PHILADELPHIA – La Salle volleyball returns to the friendly confines of Tom Gola Arena this weekend as they welcome George Washington and George Mason to Tom Gola Arena. The Explorers host the Colonials on Friday at 7 p.m. before rounding out the weekend with the Patriots on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Scouting the Colonials...La Salle Explorers (8-16, 1-6 A-10) vs George Washington Colonials (14-6, 5-2 A-10)Friday, Oct. 24 | 7 p.m.Live Statistics | Sign Up For Text AlertsGeorge Washington enters the weekend with the second highest RPI of any team in the Atlantic 10. The Colonials check in at number 80 in the RPI, just six spots below VCU who has the best of any team in the conference. George Washington sits in third place, just a half a game behind Saint Louis and two behind Dayton in the conference standings after splitting their matches last weekend with a 3-0 win over Davidson and dropping straight sets to VCU. The Colonials also are the only blemish on top ranked Dayton's conference record so far this season.
The Colonials lead the way in the conference in several major categories. They are tops in assists per set (13.24), blocks per set (2.73), and digs per set (15.9). Their assists numbers are good for 16
th overall in the nation, while their blocks per set ranks them 21
st overall in the country.
Offensively, George Washington has been led by sophomore Chidima Osuchukwu and senior Kelsey Newman. Osuchukwu currently ranks third in the Atlantic 10 with 3.84 kills per set, Newman is right behind her, ranking fourth with 3.78. Osuchukwu also ranks fourth in the conference with a hitting percentage of .367. Setter Jordan Timmer has averaged 11.0 assists per set which ranks her at the top of the conference and 31
st nationally.
The Colonials defense has been impressive at limiting their opponents attack the entire season. They rank second in the conference and top 50 nationally by limiting the opposition to just a .166 hitting percentage. Osuchukwu currently leads the conference and ranks 12
th nationally by providing 1.46 blocks per set. Junior Maggie Skjelbred also ranks in the top ten in the conference by averaging 1.07 blocks per set.
Scouting the Patriots...La Salle Explorers (7-15, 1-5 A-10) vs. George Mason Patriots (6-14, 2-5 A-10)Sunday, Oct. 26 | 1 p.m.Live Statistics | Sign Up For Text AlertsGeorge Mason enters the weekend after splitting last weekend's action with a 0-3 defeat at VCU, while picking up a 3-2 win at Davidson on Sunday. The Patriots sit just one spot ahead of the Explorers in the Atlantic 10 at 2-5 on the season with their other conference win coming over Fordham.
Defensively the Patriots have been led by a strong team block effort. They rank third in the conference averaging 2.49 blocks per set. Individually that effort has been led by freshman middle blocker Sydney Fanoga who is averaging 1.08 blocks per set herself on the season. Behind her senior libero Stephi Matsushima has led the way by averaging 3.66 digs per set which ranks sixth in the conference.
Offensively the Colonials have spread out their attack with three players having at least 100 kills on the season, Jesse Greenslade (152), Tiffany Clarke (122), and Morghan Martin (174). In addition Lolade Owokoniran comes up just short of triple digits with 99 kills on the season. Morghan Martin has also aided the attack by averaging .34 service aces per set, which ranks fifth in the conference.
Scouting the Explorers...La Salle returns to Philadelphia for the first time in nearly a month after playing three straight weekends worth of road matches. The Explorers split their most recent trip, dropping a 3-0 decision at instate-foe Duquesne, while picking up a 3-1 win over Delaware State.
The Explorers have been led offensively by junior
Kelly Perillo who has a team leading 263 kills on the season. Joining her in triple digit kills are sophomore
Ashley Felton (160), senior
Jennifer Whelan (159), and junior
Laura Kuhlmeier (156). Felton has come on strong over the past two weeks having two games with 11 kills while hitting .500 and .556 against Davidson and Delaware State respectively. Felton has already added 60 more kills than last season and is on pace to doubling her output of 99 kills from a season ago. La Salle has been aided on offense by a strong serve game with
Michelle Healy ranking second in the Atlantic 10 with 35 assists, and 12
th nationally.
Defensively La Salle has three players totaling over 225 digs on the season. Freshman
Bryanna Davis leads the way with 259 on the year, she is joining by juniors
Kelly Perillo (242) and
Erin Noga (235). While the team hasn't done a ton of blocking on the season, they have utilized some timely blocks the last few weeks particularly from
Ashley Felton who leads the team with 52 total blocks on the year.
Junior
Michelle Healy with 795 assists on the season. She has already doubled her career total entering the year of 784 assists, and has moved into tenth position on the schools all time assists list. If she keeps her pace going Healy could be the first person to reach 1,000 assists in a season since 2006 when Caitlin Conner tallied 1,076.
Next UpThe Explorers continue their home stand next weekend when they welcome Fordham on Friday for a Halloween night matchup with first serve at 7 p.m., and Rhode Island for a Sunday matinee with the match slated to begin at 1 p.m.
