MONTGOMERY—The Alabama State University volleyball team has a full weekend of games scheduled beginning with a conference tilt at Jackson State University on Friday, Oct. 12 beginning at 7 p.m.
 
These two teams met in the championship of the Southern University Invitational Volleyball Tournament last Saturday, with the Lady Tigers pulling out a hard-fought 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 21-25, 19-25) victory over the Lady Hornets.
 
ASU (4-19/1-1 SWAC) goes into the matchup winners of four of their past six games and looks to keep their improved play going.  That will be a difficult task as JSU (11-11/1-0 SWAC) has won nine consecutive games.  Their last loss was in the ASU Invitational when they dropped a 3-0 decision to the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore back on September 15.
 
“We have our hands full against JSU,” Head Coach Penny Lucas-White said.  “We know we can play with them because we just did it a week ago, but that was on a neutral court.  It will be much different playing on their home court and they are playing with a lot of confidence right now.”
 
JSU has two of the top players in the conference in returning SWAC Player of the Year Christine Edwards and one of the top middle hitters in the conference in Paige Williams.
 
“I believe they have the best player in the conference in Christine Edwards who was the player of the year last year.  Their middle blocker Paige Williams has proven why she is the best defensive player in the conference.  She had nine blocks against us last weekend, so their front line will pose a tough challenge.”
 
ASU will look to counter with three players that have been coming on strong over the past two weeks.  Outside hitter Chelsey Scott leads ASU in kills with 177 and is 10^th in the conference averaging 2.36 kills per set.  Scott had 60 kills over the team's last four games.
 
Middle hitters Myla Marshall and Amber Bennett have also picked their game up and have become go-to players.  Marshall leads ASU and is 8^th in the conference in hitting with a .246 average.  She is also the top blocker for ASU with 46 (5 solo/41 assists).  She was named to the All-Tournament team last weekend for her performance in the tournament.  Bennett is now hitting .204 on the season and is second in blocks with 29 (5 solo/24 assists).
 
Brooke Beasley has 576 assists on the season averaging 7.68 per set.  She is 3^rd in the SWAC and she also leads the team with four double-doubles on the season.  Her last was a 30-assists, 10-digs performance last Saturday against Jackson State.
 
“I am excited about the way we have been playing over the past few weeks,” Lucas-White said.  “I think the players now realize they have the talent to win and they continue to play hard, now they just have to decide not to lose these games.  They are good enough to win them; they just have to believe it.”
 
The Lady Hornets will end the weekend hosting California State University Bakersfield (8-10) on both Saturday and Sunday.  The games will be the final non-conference games for ASU.  Both games will be played at Lockhart Gymnasium with Saturday's game beginning at 7 p.m. and Sunday's game beginning at 1 p.m.
 
CSUB brings a young, but talented team into Montgomery and have played a common opponent in Washington State University.  They lost two games to the Cougars, 3-1 and 3-0.  WSU defeated ASU 3-0 at the Cougar Challenge back in August.
 
The Roadrunners are playing as an NCAA Division I Independent this season, but were recently introduced as the latest team to join the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
 
“Bakersfield is a very good team,” Lucas-White said.  They have won six of their last nine games and they have beaten a very good University of Maryland-Eastern Shore team that we saw win all four of their games in our conference early in September.”
 
“They are a lot like us in the fact they don't have a lot of really tall players, but they are very athletic and fast.  They have a couple of defensive specialist that gets to every ball and they are good at keeping the ball in play and attacking when they have the chance.”
 
Live stats will be carried for both of the games against CSUB and can be seen at www.bamastatesports.com.