RUSTON — The Louisiana Tech Volleyball team travels to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for a two-match series against Middle Tennessee on October 23-24 at Alumni Memorial Gymnasium.
 
DATE/TIME: Thursday-Friday, October 14-25, 6 p.m. CT | Noon CT
LOCATION: Murfreesboro, Tenn. (Alumni Memorial Gymnasium)
STATS: LATechSports.com/Stats
SERIES RECORD: Middle Tenn., 12-2
LAST MEETING: L, 0-3 (10/14/23, Ruston)
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (6-17, 0-10)
Louisiana Tech finished the first half of conference play against Western Kentucky. The Bulldogs have played the top five teams in the conference standings through the first five series.
 
Tech attacks from multiple players on the court. Four Bulldogs have over 100 kills on the season. Giulia Bonifacio leads the team with 165 kills and 2.20 per set. Jailen Hurley is second with marks of 150 and 2.05, followed by Izabely Benjamin (116, 1.73), and Charlize Williams (101, 1.36). Rori Gray is not far from 100, with 91 kills during her freshman campaign.
 
Meghan Scharpenberg, Lauren Albrecht, and Grace Krohn gives Tech multiple options at the setter position. Scharpenberg and Albrecht each have over 250 assists, and Krohn has 139.
 
On the defensive side of the net, Riley Steubing and Charlize Williams have been the leaders for LA Tech this season. Steubing has been a key contributor with 250 digs and is teetering on breaking into the top 10 in Bulldog history for a single season with a 3.97 average per set. Williams has 84.0 total blocks on the year, with at least one in 19 consecutive matches.
 
ABOUT Middle Tenn. (9-13, 5-5)
Middle Tennessee is coming off a split at Liberty and sits seventh in the league.
 
Adriana Rhoda has not only been one of the top players in the conference but also in the country. Rhoda leads CUSA with 324 kills and 3.90 kills per set, ranking 14th and 57th nationally.  She gets help from Kiera Booth with a 2.71 average per set, good enough for 10th in the conference.
 
The Blue Raiders offense runs through freshman Andi Spies. Spies has 764 assists for a 9.20 average, which is second in the conference, and her total assists rank her 18th in the country.
 
Jansen and Booth lead MTSU on defense. Jansen has an impressive 4.57 digs per set, and Booth leads the team with 70 blocks.
 
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Amber McCray
 
"We have had a difficult stretch to open conference for sure, but we also know the five teams we have played thus far are currently sitting in the top 5 spots of the CUSA standings. We still believe we can accomplish some important goals we have set for this team this season, and that can start this week at MTSU. We have the talent to win games in this league, but we are needing to execute complete matches and performances to finish these close sets we have been losing by 2-3 points and thus put us in position to win games. MTSU has always been a difficult place to play by the atmosphere they create in their gym, so it's going to be important for us to block out the noise and focus in on "what's important now" in each moment. Good things happen for us when we serve and pass well, so that will be our first key to executing all other facets of the game this week."
 
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