PHILADELPHIA – La Salle volleyball closes out their season with a trip to the Midwest for matches against Dayton and Saint Louis. The Explorers travel to Dayton on Friday evening before rounding out their schedule against Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon.
Scouting the Flyers...La Salle Explorers (10-19, 3-9 A-10) at Dayton Flyers (24-5, 11-1 A-10)Friday, Nov. 13 | 7 p.m.Live Statistics | Live Video | Sign Up For Text Alerts Dayton enters the final weekend of the regular season sitting atop the Atlantic 10 conference standings with an 11-1 record. After falling to George Washington, 3-2, in early October, the Flyers have won their last eight matches as they march towards the conference tournament. Dayton has won eight of the last 12 Atlantic 10 volleyball championships.
The Flyers have been dominant on both sides of the ball this season, ranking tops in the conference in limiting the oppositions hitting percentage (.163), while sitting at second in the conference in their own hitting percentage (.248).
Junior outside hitter Alaina Turner has been a force all season long. She is tops in the conference in total kills (422), aces (60), and points per set (4.99). She is fourth in the country in aces and sits in the top 30 in total kills. She has been aided in attack by freshman middle blocker Amber Erhahon. She ranks second in the conference hitting an efficient .391 which is good enough for 28
th nationally.
Defensively the Flyers have been led by junior Janna Krafka who has 452 digs on the season, putting her tops in the conference and top 80 nationally. Four other Dayton players have over 200 digs on the season with Alaina Turner (299), Jessica Sloan (210), Jane Emmenecker (240) and Rachel Jones (283) rounding out the list. Dayton is also tops in the conference in team blocks with 272 total which is also good for 16
th nationally. Senior Isolde Hannan and freshman Amber Erhahon have led the way at the net ranking fourth and sixth overall in the conference in blocks per set.
Scouting the Billikens...La Salle Explorers (10-19, 3-9 A-10) at Saint Louis Billikens (18-9, 7-5 A-10)Sunday, Nov. 16 | 1 p.m.Live Statistics | Sign Up For Text Alerts The Billikens enter the weekend in sixth place in the Atlantic 10 and holding onto the final spot in the A-10 tournament beginning next week. They enter the weekend on a slide, having dropped three of their last four conference matchups with the sole win coming over Davidson.
Offensively, Saint Louis has used a well balanced attack with five players having recorded over 150 kills. Sophomore Danielle Rygelski and freshman Nenye Okoro lead the way with 315 and 314 kills respectively. Rygelski sits at fifth in the conference averaging 3.58 kills per set which is top 100 nationally while freshman Lauren Leverenz has hit .335 on the season which is good for fifth in the conference.
Anna Church has led the way for the Billikens on defense. The junior is tops in the conference averaging 4.35 digs per set and has 448 total on the season. Two other players have over 200 digs on the season with Rygelski and Okoro having contributed 203 and 283 digs respectively. Sophomore Taylor Paulson has aided out on defense by contributing 87 total blocks on the season.
Scouting the Explorers... The Explorers enter the weekend having split their last six matchups. They grabbed wins over George Mason, Fordham , and Delaware State while dropping matchups to Rhode Island, Duquesne, and George Washington.
Junior
Kelly Perillo leads the Explorer attack with 300 kills on the season. This is her highest season total in her three years on campus as she is averaging 2.88 kills per set. She is joined by senior
Jennifer Whelan. She has recorded 204 kills while leading the team with a .265 hitting percentage, both of which are career highs.
Defensively, the team has been led by junior
Erin Noga. She has tallied 319 digs on the year, averaging 3.29 digs per set. Perillo, junior
Laura Kuhlmeier and freshman
Bryanna Davis have each contributed over 200 digs of their own on the season as well.
Junior
Michelle Healy has over doubled her career assist total this season. She has notched 956 assists this year and moved into ninth place in La Salle career history with 1,740 total over her three years. If she records 44 assists over the two games this weekend she would become the first La Salle player to record at least 1,000 assists in a season since 2006 when Caitlin Conner had 1,076. Healy also sits in 13
th place in the nation having recorded 44 service aces on the year.
