No. 12 Angelo State Belles Leaders Kills: Shelbi Goode (227), Kaelen Valdez (138), Chelsea Gibson (132), Maddie Huth (129) Digs: Shelby Wilt 285, Kaelen Valdez (207), Alex Woolsey (158), Katie MacLeay (148) Assists: Alex Woolsey (661) Blocks: Maddie Huth (52), Shelbi Goode (31), Chelsea Gibson (28), Emily Booth (25), Katie Coleman (23)

SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State volleyball team returns to action this weekend with a pair of Lone Star Conference matches against Texas Woman's and Texas A&M-Commerce at the Junell Center.

The 12^th-ranked Belles (14-3, 7-1 LSC) host TWU (13-3, 7-1 LSC) at 7 p.m. on Friday before taking on TAMU-Commerce (12-4, 4-3 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday. ASU is coming off a five-set win over Tarleton State on Tuesday after dropping its first conference match of the season last Saturday at West Texas A&M.

“These are two matches that we have to win if we want to win a conference championship,” ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. “We have to go 2-0 this weekend.”

The Belles come into the weekend leading the LSC in hitting percentage (.242), assists (13.64 per set), kills (14.36 per set) and digs (19.51 per set). Shelbi Goode, this week's LSC Offensive Player of the Week, tops the conference in kills (3.98 per set) and points (4.35 per set). Alex Woolsey leads the conference in assists per set with 11.80 with Shelby Wilt adding a conference-leading 285 digs.

Against the TexAnns, the Belles opened the match with a first-set win but were then forced to comeback from a 2-1 deficit. They did that to earn the win, but would like to control matches throughout.

“We are a little inconsistent right now and need to start maintaining a high level of play throughout each match,” Waddington said. “We are pushing for that every day in practice. Hopefully that will carry over into this weekend.”

Texas Woman's comes into the Junell Center having swept its last three matches (Abilene Christian, Midwestern State, Cameron) and are 6-0 in conference road-matches this season. TWU's only conference loss came against WT two weeks ago. Viktorija Jablonska, a senior from Latvia, leads the Pioneers with 180 kills this season while Chloe' Tate has added 136 and Marcela Alves 113. Kayla Rivero has contributed 362 assists this season with Morgan Wilson leading the team with 215 digs.

“They were very talented last year and have added three junior college kids who are studs,” Waddington said. “They have two new outsides and another middle who is legit. They are going to be very difficult to compete against and are going to force us to play our best.”

TWU has a .227 hitting percentage coming into the weekend while it is limiting opponents to a .127 percentage. Angelo State is 27-11 all-time against the Pioneers, including winning both matches last season by a score of 3-1.  

Weekend Schedule Friday, Oct. 5 vs. Texas Woman's (13-3, 7-1 LSC) Saturday, Oct. 6 vs. Texas A&M-Commerce (12-4, 4-3 LSC) Media Links Live Stats Video Twitter Facebook

Texas A&M-Commerce will come into the Junell Center on Saturday following playing Tarleton State on Friday night. The Lions are off to a 4-3 conference record with LSC victories over Midwestern State, Eastern New Mexico, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Incarnate Word. Jordan Neal is third in the conference with 570 assists this season, while Rachel Robertson leads the LSC with a .366 hitting percentage to go alon with 197 kills (3.58 per set). Breanne Snyder leads the conference with .42 aces per set while Robertson is second in conference in points (4.34 per set) behind Goode.

“Commerce was young last year, but very athletic,” Waddington said. “They come in with another year of experience and they have shown that they have improved by beating some of the teams that beat them last season. What scares me most is their athleticism along with a strong setter who puts their pin players in position to cause some problems.”

The Belles will not play a midweek match next week before traveling to play at Midwestern State (Friday, Oct. 12) and Cameron (Saturday, Oct. 13).
 
Milestone watch: Maddie Huth comes into Friday's match with 499 kills in her career and is only seven blocks away from 200… Woolsey enters the weekend with 4,352 assists in her career and is only 434 away from Amber Nelson's career record… Kaelen Valdez has 138 kills this season and is only two away from 700 in her career… With her 21 digs at Tarleton on Tuesday, Valdez now has 902 digs in her career… Wilt set a career-high with 32 digs on Tuesday and is now only 130 digs away from 1,000 as a Belle… Katie Coleman needs 10 kills for 400 in her career.