RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech's volleyball team continues its 2020-21 regular season schedule this weekend with two contests in Nacogdoches, Texas.
 
LA Tech opens the SFA Invitational on Friday at 1 p.m. with a matchup against Tarleton State. The Lady Techsters close out the two-match tournament on Saturday against the tournament hosts. First serve for Saturday's match at SFA is set for 11 a.m.
 
Saturday's match will be streamed live on ESPN+. Friday's match will not be streamed, but LA Tech fans can follow both this weekend's contests at the attached live stats links.

About the Lady Techsters
Louisiana Tech played in the Thomas Assembly Center for the first time since Nov. 10, 2019, when it hosted Grambling State for a home exhibition on Sunday. Tech bested its I-20 neighbor 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-8) in a competitive five-set match, winning the first, third and decisive fifth set. The Lady Techsters secured five of the final six points of the match in the exhibition triumph.

Newcomers Elizabeth Sandoval and Morgan Smith provided breakout performances for Tech in Sunday's match. Sandoval tallied a team-best 14 kills while hitting a blistering .344. Smith led the Techsters with seven total blocks and provided six kills for Tech's offense.
 
Junior Abigail Hildenbrand recorded a team-high 28 assists in her first match of the 2020-21 season. Senior Alyssa Zucco anchored Tech's defense as the primary libero with 20 digs.
 
As for the regular season, Tech played its first two matches on Oct. 24 against Southern Miss. The Lady Techsters dropped both their matches 3-1 in the doubleheader in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
 
Four Techsters – Carter Mirich, Elena Takova, Sandoval and freshman Faith Menary all tallied 11 kills or more between the season's first two matches. Mirich leads the team with 15 kills, averaging 2.5 kills per set.
 
Zucco paces Tech with 29 digs, extending her double-digit dig streak to seven straight matches dating back to the 2019 season. She topped the stat sheet in dig tallies in both of Tech's matches against Southern Miss in October.
 
Scouting Tarleton State
Tarleton State will make its Division-I volleyball debut in Friday's match against Louisiana Tech. The Texans won 22 or more matches in six straight seasons to close out their Division-II days in the Lone Star Conference. The program's final six seasons in Division II resulted in NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
Head coach Mary Schindler began her 16^th season in charge of the Tarleton program at the start of the 2020-21 season. She has 317 career victories with the Texans, advancing to the NCAA Division II Volleyball Championship Tournament back in 2018.
 
Two Texans with more than 250 kills return this season – junior Lauren Kersey (351) and senior Amber Strange (252). Tarleton State's top setter in terms of assists, Kayla Brannon, also returns for the Texans this season.
 
Tarleton State will make its Western Athletic Conference debut on Monday at Grand Canyon University.

Scouting SFA
SFA has played 10 matches already this season, posting an impressive 8-2 record with wins over two Sun Belt opponents and one Conference USA adversary. The Ladyjacks knocked off ULM, South Alabama and UTEP in the fall, sweeping the Warhawks before posting 3-1 victories over the Jaguars and the Miners.
 
SFA's two losses came to in-state foes Texas State and North Texas. The match against North Texas came down to the final set with the Mean Green securing the win with a 15-12 fifth-set victory.
 
Sophomore Payton Cerny paces the Ladyjacks with 103 kills. Two SFA setters, Allie Hamsher and Maddy Borque, have recorded more than 100 assists this season. Defensive specialist Madelynn Miller leads the team with 174 digs and 4.58 digs per set.
 
The Ladyjacks are coming off their second straight Southland Conference Tournament Championship after posting a 31-2 record in 2019. SFA went a perfect 19-0 against conference opponents this past season. Only one of those matches went to five sets.
 
SFA's conference title and 31-1 regular season record earned them a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The USC Trojans defeated the Ladyjacks 3-0 in the first round to end SFA's historic run.

Series History
Tarleton State – Friday's meeting between the Lady Techsters and the Texans will be the first matchup between the schools in program history. Tech went 3-0 against nonconference teams from Texas in 2019.
 
SFA – The Lady Techsters hold a 7-18 all-time record against SFA. The last time the two teams met was on Sept. 13, 2014, in the LA Tech Invitational in Ruston. The Ladyjacks prevailed in four sets over the Techsters to close out the tournament. LA Tech's most recent win over SFA came via a 3-2 victory during the 2003 season.  
 
What's Next
The Lady Techsters will travel in state to face Northwestern State in Natchitoches on Tuesday, Jan. 26. First serve for Tuesday's match is set for 6 p.m.