Rebels Take To Road For Gamecock Invitational This Weekend

OXFORD, Miss. The Ole Miss volleyball team will continue to play on the road this weekend as the Rebels travel to Jacksonville State to participate in the Gamecock Invitational.

Ole Miss will open the tournament with a pair of matches on Friday against UAB and host Jacksonville State before closing out the event with a match against Creighton on Saturday. The Rebels’ first match against UAB will be at 1 p.m. on Friday.

“We learned a lot about ourselves as a team last weekend and we hope to continue to build on that performance and what we learned,” said Ole Miss head coach Joe Getzin. “We have had a good week of practice and are looking forward to another weekend of good competition.”

Ole Miss enters the weekend coming off a 2-1 performance at the Panther Invitational where the Rebels defeated host Milwaukee and Illinois State before falling to No. 18 Iowa State. Two Rebels earned All-Tournament honors as Rachel Kieckhaefer and Allison Weber were both honored for the performances in the event.

The Rebels will continue to rely on Kieckhaefer to quarterback the offense and Weber to lead the back row defense, while also look to emerging freshman Katie Norris. The outside hitter led the Rebels with 19 kills in the first match of the season and followed it up with 13 kills against Illinois State to lead the offense again.

UAB enters the weekend after going 0-2 in the opening weekend at the Aquafina Invitational at the University of Florida last week. The Blazers fell to eighth-ranked Florida and to Western Michigan at the weekend event.

Savanah Pegg led the offense for the Blazers in the first weekend as she averaged 3.00 kpg and came up with 21 kills on the weekend while hitting at a .193 clip. She is joined by Ivana Bozic who added 2.43 kpg and tallied 17 for the weekend. Nevena Stefanov sets the offense for UAB as she averages 7.71 assists per game. The back row defense is led by Bozic who also added 3.00 digs per game and came up with 21 digs on the weekend.

Ole Miss and UAB last met in 2005 with the Rebels taking a 3-0 win in Birmingham.

Jacksonville State enters the weekend with an overall record of 2-2 after participating in a tournament at IUPUI over the weekend. The Gamecocks fell to Tulsa and IUPUI before taking a win over Evansville to pick up the first win of the season. Jacksonville State edged Auburn on Tuesday to pull their record even on the season.

Caitlin Vorbeck and Brittey Whitten lead the Gamecock offense as Vorbeck averages 3.53 kills per  game and came up with 38 kills in the opening weekend of play, while Whitten averages 3.00 kills per game. Laruen Harkins and Whitten lead the defensive efforts with 4.20 and 3.87 digs per game, respectively. Brooke Schumacher sets the offense with 10.33 assists per game for the Gamecocks.

Ole Miss defeated Jacksonville State 3-0 in the Magnolia Invitational in 2007.

Creighton enters the Gamecock Invitational after posting a 1-2 record in the first weekend of play at the Blue Jay Invitational. The Blue Jay’s hosted a tough field, falling to #16 Minnesota and #21 LSU before taking a match from Texas A&M. Creighton then fell to Iowa State on Tuesday to drop to 1-3 on the season.

Creighton is led by Jessica Houts who averages 3.67 kills per game and tallied 39 kills in the opening weekend. Houts also leads the net defense with 0.87 blocks per game. The offense is set by Korie Lebada who averages 9.00 assists per game. Allie Oelke leads the defense with 2.93 digs per game.

Ole Miss and Creighton have never faced off in volleyball.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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