RUSTON, La. - The Louisiana Tech women's volleyball team (5-9) will return home to the Thomas Assembly Center on Sunday for the first time in two weeks, taking on the Rice Owls (10-5) in Tech's Conference USA home-opener at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

LA Tech Season Stats
Rice Season Stats

Tech is coming off an impressive 3-1 road triumph over in-state rival UL-Monroe on Wednesday. The Techsters rebounded nicely from an 0-3 weekend at the Billiken Invitational and played one of their most complete matches of the season in the win over the Warhawks.

Tjis season, Tech boasts a pair of players who rank in the top 10 among C-USA leaders. Sophomore Madeline Davis currently owns a .350 hitting percentage (eighth in C-USA) and her 1.04 blocks per set average ranks in the top-10 (10th) for the fourth straight week this season. Senior libero Jacie McClure is also moving up the conference leaderboards, as her 3.94 digs per set are the fourth most in the league.

Rice is coming off a 3-2 loss to UTEP in its conference opener on Friday. The Owls have won five of their last six contests and own a 10-5 record. Rice picked up votes in the VolleyballMag.com Top 25 Mid-Major Poll, coming in ranked 24th last week.

The Owls are led offensively by freshman sensation Nicole Lennon. The rookie is averaging a team-best 3.83 kills per set while also chipping in with 150 digs. With her most recent freshman of the week honor, Lennon became the first Owl to ever win the award twice in a season.

Tech faces a tough opening conference schedule, as its first three matches are all against C-USA Championship participants from a year ago (Rice, WKU and North Texas).

This Sunday's match will be streamed live on CUSA.TV ($) and fans can follow @LATechVB on Twitter to keep up with the action throughout the contest. Admission is free to all Lady Techster home matches.