MATCH 8: Texas State at Rice
Time / Date	6 p.m. / Tuesday, September 4
Location	Houston, Texas
Arena	Tudor Fieldhouse
Live Stats	Statbroadcast | SIDEARM
TV	beIN Connect
Audio	None
Match Notes	Texas State
Series History	Rice leads 17-16-1

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team hits the road for an early-week matchup with Rice at 6 p.m. Sept. 4 inside Tudor Fieldhouse.

This will be the first time the Bobcats (4-3) have met the Owls (5-1) in Houston this century. The last meeting was a 3-1 TXST triumph on Sept. 1, 1999. The maroon and gold is fresh off sweeping the 2018 Creeds & Crests Classic in San Marcos.

Rice is receiving votes in the latest iteration of the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll. The contest is set to be broadcast live on beIN Sports. This will be the first appearance on the channel in Texas State's history. Matt Pedersen will be on the call for the match.

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 69 years (39/17/13), a mark which is by far the highest in the nation for any coaching staff. The next closest is Bryant at just 52 years, while St. John's and Northern Iowa are tied for third at 49 combined seasons.

A LOOK AT TEXAS STATE
•    Texas State owns a 4-3 record this season after posting a 25-10 mark a year ago.
•    The Bobcats began the year with three losses in Waco, Texas, to teams receiving national recognition (No. 26 Marquette, No. 12 Baylor, (RV) LSU) before sweeping a quartet of home matches this past weekend against rival UTSA, James Madison, Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian.
•    The Dukes are currently ranked No. 13 in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll.
•    Statistically, TXST leads the Sun Belt Conference in assists (12.92) and ranks third in both kills (13.29) and digs (16.25). The Bobcats led the league in opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills and digs last year.
•    Senior Madison Daigle leads the Sun Belt in blocks (1.47), while freshman Emily DeWalt ranks fourth in assists (9.00) and junior Micah Dinwiddie is sixth in digs (3.78).
•    In her 39 years leading the Bobcats, Karen Chisum has 30 winning seasons and 24 campaigns with at least 20 victories.

A LOOK AT RICE
•    Rice sits at 5-1 overall this season after sweeping through a trio of home bouts this past week.
•    The Owls began the year with wins over North Dakota and Northwestern State before suffering a five-set loss at Texas Tech.
•    They then cruised past South Carolina, Liberty and Houston Baptist to claim top honors at the Rice adidas Invitational I.
•    Nicole Lennon was named tournament MVP. Grace Morgan and Tori Woogk joined Lennon on the all-tournament team.
•    Morgan was an all-region selection a year ago. Both Morgan and Lennon were named to the Preseason All-Conference USA Team.
•    Rice was selected second in the preseason coaches' poll. The Owls recorded a 21-10 record last year, which included a season-ending loss to Texas State in the opening round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. That was the first meeting between the two programs since 2001.
•    Rice leads the all-time series 17-16-1, but TXST has captured four of the last five matchups.

BOBCATS SWEEP CREEDS & CRESTS
•    Texas State posted a 4-0 mark in the 2018 Creeds & Crests Classic Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
•    The annual tournament hosted by the Bobcats was won by the maroon and gold for the first time since 2015.
•    Freshman Emily DeWalt earned MVP honors after registering double-doubles in all four contests. She was joined on the all-tournament team by senior Madison Daigle and freshman Janell Fitzgerald.
•    Texas State opened the tournament with a 3-1 victory over rival UTSA. The match was the first for TXST inside newly-renovated Strahan Arena and featured the ninth-largest crowd in school history (1,638).
•    The Bobcats then knocked off James Madison (3-1) before taking down both Incarnate Word (3-0) and Abilene Christian (3-1).

THE 2018 SCHEDULE
•    The Bobcats will compete 30 times overall this season, with 12 of those matches coming at home. They will also have 14 road matches and four tilts that will be contested on neutral-site courts.
•    Highlighting the slate are eight programs that competed in the postseason last year, including two teams that advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2017 NCAA Championship (Texas, Kentucky).
•    Four other opponents also competed in the NCAA tournament (Baylor, LSU, Marquette, Coastal Carolina), while two more played in the 2017 National Invitational Volleyball Championship (Rice, Arkansas State).

TEXAS STATE RECORDS FIRST POSTSEASON WIN IN SCHOOL HISTORY
•    Texas State ended the 2017 season with a 3-0 victory over Rice in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
•    The victory over the Owls was the first postseason triumph in school history.
•    Former Bobcat Jaliyah Bolden powered TXST with 19 kills and just two errors on 31 swings (.548 percentage). Junior Megan Porter posted a double-double with 17 digs and 12 kills, while former setter Erin Hoppe distributed 46 assists and junior Mattie Adams tallied 13 digs.
•    Fellow junior Micah Dinwiddie finished with 30 digs, which was the highest mark by a Sun Belt player in a three-set match since Nov. 22, 2014 (Arkansas State's Markie Schaedig).
•    No Owl had double-figure kills. The Bobcats led the night in kills (51-34), attack percentage (.226-.127), assists (50-32), digs (84-69), and blocks (6-4). The Owls led in aces, 5-4.

-- TXSTATEBOBCATS.COM --