 Aces and Redhawks to tangle at 6 p.m. inside the Carson Center
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – With their first five matches taking place away from home, the Purple Aces will finally be at the Carson Center on Sept. 5 to take on Southeast Missouri State at 6 p.m. The match will be the first of the season for UE as a part of The Valley on ESPN3 package.
Two matches were played at the SIUE Tournament over the weekend as Evansville put forth its best effort of the season against Green Bay before playing well against the host Cougars before falling by a 3-0 score in both contests.
Rocio Fortuny missed the opening weekend of play at IU, but did not show any signs of rust as she burst onto the scene at SIUE with an effort that saw her named to the All-Tournament Team. She opened up with 9 kills in a career-high 32 attempts to go along with 5 digs and 4 blocks assists. Against SIUE, Fortuny posted 8 more kills and 5 digs.
Saturday’s opener against Green Bay saw the Purple Aces notch 34 block assists, finishing the day with 34 block assists, a team total of 17.0. That was the most for UE since notching 17.0 against UT Martin, three years to the day – Sept. 3, 2013.
Pacing the UE squad defensively has been junior Erlicia Griffith. After finishing with nine blocks in the IU Invitational, Griffith added eight more block assists against Green Bay. For the season, she has notched 1.42 blocks per set, second in the MVC. McKenzie Dorris of Southern Illinois leads the league with 1.44 per set.
Mildrelis Rodriguez continues to be the Aces’ top offensive force. She has 38 kills on the season, an average of 2.53 per set while recording at least seven in each match. Rodriguez notched 217 kills as a freshman. Defensively, the sophomore ranks second on the squad with 33 digs, 2.20 per set.
After opening the season with a 3-1 win over New Orleans, the Redhawks have dropped their last five matches. Included in that tally are losses to Northwestern State, UAB and Radford in a weekend trip to the UAB/Samford Challenge in Birmingham, Alabama. Krissa Gearring is their top offensive player, notching 4.87 kills per set. She has posted a total of 112 kills in just six matches. Rachel Poole has posted an unbelievable 152 assists, 8.94 per set. Defensively, Jade Mortimer has posted 116 digs, which translates into 5.04 per game.
