SAN ANGELO – The No. 10-ranked Angelo State volleyball team returns to action following a pair of midweek losses at 2 p.m. on Saturday against Tarleton State in a Lone Star Conference match at the Junell Center.

The Belles (11-5, 4-3 LSC) will conclude the first half of conference play with the match and are looking to snap a three-match losing streak which is their longest losing streak since the 2010 season. Tarleton State (9-6, 4-1 LSC) enters the match having split its previous four matches and not playing since last weekend where it lost to West Texas A&M before sweeping Eastern New Mexico.

ASU has dropped its last three matches after a loss to No. 9 West Texas A&M (14-3, 4-0 LSC) last Saturday and then dropping road matches to Texas Woman's (12-5, 4-1 LSC) on Tuesday and Texas A&M-Commerce (12-3, 3-2 LSC) on Wednesday. The three-match losing streak comes after a five-match winning streak from the Belles who have been limited to a .127 hitting percentage and have committed 78 errors in the recent losses. Their opponents have hit .223 and limited their errors to 55 in the three matches.

Angelo State is 7-1 at home this season and has won 24 of its last 25 regular-season matches in San Angelo.

COACH QUOTES

Head coach Chuck Waddington (Sixth season at Angelo State, 129-57 record)

On areas of improvement the Belles need to make:
"We are going to have to play harder and more intensity. We have to start scrambling for points again and see some improvements from our pin players. If we can do that I think we'll be fine, but if not we're going to continue to struggle. We've been working hard in practice in those areas to improve our energy and ability to generate more points."

On playing Tarleton State on Saturday at the Junell Center:
"Tarleton is a very physical team that takes big swings and they also have a very crafty setter who is doing a great job for them. Their defense has really improved from year's past. They're an emotional team that plays really well with momentum so we need to try and keep them off balance by playing aggressively on our side."
 

BELLE PLAYER SUMMARIES

Maddie Huth leads Angelo State this season with 182 kills (3.19 per set) and 58 blocks (1.02 per set). Huth is coming off a 16-kill performance at A&M-Commerce where she hit .364. The senior, who is a three-time LSC Offensive Player of the Week winner this season and a reigning all-American, is fourth in the conference with her kill total and second in the LSC with her blocks per set average. Huth enters the midweek matches with 939 kills in her career which ranks 14th in program history and with 330 blocks which is sixth in program history. She has 83 kills (3.32 per set) in the first seven conference matches of the season.

Maggi Jo Keffury, who has won three LSC Setter of the Week honors this season, is currently second in the conference with 11.00 assists per set. Keffury has 605 assists this season for the Belles, including 283 through the first seven conference matches. She had a career-high 55 assists in the loss against WT last Saturday. Keffury has also contributed 139 digs in her first season at ASU after transferring from New Mexico State.

Shelby Wilt is sixth in the conference with 4.22 digs per set and is coming off a season-high 26 digs against A&M-Commerce. Wilt, who was the LSC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, has 245 digs this season with 114 of them coming in conference play. Wilt also leads the Belles with 17 aces this season and is fourth in the conference in that statistic. Wilt, a junior from Dalhart, has 1,479 digs in her career which ranks third all-time in program history. She is rapidly approaching the top of the list. Second in program history is Shelby Pitcock (2001-04) who has 1,562 digs. Jennifer Glass (1993-95) is the program leader with 1,603.

Kaelen Valdez is coming off a career-high 29 digs against West Texas A&M last Saturday and has contributed 171 digs in her senior season. A co-captain, Valdez also has 11 aces and 49 kills this season. Leah McWilliams is third on the team with 140 kills (2.90 per set) with Arielle Bond second on the team with 142 kills (2.90 per set). McWilliams has added 105 digs and 15 blocks, while Bond has 17 blocks and is ninth in the conference with her 2.90 kills per set.

Courtney Bartusiak is third in the LSC with a .332 attacking percentage and has 78 kills (2.36 per set) in her freshman season. She hit .368 with eight kills and led the team with six blocks on Wednesday against A&M-Commerce. Bartusiak has also contributed 29 blocks, while Cerbi Ritchey has 24 blocks. Katie MacLeay is second on the team with 188 digs (3.24 per set) with Haley Bianco having 127 digs (2.31 per set).

Freshman Zoey Hanrahan is hitting .316 with 16 kills in conference play and has 24 kills this season.

BELLE SINGLE-MATCH HIGHS

Blocks: 8 (2- 6) Maddie Huth vs. Southwest Minn. St. (Sep 14, 2013 in Denver, CO)
Attacking Percentage: .667 (13- 1-18) Courtney Bartusiak vs. CSU-Pueblo (Sep 06, 2013)
Kills 3-Set: 16 (16- 3-34) Leah McWilliams vs. Cameron (Sep 21, 2013)
Kills 4-Set:  16 (16- 4-33) Maddie Huth at A&M-Commerce (Oct 09, 2013); (16- 8-52) Maddie Huth vs West Texas A&M (Oct 05, 2013).
Kills 5-Set: 24 (24- 5-55) Arielle Bond vs. Midwestern State (Sep 20, 2013)
Assists: 55 (4s) Maggi Jo Keffury vs West Texas A&M (Oct 05, 2013)
Digs 3-Set: 21 Shelby Wilt vs Eastern New Mexico (Oct 04, 2013)
Digs 4-set: 29 Kaelen Valdez vs West Texas A&M (Oct 05, 2013)
Digs 5-set: 24 Katie MacLeay vs Midwestern State (Sep 20, 2013)
Aces: 3 Shelby Wilt vs Dallas Baptist (Sep 06, 2013); Shelby Wilt vs Colorado Mesa (Sep 07, 2013); Haley Bianco at Texas A&M-Kingsville (Sep 28, 2013); Katie MacLeay vs Nebraska-Kearney (Sep 13, 2013 in Denver, CO); Katie MacLeay vs Colorado Mesa (Sep 07, 2013).
 

Angelo State vs. Tarleton State TexAnns (2 p.m. on Saturday)

Tarleton State comes into Saturday's match with conference wins over Cameron, Midwestern State, Texas A&M-Kingsville and most recently Eastern New Mexico last Saturday. The lone blemish on their LSC record came at home against West Texas A&M in four sets. The TexAnns are hitting .183 this season and are limiting their opponents to a .145 percentage.

Stacie Murrah leads Tarleton State this season with 183 kills (3.27 per set), while Kaitlyn White has added 119 kills and Jazmine Green 118 for the TexAnns. Danielle Barker, this week's LSC Setter of the Week, has accumulated 609 assists and 15 aces in her senior season. She also has 147 digs (2.63 per set). Meg Umbel has added 97 kills for the TSU offense with Emily Klein leading the defense with 303 digs.   

The TexAnns are 2-2 inside the Junell Center this season after earning wins over Colorado State-Pueblo and Dallas Baptist and taking a pair of losses to Arkansas Fort Smith and Colorado Mesa at the ASU Invitational in early September.

The Belles only five-set match in the regular season last year came in grueling five-set win over Tarleton State in Stephenville. ASU pulled out the win and carry a nine-match winning streak into the 2013 season over the TexAnns who were the fourth seed in the LSC tournament last season. Tarleton State went 15-5 last season in LSC play and finished with an overall record of 23-9. Mary Schindler is in her ninth season as the head coach at TSU and has a 150-118 overall record. Murrah is in her senior season following earning first-team all-conference recognition as a junior. Katie Covell, a second-team selection, also returns after a strong sophomore campaign as an outside hitter for the TexAnns.
 

HIGH SCHOOL CONNECTIONS

Angelo State's Kaelen Valdez and TSU's Meg Umbel and Stacie Murrah each went to San Antonio O'Connor; ASU's Katie MacLeay and TSU's Ashley Rine and Marissa Brine are graduates of San Antonio Brandeis.
 
UP NEXT: Angelo State will play a non-conference doubleheader on Tuesday in Odessa against Wayland Baptist and Texas-Permian Basin next week before returning home to host A&M-Commerce and TWU next weekend at the Junell Center.