The Stetson volleyball team will fly north for a pair of Atlantic Sun Conference road matches this weekend.  The Hatters (4-20, 0-7 A-Sun) will visit Northern Kentucky (17-3, 5-2 A-Sun) on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon match against A-Sun co-leader Lipscomb (10-8, 7-0 A-Sun).

Coming off a 3-0 non-conference victory over Savannah State last Saturday, the Hatters are seeking their first A-Sun win of the year.

“We have got to get in the win column in conference play,” Stetson head coach Tim Loesch said.  “We have to start fighting for a playoff spot, and we have to win at least one if not both of these matches to put ourselves in a decent position.  We saw some improvement last weekend, and hopefully we can continue to improve and catch some of the other conference opponents in the standings.”  

After this weekend’s matches, Stetson will have played everyone in the conference once.  The Hatters will then play all nine teams a second time at the opposite location from the first meeting.  At the end of the regular season, the top six teams (excluding Northern Kentucky) will compete for the 2012 Atlantic Sun Conference Volleyball Championship, Nov. 15-17 in Nashville, Tenn.

On the Web
Live video for both matches will be available at ASun.TV. 
Live stats for the Northern Kentucky match will be available at NKUNorse.com.
Live stats for the Lipscomb match will be available at LipscombSports.com.

Fans can also get in-game twitter updates of Stetson volleyball matches all season long by following @StetsonVB from your twitter account.  Postgame recaps and statistics will be available on the Stetson Athletics website at GoHatters.com.

Stetson vs. the Opponents All-Time
Record vs. Northern Kentucky: 0-0 (First Meeting) 
Record vs. Lipscomb: 3-10

Passionately Pink in October
In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, the Stetson University volleyball team has teamed with the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support its Passionately Pink For the Cure initiative throughout the month of October, culminating with the Hatters' Oct. 30 match against North Florida. Fans can make donations by visiting www.GoHatters.com and clicking the "Passionately Pink 2012" link on the volleyball home page.

Vote for Monique
Senior libero Monique Russell has been nominated for the monthly “Crons Achiever Award” in the Atlantic Sun Conference.  Please visit the Atlantic Sun Insider blog and vote for Russell as the league’s top achiever for the month of September.

Going the Distance
The Hatters are the only A-Sun school to play six five-set matches this season.

A-Sun Statistical Rankings
The Hatters 1.69 team blocks per set ranks fourth in the A-Sun.  Ellen Hawks ranks second in the A-Sun in total blocks (83) and fourth in blocks/set (0.93).  Monique Russell ranks fifth in digs per set (4.22).

Hawks Among All-Time Stetson Blocking Leaders
Junior Ellen Hawks has 247 career blocks, the most among all active players in the Atlantic Sun.  She also holds the Stetson school record for career blocks during the rally-scoring era (since 2001).  

Russell Among All-Time A-Sun Digs Leaders
Senior Monique Russell, Stetson’s all-time digs leader, ranks 13th in conference history (since 2001) with 1315 career digs.

Double-Doubles
Kaley Melville and Kelli Carneal have each recorded eight double-doubles this season and Cailyn Prewitt and Kayla Weller have one double-double each.

Freshmen Starting
The Hatter freshmen have combined to make 48 starts this season, exactly 1/3 of the team’s total for matches started.  Here is a list of the number of matches started for Hatter freshmen:
Kayla Weller – 17
Morgan Pautch – 13
Cailyn Prewitt – 13
Alexa Drost – 3
Evann Dickerson – 2