Aces welcome Valparaiso and Loyola
 The final home weekend is here as the Purple Aces welcome Valparaiso and Loyola to Meeks Family Fieldhouse on Friday and Saturday for a pair of 7 p.m. matches. Saturday’s match will be Senior Day as the Aces will recognize four players prior to the match – Erlicia Griffith, Jelena Merseli, Montana Schafer and Cathy Schreiber.
Evansville dropped a pair of matches last weekend against Drake and UNI, falling by 3-0 finals to both. UE played extremely well against the Bulldogs, falling by finals of 25-22, 30-28 and 25-20.
Rocio Fortuny had her best weekend of play since missing three weeks of action from late September through mid-October. The junior posted 12 kills in three-set matches against UNI and Drake over the weekend. It was her best 2-match showing since last season when she notched 17 kills at Drake and 19 against Bradley.
Despite falling to Drake in three sets on Saturday, the Purple Aces managed to accumulate a total of 48 kills. That is the most for Evansville in a 3-set match since notching 50 in three frames against Murray State on Sept. 10, 2013.
Junior Mildrelis Rodriguez is tied for second on UE’s squad in kills and is also second in digs. She had 12 and 11 digs, respectively, over the weekend at UNI and Drake. That translated to an average of 3.83 per set. Rodriguez had a great weekend for the Aces as they fought Missouri State to the finish before earning a 3-0 win over Southern Illinois two weeks ago. The Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico native averaged 4.00 kills per set while notching 2.33 digs per frame. In the win over the Salukis she led all players with 14 kills as she also hit a solid .216. She was second on the team with eight digs.
Valparaiso starts the weekend with a 15-13 overall mark and are 6-8 in the conference. The Crusaders are one of the top defensive teams in the nation and lead the NCAA with 20.26 digs per set. They are the only team in the country averaging over 20 digs per set. Their offense is paced by Taylor Graboski, who sits with 3.02 kills per game. Valparaiso swept the Aces by a 3-0 final in their first meeting of the season
Loyola starts play with a 3-22 record while standing at 2-12 in Valley matches. The Ramblers have been playing better as of late and are winners of two of their last three matches. They also battled the Aces to the finish in the October meeting in Chicago, falling in five sets. Gabi Maciagowski leads the way with 2.80 kills per set.
