HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University volleyball team hits the road this weekend with a chance to secure its 20
th consecutive 20-win season when the Norse take on Jacksonville and North Florida in Atlantic Sun Conference play.
NKU travels to face Jacksonville on Friday at 7 p.m., before wrapping up the weekend at North Florida with a 3 p.m. start on Saturday. Live stats for both matches and ASun.TV coverage of Friday's match will be available at NKUNorse.com.
The Norse (18-4, 6-3 A-Sun) will look to get back in the win column after taking a 3-1 loss at the hands of Florida Gulf Coast, which leads the A-Sun with a 9-0 conference record. NKU opened the weekend with a 3-0 victory over Stetson.
Jenna Schreiver posted an outstanding weekend, picking up a double-double against Stetson with 39 assists and 10 digs while just missing another against FGCU (51 assists, nine digs).
A WORD ABOUT JACKSONVILLE: The Dolphins (4-18, 2-7 A-Sun) are coming off an 0-2 road weekend that included 3-0 losses to ETSU and Stetson. Freshman phenom Sammie Strasbaugh leads the Dolphins with 212 kills on the season while setter Kendall Courtney also paces the defense with 212 digs.
THE LAST TIME AGAINST JACKSONVILLE: The Norse won their only previous meeting against the Dolphins, 3-1 (25-16, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23), back on Sept. 22.
Shelby Buschur pounded a team-high 21 kills and hit at a blistering .633 clip.
Kylee Tarantino added 15 digs to the defensive effort.
A WORD ABOUT NORTH FLORIDA: The Ospreys (12-10, 3-6 A-Sun) appear to have turned around their recent struggles, having won two of their last three matches after going 2-5 in their previous seven. UNF comes off some momentum after a mid-week victory over Bethune-Cookman and will look to leading attacker Paige Pridgeon for a spark after scoring a team-high 18 kills in UNF's last match against NKU.
LAST TIME AGAINST NORTH FLORIDA: NKU posted a 3-1 victory (25-19, 21-25, 25-19, 25-21) over UNF in the only prior meeting between the clubs on Sept. 21. Buschur had a season-high 22 kills for the Norse while
Kelly Morrissey chipped in a double-double with 15 kills and 15 digs.
STEADY IN THE RPI: Northern Kentucky saw slight negative movement in the RPI this week, slipping back to its debut ranking of 161, now the fourth-highest ranking among A-Sun teams as red-hot Florida Gulf Coast (141) and resurgent ETSU (144) have eclipsed the Norse. The RPI is one of the primary methods used by the NCAA to select the field for the national tournament. While NKU is ineligible for postseason play this season, the Norse were granted a waiver to be included in the RPI for the 2012 season.
TWO FOR FOUR: Middle hitter
Shelby Buschur and outside hitter
Haley Lippert each enter the weekend having collected 10 or more kills in each of their last four matches, the longest such streak for an NKU player this season. It is the first time that Lippert has compiled such a streak, while Buschur and
Kelly Morrissey have each reached the milestone three times this season.
MILESTONES LOOM LARGE: Aside from the 20-win season streak, three NKU players have solid chances at eclipsing individual milestones as well.
Kylee Tarantino needs 14 digs to jump to third on the NKU career digs chart;
Jenna Schreiver needs just 17 assists to assume second place on NKU's all-time assists list, passing Andrea Lanham; and
Shelby Buschur is 25 kills away from moving to 14
th on the NKU kills list.
