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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Hit Road For Northwestern Challenge
9/2/2010 | Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2010
OXFORD, Miss. - A week after claiming the Rice Invitational, the Ole Miss volleyball team returns to the road this weekend to seek another tournament title at the Northwestern Challenge hosted by Northwestern University.
The Rebels (2-1) will play three matches throughout the weekend, starting with host Northwestern at 7 p.m. CT on Friday night. Ole Miss will then face Utah at 10 a.m. on Saturday and close out the tournament with a match against Morehead State at 4:30 p.m.
Ole Miss will look to continue to get solid play out of its middle blockers that started on the opening weekend of the season. Junior middle blocker Regina Thomas was named the Tournament MVP at Rice a week ago and was placed on the All-Tournament team along with senior middle blocker Miranda Kitts and sophomore hitter Allegra Wells.
Wells led the team with a 3.18 kill per set performance and 10 blocks in the tournament as she put down 35 kills for the weekend. Thomas and Kitts put down 30 and 31 kills, respectively and hit close to .400 for the weekend against UT-San Antonio, Rice and Texas Tech. The Rebels look to the trio to continue that performance and to get continued production from hitters Courtney Cunningham, Kara Morgan and Whitney Craven this weekend at Northwestern.
Northwestern enters the weekend with an overall record of 2-0 and after a pair of wins over Loyola-Chicago and Illinois-Chicago on opening weekend at the Chicagoland Classic.
The Wildcats are led offensively by Sabel Moffett and Naomi Johnson, who are both hitting over the .500 mark after two matches and have put down 19 and 17 kills, respectively. The Wildcats are balanced on the back row with four players in double digit digs after two matches and are led by Julie Chin's 20 digs and 3.33 digs per set.
On Saturday, the Rebels will first face-off against a Utah team that holds a 2-1 record with wins over UC-Davis and Utah Valley, but fell to Utah State. The Utes are led on the attack by Morgan Odale who has 49 kills and averages more than four kills per set on the year. McKenzie Odale and Stephanie Neely set the offense with a 5.67 assist per set average and 68 assists through three matches.
The Eagles of Morehead State close things out for the Rebels on Saturday and are coming off a 2-1 weekend with wins over North Florida and Wright State while dropping a decision to Georgia State.
Morehead State is led offensively by Holly Evans and Emma Keough who have both put down more than 30 kills through three matches. Liz Shuler leads the back row defense with almost 6.5 digs per set and has 77 digs through the first three contests. Kirstie Brangers sets the Eagle offense with almost 10 assists per set on the year.
Fans can track all three matches on the internet via gametracker at www.OleMissSports.com.
