Volleyball | 11/16/2017 8:00:00 AM

MATCH 32: Louisiana vs. Texas State
	Championship Bracket
	SBC Championship Central
Date	Saturday, Nov. 18
Time	5 p.m.
Location	Jonesboro, Ark.
Arena	Convocation Center
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Video	WatchESPN
Radio	None
Match Notes	Texas State
Series History	TXST leads 14-1

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team is set to compete at the 2017 Sun Belt Conference Championship, which will emanate Nov. 16-19 from inside Convocation Center in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

The Bobcats (23-8, 14-2 SBC) are the No. 2 seed at the event and have earned a double bye into the semifinals. They will open play at 5 p.m. Nov. 18.

In the meantime, they will wait in the wings for the first two rounds to be completed before learning who their opponent will be. TXST will face either No. 3 Louisiana (20-10, 13-3 SBC), No. 6 UTA (13-16, 7-9 SBC) or No. 7 Appalachian State (11-19, 6-10 SBC).

Texas State is riding a five-match win streak. The team has also won 14 of its last 15 matches.

 

MATCH 33: Texas State vs. Coastal Carolina
Date	Sunday, Nov. 19
Time	2 p.m.
Location	Jonesboro, Ark.
Arena	Convocation Center
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Video	WatchESPN
Radio	None
Match Notes	Texas State
Series History	Series tied 1-1

AMERICA'S LONGEST-TENURED STAFF
•    The Texas State full-time coaching staff consists of head coach Karen Chisum, associate head coach Tracy Smith and assistant coach Sean Huiet.
•    The trio has been at Texas State for a combined 66 years (38/16/12), a mark which is by far the highest in the nation for any coaching staff. The next closest is Texas A&M at just 52 years, while Penn State ranks third at 47 years.
•    Not counting Little Rock's 45 years, the other 10 Sun Belt Conference schools have only amassed 82 combined years of tenure. Of the bunch, Appalachian State leads at 18 years, while Louisiana ranks second at 12.

A LOOK AT TEXAS STATE
•    The Bobcats lead the Sun Belt Conference in RPI (70), most wins overall (23), most home wins (12), most road wins (9) and highest win percentage (.742).
•    Statistically, TXST leads the league in opponent hitting percentage (.156), assists (13.16), kills (13.91), and digs (17.12).
•    Other than digs in 2013, Texas State has never finished a campaign leading the Sun Belt in a statistical category.
•    The Bobcats own nine non-conference victories this year, which is the most since 2013.
•    TXST will finish the season with a winning record and has reached the 20-win plateau for the fourth time in five years since joining the Sun Belt.
•    In her 38 years leading the Bobcats, Karen Chisum now has 30 winning seasons and 24 campaigns with at least 20 victories.

2017 SBC VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (Convocation Center)

Thursday, November 16 (First Round)
Match 1: #7 Appalachian State vs. #6 UTA	5 pm
Match 2: #8 Troy vs. #5 South Alabama	7:30 pm
Friday, November 17 (Quarterfinals)
Match 3: Match 1 winner vs. #3 Louisiana	5 pm
Match 4: Match 2 winner vs. #4 Arkansas State	7:30 pm
Saturday, November 18 (Semifinals)
Match 5: Match 3 winner vs. #2 Texas State	5 pm
Match 6: Match 4 winner vs. #1 Coastal Carolina	7:30 pm
Sunday, November 19 (Championship)
Match 7: Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner	2 pm

 
A LOOK AT LOUISIANA
•    The Ragin' Cajuns own a 20-10 record and finished Sun Belt play at 13-3 to land in second place in the SBC West Division.
•    They have posted a 15-3 mark since mid-September, which includes home triumphs over Arkansas State and Texas State.
•    Louisiana has one of the league's top defensive units, ranking second in both digs (16.88) and blocks (2.46), and fifth in opponent hitting percentage (.188).
•    UL is home to the SBC Freshman of the Year in Hali Wisnoskie and other all-conference performers in Dree'Ana Abram, Jessica Bartczyszyn and Sydney Davis.
•    Texas State is 14-1 all-time against Louisiana. The Ragin' Cajuns picked up their first win in the series on Oct. 28 in Lafayette.

A LOOK AT UTA
•    The Mavericks ended the regular season at 13-16 overall and 7-9 in the league. They finished in fourth place in the SBC West Division and sixth overall.
•    They have won five of their last nine outings, having knocked off Georgia Southern, Georgia State, ULM (twice) and Little Rock.
•    The Mavericks are led by All-SBC First Teamer Qiana Cañete and All-SBC Second Team member Zhanelle Geathers.
•    UTA leads the all-time series 41-37, but Texas State has won 25 of the last 32 meetings. The Bobcats have also captured 16 of the last 18 contests, including each of the last six.

A LOOK AT APPALACHIAN STATE
•    Appalachian State will enter the conference tournament with an 11-19 record after finishing the season at 6-10 in the league.
•    The Mountaineers streak into the postseason having won four of their last seven outings to ascend to third in the SBC East Division and seventh overall.
•    They are led by Melissa McMath, who was named to the All-SBC Second Team.
•    Texas State leads the all-time series by a narrow 4-3 margin. The Mountaineers had a stretch of three-consecutive 3-0 victories that was halted in five sets last season in San Marcos.

THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
•    The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Volleyball Championship will emanate inside Convocation Center Nov. 16-19 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
•    The top four teams from each division (8 total) have qualified for postseason play. The east and west division champions earned the top two seeds and received byes through to the semifinals on Nov. 18.
•    The next two best records (regardless of division) have earned the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds and will receive byes into the quarterfinals on Nov. 17.
•    The final four teams have been seeded regardless of division and will compete in the first round on Nov. 16.
•    The championship match will be held at 2 p.m. Nov. 19.
•    Texas State has reached the semifinals all four years since joining the SBC, which includes a tournament title in 2013.
•    All matches will be streamed live on WatchESPN.

LAST TIME OUT
•    Texas State swept ULM 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-15) on Senior Day Nov. 12 inside Strahan Coliseum.
•    Tyeranee Scott had a match-high 12 kills on a .429 attack percentage. Madison Daigle and Amy Pflughaupt both added 10 kills, while Megan Porter recorded 13 digs. The defensive duo of Micah Dinwiddie (23) and Mattie Adams (18) also finished with double-digit digs.
•    TXST honored seniors Jaliyah Bolden and Erin Hoppe prior to the match. Bolden went on to 11 kills on a .269 hitting percentage, and Hoppe posted a match-high 44 assists. She now has 2,859 career assists, which moves her into fifth place on the school's all-time charts. She's also No. 2 in school history during the rally-scoring era (since 2001).  
•    No Warhawk reached double figures in kills. They were led with seven each by Jennifer McClendon and Catherine Griffith. Kacey LeBlanc added 15 digs, and Presleigh Williams distributed 12 assists.
•    The Bobcats finished with match highs in kills (51-31), attack percentage (.306-.115), assists (50-26), aces (4-0), and digs (76-45). The Warhawks led in blocks (5-3).

BOBCATS DOMINATE ALL-SBC AWARDS
•    TXST led the conference with four first-team selections, six overall selections and three specialty award winners, the league announced Nov. 15. The number of first-team honorees and specialty award winners both set new school records, while the collective number of laurels tied the school record set back in 2000.
•    Senior Erin Hoppe, junior Madison Daigle, and sophomores Micah Dinwiddie and Amy Pflughaupt were all named to the 2017 All-Sun Belt First Team. Senior Jaliyah Bolden and sophomore Megan Porter were both selected to the 2017 All-Sun Belt Second Team.
•    Hoppe was honored as the 2017 Sun Belt Setter of the Year, Dinwiddie captured the 2017 Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year accolade, and Pflughaupt earned the distinction of 2017 Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year. The trio of Bobcats joined Jordan Kohl (2014 Freshman of the Year) as the four specialty award winners for TXST since the maroon and gold joined the Sun Belt Conference.
•    The Bobcats led the league in five of seven statistical categories during league play this year, including hitting percentage (.261), opponent hitting percentage (.144), assists (14.10), kills (14.85), and digs (17.90). The maroon and gold also finished second in the league in aces (1.27) and seventh in blocks (2.10).

NEW POSTSEASON OPPORTUNITY
•    The end of the 2017 season is set to feature the return of a secondary postseason tournament for women's college volleyball teams.
•    The National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) will be an annual tournament involving 64 of the nation's top women's Division I volleyball teams.
•    All matches, including the semifinals and championship, will be hosted by participating schools.
•    The previous iteration of the NIVC was held for seven seasons (1989-95) as a 20-team event, but the remodeled format will look similar to college basketball's WNIT.
•    There will be 32 automatic berths, one to each established conference, and 32 at-large berths.
•    Teams offered an automatic berth will be the highest-finishing team in its conference's regular-season standings who are not selected for the NCAA Championship. The team's overall record is not a criteria.
•    The 64-team field will be announced Nov. 26 after the NCAA Championship field is determined. The first two rounds will run Nov. 28-30 with four teams competing per site. The event will culminate with the championship match on Dec. 12.
•    If the tournament had debuted last season, Texas State would have qualified as a No. 6 seed in its region and would have faced Rice in Houston in the opening round.

BREAKING OUT THE BROOMS
•    The Bobcats had a stretch of nine consecutive 3-0 victories over SBC competition.
•    The maroon and gold swept Troy, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Little Rock, Arkansas State, UTA, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, and ULM.
•    The streak tied the school record for consecutive shutouts in league play, a mark matched only one other time in school history (2000).
•    Five of the shutouts were on the road, which broke the previous school record of four, which was also set in 2000.
•    Texas State earned 13 shutout victories in league play this season, which tied the school record for most sweeps over league opposition in a single campaign (2000).

HOPPE, SCOTT WRAP UP SBC LAURELS
•    Erin Hoppe and Tyeranee Scott were both lauded as Sun Belt Conference players of the week following the final week of regular-season play (Nov. 13).
•    Hoppe earned her second-straight SBC Setter of the Week accolade. Scott was selected for the second time this season as the SBC Freshman of the Week.
•    The duo helped lead Texas State to a perfect 3-0 week that included a come-from-behind road win at UTA and a pair of home sweeps over Louisiana and ULM.
•    Hoppe tallied 47 assists against UTA before registering 48 and 44, respectively, against UL and ULM. Her total against the Louisiana was the most by any SBC setter in a three-set match since 2013.
•    The Sun Belt Preseason Setter of the Year picked up her fourth weekly plaudit, and she was the only player in the conference to win the setter of the week award at least three times in 2017. The laurel was the sixth of her career.
•    Scott tallied a team-best 24 kills at 4.00 kills per set in the weekend bouts. She tied her career high with 12 kills each against both the Ragin' Cajuns and Warhawks. Overall, she totaled 28 kills on a team-high .453 hitting percentage, while adding five digs and three blocks. She ended the regular season as the league leader in attack percentage (.384).
•    TXST finished the campaign with nine weekly award winners, which ranked second in the Sun Belt and was two shy of matching last year's school-record mark of 11 honorees.

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