last Saturday. Anderson hit .282 and held Lincoln Memorial to just 29 kills to push its winning streak to 19 games.
- This weekend will serve as the final regular-season matches at Mary Mars Gymnasium for seniors
Kiera Holland,
Kayla Kidney and
Peyton McDaniel, who will be honored during a pre-match ceremony on Friday night.
Samantha Cash – a redshirt-junior – will also be honored after suffering a career-ending injury back on September 23.
- The Lady Railsplitters are sitting in seventh place in the tightly packed SAC standings. Anderson, Wingate and Queens are guaranteed to finish in the top three spots in some order, but the rest of the field for the SAC tournament is up in the air. Tusculum is currently in fourth at 10-9 but leads ninth place Coker by just 3.5 games. The top eight teams in the final SAC standings earn bids to the league tournament, which begins on Tuesday.
- Lincoln Memorial is 8-4 at Mars Gym this season compared to a 3-9 mark in true road matches. The Lady Railsplitters have won four of their last five home matches, with the lone loss over that span coming in five sets to Carson-Newman on October 24.
- The Lady Railsplitters took major strides offensively from the first month of the season to the second. In September, the team produced 12.02 kills per set on a .178 attack percentage. Lincoln Memorial increased those marks to 12.50 and .188 in October. For the whole season, the Lady Railsplitters are ranked fifth in the league in kills per set (12.18) and fourth in hitting percentage (.182).
- LMU leads the SAC in blocks with 230 total.
Tone Gill has delivered 110 blocks to lead the team and the conference, while
Danielle Ged has racked up 99 to rank second in the SAC.
Know the Opponents
- Queens is guaranteed to finish third in the SAC standings with a 13-5 league mark. The Royals enter the weekend with wins in four of their last five matches, but that stretch includes a head-scratching 3-1 home loss to Catawba, who came into that contest on a 16-game losing streak.
- The Royals are led by outside hitter Rebecca Cochran. The senior is ranked fifth in the SAC in kills per set with 3.15 and seventh in total kills with 280. Cochran has, however, missed the team's last two matches.
- Behind Cochran, the Royals have three players supplying over two kills per set. Senior right side Jessica Raines has racked up 2.57 kills per set on a .208 attack percentage, freshman Casey Tarvin has averaged 2.46 kills per set to go along with 1.53 digs per frame, and junior middle Taylor Henry has chipped in 2.08 kills per set on a team-best .346 attack percentage.
- Queens has the SAC's third-best offense with 13.26 kills per set, a .197 attack percentage and 12.52 assists per set. The Royals also lead the league with 169 aces.
- Senior setter Sydney Kunz leads the team with 11.04 assists per set and has accounted for a team-high 36 aces. Freshman Jaycee Jones has posted a team-high 4.02 digs per set but has made just 20 appearances this season. Cochran has the most total digs this season with 355.
- Queens is 13-2 at home compared to a 6-4 mark outside of Charlotte.
- Wingate has won the last 11 SAC regular-season titles but is in danger of seeing that unprecedented streak come to an end, as the Bulldogs trail Anderson by one game with two matches left in the regular season. Despite that, Wingate is still playing characteristically great this season. After dropping back-to-back matches in late October, Wingate has won four straight matches and lost just one set total over that span.
- The Bulldogs boast the most high-powered offense in the SAC, leading the league in kills per set with 15.14, attack percentage with a .281 clip and assists per set with 14.37. Wingate is also producing the third-most aces per frame in the league with 1.49.
- Senior outside hitter Katie Bludau is a SAC Player of the Year frontrunner boasting a league-leading 4.22 kills per set on a .304 attack percentage, the fifth-highest mark in the SAC. Bludau has put up double-digit kills in 19 of her 23 appearances this season.
- Wingate has plenty of firepower surrounding Bludau. Sophomore Phoebe Havenaar has accounted for 3.02 kills per set on a ridiculous .370 attack percentage, while junior Anna Holmquist averages 2.87 kills per set on a .401 mark. Senior Rachel Cecka has appeared in just 17 matches but has made the most of those opportunities with 2.12 kills per set.
- Sophomore setter Rachel Alles leads the team with 10.59 assists per set, while senior Rachel Lods is handing out 5.98 helpers per game. Junior Kori Adams has collected 5.32 digs per set to lead the team in that department.
- Both of Wingate's losses have come on the road. The Bulldogs are 11-0 at home and 11-2 outside of Curry Arena.
Head-to-Head
- The Lady Railsplitters have not fared particularly well against Queens or Wingate. Lincoln Memorial owns a 7-6 lead all-time against the Royals but has lost four of the last five in the series, including a 3-2 loss back on October 6. Against Wingate, the Lady Railsplitters have won just one of the 24 all-time meetings. The Bulldogs beat LMU 3-0 on October 7.
- Lincoln Memorial picked up its one and only win over Wingate in last season's meeting at Mars Gym. The Lady Railsplitters are 1-9 all-time at home against Wingate and 4-1 against Queens in Harrogate.
