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SAN ANTONIO -- UTSA volleyball will open its 2018 Conference USA schedule with a pair of home matches, hosting Southern Miss on Friday at 7 p.m. CT before welcoming North Texas on Sunday at 1 p.m. to the Convocation Center.
UTSA (8-4, 0-0 C-USA) kicks off league play with lidlifters vs. Southern Miss (6-7, 0-0 C-USA) and North Texas (4-11, 0-0, C-USA). In 2017, UTSA posted a 9-5 record in league play, a year after a 10-4 mark.
The Roadrunners completed non-conference play as winners in eight of 12 matches, including wins over Houston and Virginia Tech. UTSA has averaged 13.7 kills, 13.1 assists, 14.3 digs and 1.7 blocks per set as a team in 2018.
Coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff, in her 17th season, enters the weekend slate with a program-record 297 wins at UTSA.
Junior Brianna McCulloch paces the Runners with 3.39 kills per set, adding 0.82 digs and 0.57 blocks per set. Junior Kara Teal sports 2.00 kills and 0.85 blocks per set, with freshman Kirby Smith sporting 3.24 kills and 3.53 digs per set. Sophomore Hannah Froeschl – a 2017 C-USA All-Freshman Team selection – has averaged 2.26 kills and 0.49 blocks per set. Freshman Hannah Lopez leads all C-USA freshman with 3.36 kills per set, adding 2.20 digs and 0.56 blocks per set. Freshman Kenedi Rutherford has sported 2.47 kills per set, with senior Amanda Gonzales owning 8.72 assists per set. Senior Shelby Williams leads the team with 3.83 digs per set.
Southern Miss has averaged 13.4 kills, 12.1 assists, 13.96 digs and 2.14 blocks per set. Kylie Grandy leads the team with 4.29 kills per set, hitting .234 with 2.33 digs per set. Catherine Rephsher has averaged 2.56 kills per set, with Chandler Marshall averaging 2.18 kills per set. Madison Lawler leads the team with 3.48 digs per set, with Alexis Coombs sporting a 1.00 blocks per set mark. Sarah Bell has a team-high 10.7 assists per set.
The Roadrunners have won all nine meetings in the series with Southern Miss, including a 4-0 mark in games played in San Antonio. UTSA won the 2017 meeting, 3-1 in Hattiesburg, Miss. UTSA leads the all-time series with North Texas, 17-8, including a 12-3 mark in games played in San Antonio. The Roadrunners have won two of the last three meetings and six of the last eight. UNT's last win in San Antonio came in 1995.
UTSA has won all five conference lidlifters in its history in C-USA. UTSA's last loss in a conference opener came in 2012, in the WAC vs. Utah State.
- UTSA -
