UE To Face Green Bay And SIUE On Saturday
Another tournament awaits the Purple Aces as they are set to head west to Edwardsville, Ill. for a pair of matches on Saturday. Evansville opens play on Saturday at noon versus Green Bay before taking on host SIU Edwardsville at 7 p.m.
In last week’s season-opening trip to the Indiana Invitational, the Aces went 0-3, but showed steady improvement as the weekend moved along. The top match of the weekend saw UE battle the host Hoosiers to the end, dropping the final two matches by just two points each.
Mildrelis Rodriguez, who was Evansville’s top returning offensive player, did not disappoint in Bloomington. After notching 217 kills as a freshman, she tied for the team lead with 22 last weekend. She also tied for second with a total of 16 digs in three matches. Last year, her average of 3.23 digs per set was 14th in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Also showing some offensive prowess was true freshman Rachel Tam. She tied Rodriguez’ total of 22 kills on the weekend. She registered the top single-match total of the weekend for the Purple Aces, registering 10 against Northern Kentucky. She notched at least six kills in all three matches while hitting .227 against the Norse.
Deja Clark showed poise in her first weekend of collegiate action, posting 15 kills at the IU Invitational. Her best match came in the opener versus Marshall as she notched six kills and hit .286.
In her first action as the Aces’ libero/defensive specialist, Olivia Goldstein did a solid job. She notched a team-best 29 digs in the opening weekend, an average of 3.22 per frame. Goldstein finished with 10 digs in the matches against Marshall and Northern Kentucky. She also recorded five assists and a service ace.
Coming off of a 17-13 campaign in 2015 and an even 8-8 Horizon League mark, Green Bay got off to a perfect start in their home tournament last weekend. The Phoenix earned wins over South Dakota State, Eastern Illinois and Stephen F. Austin to begin the 2016 campaign. Abby Jeffcoat led the way in the tournament as she recorded a total of 33 kills, good for an average of 3.67 per set.
The Cougars began their 2016 season last weekend at the Holiday Inn Invitational in Dayton, going 1-2. Following a season-opening victory over Wright State, SIUE fell to Dayton and Toledo. Ashley Witt was the Cougar’s top offensive weapon in the tournament. She notched a total of 42 kills, ahead of Taylor Joens’ final tally of 32.
