Rebels Prepare For Regional Showdown With Memphis On Tuesday

OXFORD, Miss. Ole Miss (13-9, 5-7 SEC) will step out of conference play on Tuesday for the first time in five weeks as the Rebels will play host to Memphis (21-4) in a 7 p.m. match at the Gillom Center.

Ole Miss will be hosting Greek Night on Tuesday as campus fraternities and sororities will be competing for free prizes at the match. The match will also be broadcast with live video over the internet free of charge.

“It’s going to be a great night,” said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. “It’s a great atmosphere when we host Greek Night and the venue is such a great one for viewing volleyball. We need to come out and build off our success against Alabama and look forward to feeding off the energy of the crowd.”

Ole Miss enters the match after posting a 3-0 sweep of conference rival Alabama on Friday. It was the first win for the Rebels over the Crimson Tide since the 1998 season and snapped a six-match win streak by one of the conference’s hottest teams.

Jaclyn Toohey tallied a team-high 14 kills in the match, while Lauren Moffett stepped up and hit a team-high .444 with nine kills and only one error on the night. The Rebels will look to Toohey and Moffett against the Tigers as well as the arm of Kristen Carroll and Katie Kramer. Both Carroll and Kramer added nine kills each on Friday in the win over Alabama.

Kramer leads the Rebels with 322 kills on the season and is averaging almost four kills per game. Carroll is second on the team with 260 kills on the year and is averaging 3.82 kills per game, while Toohey has had the hot hand for the Rebels and led Ole Miss in kills for five consecutive matches.

Tara Langley led a solid defensive effort as well as the junior tallied 22 digs against Alabama as one of three Rebels to reach double-digits in digs. Carroll added 12 digs and Nicole Mahan added 11 digs.

Memphis enters the mid-week contest coming off a pair of wins over Central Florida and Southern Miss as the Tigers are riding a five match win streak. The only four losses of the season have come at the hands of Southeastern Missouri, UAB, Marshall and East Carolina. Three of the four losses have been on the road.

Shelby Burton leads the Tiger offense with 363 kills on the season and his hitting .421 for the year, while Sarah Bury is right behind her with 302 kills on the year. Six Tigers have tallied more than 100 kills on the season.

Burton has been getting it done all-around for the Tigers, playing solid net defense and leading the team with 111 blocks on the season, including 20 block solos. Laura Cote has added 62 blocks for the second highest total on the team from her setter position and has tallied 1,158 assists on the year.

The back row defense of the Tigers is led by Christen Clayton with 440 digs as she averages 4.84 digs per game. She is joined by four other Memphis players who have broken the 100 mark for digs on the year.

The Rebels lead the all-time series 33-31 with Memphis.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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