Montgomery, Ala. | The top two teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference match up Thursday night at Lockhart Gymnasium at 7 pm. when Alabama State welcomes rival Alabama A&M.

The Lady Hornets (9-14, 6-1 SWAC) have won five straight matches and six of the previous seven. Alabama State was well-prepared for conference play as evidenced by the win/loss percentage of all opponents played to date (.374), the 24th toughest among all Division I teams.

The Lady Hornets have received a wealth of production lately from a couple of juniors – Taira Cottingham and Payten Clark. Clark posted her best line of 2018 in Sunday's win over MVSU, putting away 13 of 27 attacks while also grabbing a season-high five blocks. The Baton Rouge, La. native has amassed 29 kills in her last four games after accounting for only four in the previous seven matches.  Cottingham led all Alabama State outside hitters with 23 total kills over her two matches. She hit a solid .227 against MVSU and added a block. The junior proceeded to follow up that outing with her strongest showing of the season with a 14-kill effort against Alcorn State. Her .520 attack rate against the Lady Braves marked a season-high.

Alabama A&M (7-0, 11-12) has won its first seven conference matches of 2018 and has dropped only one set in SWAC play. The Bulldogs took down Alcorn State (3-0) and MVSU (3-1) over the weekend. They are led by Maya Evans (.386 attack percentage), Alana Cox (199 kills) and Terra Brooks (198 kills). Cox and Brooks are number one and two in the conference, respectively, in total kills. Megan Evans (580 assists) orchestrates the attack, while Maya Evans (63 blocks) and Cox (53) anchors the defense. Alabama State swept Alabama A&M in both matches a season ago. Krysta Medearis and Bayle' Bennett had 10 kills each in the second matchup and Kori Kutsch tallied 40 assists across the two contests.  

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