SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State volleyball team returns to action this weekend with its final two regular-season road matches at St. Edward's and Texas A&M-Kingsville.

The Belles (14-5, 8-4 LSC) open the weekend with a 5 p.m. non-conference match on Friday against the Hilltoppers (14-3, 8-2 Heartland) at the Recreation and Convocation Center in Austin before travelling south to play the Javelinas (14-8, 5-5 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Gil H. Steinke Physical Education Center-Kingsville Hampton Inn Court. ASU is 6-4 on the road this season, including dropping its last four true road matches against West Texas A&M, Tarleton State, Texas Woman's and Texas A&M-Commerce with a neutral-court win over Newman between the defeats.

Angelo State is currently tied with Tarleton State (18-5, 8-4 LSC) for third in the conference standings with Texas Woman's (14-7, 8-3 LSC) in second behind No. 25-ranked West Texas A&M (21-3, 12-0 LSC) with three weeks remaining in the regular season. TSU, which earned a 3-1 win over St. Edward's on Tuesday in Stephenville, will play at Kingsville on Friday in its only match this weekend. TWU hosts Cameron and Midwestern State in Denton this weekend, while WT plays four non-conference matches this weekend against Dallas Baptist, Lubbock Christian, Oklahoma Baptist and Southwestern Oklahoma.

ASU will return from its last two road matches with a five-match home stand to complete the regular season. The Belles open their home stand on Tuesday (Oct. 28) with a 7 p.m. match against Texas-Permian Basin and will also host West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico next weekend at the Junell Center. The Belles are currently 8-1 on their home court this season.
 
BELLE ROSTER REPORT
Shelby Wilt was named the Lone Star Conference's Defensive Player of the Week after providing 21 digs against Cameron and 16 against Midwestern State last weekend. Wilt, who is ASU's all-time digs leader with 2,206 career digs, leads the Belles this season with 344 digs and is averaging 5.06 per set. She has also provided 170 assists this season and has 463 career assists.

Mallory Blauser leads the Belles this season with 262 kills (3.97 per set) and has recorded 14 double-digit kill performances in her first year at ASU. Blauser, who is a sophomore from Round Rock, started her collegiate career last year at the University of Cincinnati before transferring to Angelo State. She has a season-high 29 kills this season in a four-set win over Newman and provided 13 kills last Friday in the win over Cameron and 11 against Midwestern State. Abbie Lynn is second on the team with 185 kills this season and is averaging 2.98 kills per set. A freshman from Amarillo, Lynn has a .256 attacking percentage this season including hitting .415 last weekend against CU and MSU. She had nine kills against the Aggies and 10 against the Mustangs and has a season-high 18 kills on her resume against Texas Woman's and the road match at MSU earlier this season.

A sophomore from Pflugerville, Zoey Hanrahan leads Angelo State with 55 blocks this season and has also provided 120 kills. Hanrahan has recorded three or more blocks in 12 of the 19 matches this season with a season-high five blocks coming in the conference-opener against Texas Woman's on Sept. 9 at the Junell Center. Daeleigh Castile is second on the team with 37 blocks and has also provided 70 kills in her freshman season at ASU, while Arielle Bond has 96 kills. Bond enters this weekend with 569 career kills in her three seasons with the Belles, while Cerbi Ritchey has added 59 kills for the ASU attack in her sophomore season and Klohe Harrion has 23 kills. Ritchey has 282 kills in her career, while Kailyn Troxell has provided 61 kills in her career with the Belles.

ASU continues to be one of the top LSC defensive units with the play of Wilt, Katie MacLeay, Kelly Hasbrouck and Haley Bianco. MacLeay, a junior captain, enters this weekend with 1,022 career digs with 240 digs this season. She has 13 double-digit dig performances this season, while Bianco has six double-digit dig performances and 120 digs this season. Bianco, a junior defensive specialist from Austin, has 740 career digs and 38 career service aces. A freshman from New Braunfels, Hasbrouck recorded a career-high 20 digs against TWU earlier this season and enters this weekend with 155 digs (2.77 per set).   

Alexa Johnson leads the Belles from the setter position with 635 assists this season and is averaging 10.95 per set. A sophomore from Nebraska, Johnson transferred to ASU from Lamar this season and has also provided 122 digs and 43 kills. Also in their first seasons at ASU, freshmen Brianna Sotello has 67 kills (2.31 per set) and 62 digs and Brooke Robertson has 73 digs.
 
Quotes  ||  Chuck Waddington, Angelo State head coach

On this weekend's matches at St. Edward's and Texas A&M-Kingsville:
"We need to continue in our growth as a team this weekend. We did a good job last weekend at home, but we still need to focus on the areas where we need to get better."

On playing against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday:
"They are a very talented group. They are one of the top offensive teams in the conference and we'll have to focus on getting them out of system and make things difficult for them to score. If their kids are swinging all out, then we'll be in trouble. We have to work hard to make sure that doesn't happen and we have to remain clean on our side of the net to not give away points."
 
PREVIOUS MATCH REPORT vs. Kingsville (Sept. 20)
SAN ANGELO – Mallory Blauser and Abbie Lynn had 13 kills each and Zoey Hanrahan provided four blocks to help lead the Angelo State volleyball team to a Lone Star Conference sweep (25-22, 26-24, 25-21) over Texas A&M-Kingsville at the Junell Center.

The Belles (9-1, 4-0 LSC) have now won eight straight matches this season and nine straight decision over the Javelinas (7-4, 1-3 LSC). ASU made quick work of TAMUK on Saturday by limiting the Javelinas to a .068 hitting percentage with the assistance of a 67-60 dig advantage and eight blocks.

"We did a great job limiting their attacking," Waddington said. "They came into the weekend as the top offensive team in our conference. They have great attackers all over the place, but we did a great job of hanging in there and played great defense. We weren't extremely crisp on offense today but at the end of sets we were sharp and were playing to finish."

Shelby Wilt led the Angelo State defense with 21 digs, while Katie MacLeay added 11 and Haley Bianco contributed nine digs. Wilt has produced three 20-plus dig performance this season, 10 double-digit dig matches and now has 2,058 digs in her record-setting career. MacLeay's 11 digs takes her career total to 899 going into next weekend where the Belles travel to play at Eastern New Mexico and West Texas A&M.

On the attack, Lynn and Blauser led the way with their 13 kills and Cerbi Ritchey added nine kills for the Belles who hit .152 and had a 47-32 kill advantage over the Javelinas. Blauser finished the match with a .235 attacking percentage and Lynn was at .233. Alexa Johnson orchestrated the offense from the setter position and finished the three-set match with 35 assists and also had five digs and three blocks. Hanrahan, who now leads the Belles with 26 blocks this season, also contributed three kills against TAMUK and Brianna Sotello added four kills and Arielle Bond three.

"We have some injured players right now but our team is not using that as an excuse," Waddington said. "We have a lot of players stepping up and playing selfless volleyball to help their team. They are handling new responsibilities because of the injuries and I'm really proud of them for that."

Kelsey Washington led TAMUK with 10 kills and five blocks, while Casey Klobedans had 29 assists and 13 digs. Stephanie Johns joined Washington with five blocks and Krystal Faison and Ashley Bukowski each had seven kills.