UE Women Travels To Southern Illinois And Missouri State
 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The regular season comes to a close this weekend for the University of Evansville volleyball team who travels to Southern Illinois and Missouri State. On Friday, the Purple Aces face the Salukis at 6 p.m. in Carbondale before making the trek to Springfield, Mo. for a 5 p.m. match on Saturday.
Last Time Out
– In a match for the ages, Evansville and Northern Iowa dueled in a 5-set contest on Saturday at Meeks Family Fieldhouse
– Trailing 24-19 in the fourth set, UE rallied to take a 35-33 win to force a decisive 5th set
– In the final frame, the teams once again dueled to the final point with the Panthers clinching the match with a 19-17 decision
– Alondra Vazquez had her best performance of the season, recording 31 kills and five total blocks
– Giulia Cardona had 17 kills while adding a team-high 16 digs while Melanie Feliciano contributed 16 kills and 13 digs
– Taya Haffner put forth her top assist tally of the fall, accounting for 60 helpers
Back on Track
– Entering the final home weekend of the season, Alondra Vazquez was averaging 3.53 kills per set in MVC contests, which was third on the team
– In the matches versus Drake and UNI, Vazquez found the momentum she had earlier in the fall and finished with an average of 5.50 kills per set in the two contests
– After recording 24 kills in the win over the Bulldogs, Vazquez put forth her top total of the season versus the Panthers, registering 31 kills
– She remains on top of the MVC list with 4.19 kills/set while pacing the league in points (4.86/set)…defensively, Vazquez leads her squad with 2.81 digs per frame, 13th in the Valley…she has had 9 or more kills in all but two matches in the fall
Still Going Strong
– Over the last 33 sets of work, freshman Giulia Cardona has recorded a total of 21 service aces, an average of 0.64 per set
– Her season average has risen to 0.49 per set, which leads the MVC and is 16th in the nation
– She is currently on an offensive streak that has seen her record at least 12 kills in each of the last 14 matches while raising her season average to 3.89 per set
– Aside from leading the Valley in aces, she is second in points per set (4.53) and third with her kill average (3.89/set)
New Career High
– For the first time in her UE career, Taya Haffner recorded consecutive matches with 50 or more assists as she registered 51 in the home win over Drake before setting a new career-high with 60 against UNI
– Her assist numbers to continue to add up as she continues to pace the league with 10.67 per set while sitting 29th nationally
– The home win over SIU saw her set career marks in a pair of categories – kills (4) and block assists (4) – her top season tally in both
– Haffner reached 50 helpers twice before the final home weekend with 50 coming at Drake and 56 in the home contest versus Loyola
– On the defensive side, Haffner ranks 5th on the team with an average of 2.26 digs per set
