Rebels Close Out Regular Season With Arkansas, No. 11 LSU

OXFORD, Miss. The Rebel volleyball team looks to close out its season on a strong note and make a push for an NCAA Tournament bid as Ole Miss (17-12, 8-10 SEC) will host Arkansas and No. 11 LSU.

The Rebels will take on the Lady Backs at 7 p.m. on Friday before hosting the 11^th-ranked tigers at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

“We’re excited to get back home and close out the regular season on a strong note. We have two very good teams coming in this weekend and we look forward to the challenge. We love the opportunity to play in front of our home crowd and that strong fan support is part of us having one of our best years ever as we fight to get into the NCAA Tournament.”

The Rebels took the first meeting of the season 3-2 in Fayetteville behind a then career-high 27 kills from Jaclyn Toohey and a solid defensive effort featuring a career-high 22 digs from Allison Weber. The Rebels rallied from down 13-7 in game five to claim the match with a 17-15 win in game five.

This time around, the Rebels will continue to look to Toohey who is coming off a career-high 28 kill performance at Auburn over the weekend. She was joined by Emily Jones who posted a career-high 19 kills against the Tigers.

Toohey is fifth in the Southeastern Conference in kills per game with 4.06 kills per game to lead the Rebels. Katie Kramer, who leads the Rebels in kills on the year with 403 kills, is 10^th in the SEC in kills per game with 3.77. Senior Kristen Carroll has posted 296 kills on the year from the right side to add punch to the Rebel attack.

Defensively, the Rebels have been led by junior libero Tara Langley, who has posted 385 digs on the year and is seventh in the SEC at 3.85 digs per game. The net defense of the Rebels is led by junior middle blocker Lauren Moffett with 103 blocks on the year.

Arkansas (16-10, 9-9 SEC) is led offensively by Denitza Koleva who has posted a team-high 418 kills on the year and is third in the SEC in kills with 4.31 per year. The outside hitter put down 19 kills against the Rebels in the first meeting to lead the Lady Backs.

At the net, the Lady Backs are led defensively by Destiny Clark who has 110 blocks on the season.  She tallied 18 of those blocks against the Rebels in Fayetteville as she came up with 18 block assists on the year. The back row defense is paced by Ashley Miller, who has come up with 425 digs to date.

The Tigers of LSU (23-4, 15-3) are ranked 11^th in the nation and enter the weekend having sewn up the SEC Western Division. LSU defeated Ole Miss in three games earlier in the season in Baton Rouge.

Marina Skender leads LSU offensively with 375 kills to date, while Kyna Washington has added 321 kills as the only other player to break 300 kills in a balanced LSU attack.

Kassi Mikulik leads the Tiger back row defense with 463 digs this season, while at the net it’s been all Lauren DeGirolamo with 156 blocks to date.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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