MOBILE, Ala. — In one of the most anticipated regular-season Sun Belt matchups this season, the Texas State volleyball program made the nearly 10-hour bus ride on Interstate 10 to Mobile, Ala., to play South Alabama. 

The two programs, which last met in the championship match of last season's Sun Belt Conference Championship in Foley, Ala., will play a two-match series this weekend, beginning on Friday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. Twenty hours later, the Bobcats and Jaguars will alter the Sun Belt's West Division standings with the final match of the weekend, starting at 2 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 22. 

Texas State (15-5, 7-1) and South Alabama (13-7, 7-1) both, currently, sit atop the conference's west division, one match up on Troy (12-8, 6-2). The Jaguars enter Friday evening's match with a 20-match home winning streak, which is the second-longest such streak in the nation, that dates back to the 2020 season. 

Both matches will be available to stream on ESPN+. 

BIG WHEELS KEEP ON TURNIN' 

• The history between the Texas State and South Alabama volleyball programs began on Oct. 20, 2013, when the Bobcats beat the Jaguars in five sets in San Marcos. 
  • Since then, the Bobcats have gone on to win nine more matches en route to earning an 10-4 all-time record against the Jaguars. 
• Texas State is 3-3 in road matches against South Alabama with its last win coming in four sets on Oct. 19, 2018. 
• South Alabama is currently on a two-match winning streak — the first time in series history the Jaguars have ever won back-to-back matches — after taking both matches throughout the 2021 season. 
• Last season, South Alabama snapped Texas State's streak of three consecutive conference tournament championships with a three-set win in the finals of the 2021 Sun Belt Championship in Foley, Ala. 
• Mobile, Ala., is the site of Texas State's last regular-season road conference loss when the Bobcats dropped a three-set match to South Alabama on Sept. 25, 2021. 

CARRY ME HOME TO SEE MY KIN

• While no Texas State student-athletes are from the Yellowhammer State, volunteer assistant coach Will Boyd, a Birmingham, Ala., native who graduated from Thompson High School, earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Ala., 36 miles south of Birmingham. 
• While Boyd was earning his undergraduate degree, he was a volunteer assistant at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 2015 to 2016. The following year, Boyd served in the same role on the Samford University coaching staff that led the Bulldogs to the Southland Conference championship and a NCAA Division I Tournament appearance. 

SINGIN' SONGS ABOUT THE SOUTH-LAND

• Two weeks ago, on Saturday, Oct. 8, Emily DeWalt made Texas State volleyball history when she became the program's career assist leader during a three-set win at Louisiana. The Bobcats' fifth-year setter will be eyeing down another record this week as the graduate student needs just 78 more assists to become the Sun Belt Conference's all-time leader in career assists. 

Sun Belt Conference Career Assist Leaderboard

1. Leslie Clark (MT, 2006-09) – 5,692
2. Emily DeWalt (TXST, 2018-P) – 5,615

I MISS ALABAMY ONCE AGAIN AND I THINK IT'S A SIN, YES

• When she appears in Friday evening's match, Janell Fitzgerald will tie Brooke Johnson (2017-21) for second on the Sun Belt Conference's career matches play list with 153. Fitzgerald (152) currently sits six matches shy of tying Tyeranee Scott (2017-21) for the top spot. 
  • By playing in both matches this weekend, Emily DeWalt (151) will tie Johnson's mark. 
• Texas State currently holds the top four spots on the conference's career matches played list between Scott, Johnson, Fitzgerald and DeWalt. 
  •  Other than Texas State, no other volleyball program in league history has had a student-athlete appear in 139-or-more career matches. 

WELL, I HEARD MISTER YOUNG SING ABOUT HER

• Since taking over at the helm of the Texas State volleyball program, third-year head coach Sean Huiet is 20-1 in regular-season road conference matches. 
• The Bobcats have won their last 11 consecutive regular-season road conference matches. 

WELL, I HEARD OL' NEIL PUT HER DOWN

• Texas State setter Emily DeWalt is on pace to do something in the Sun Belt that hasn't been done since the 2019 season: finish the season with an assist per set average higher than 11.00.
  • DeWalt enters this weekend's action with an 11.34 assist per set average, which is the top mark in the Sun Belt and the seventh-highest average in Division I volleyball. 
    • In 71 sets played so far this season, DeWalt has been credited for 805 total assists. 
  • Troy's Amara Anderson last accomplished the feat when she finished with 1,348 assists in 120 sets played for an 11.23 assist per set average throughout the 2019 season. 

WELL, I HOPE NEIL YOUNG WILL REMEMBER

• Lauren Teske enters Friday night's match having recorded a double-double in three consecutive matches. 
  • 18 kills, 11 digs at Louisiana (10/8), 14 kills, 13 digs versus Southern Miss (10/14) and 15 kills, 16 digs versus Southern Miss (10/15)
  • Teske's three-match double-double streak is the longest by a Bobcat student-athlete since Emily DeWalt had three straight to begin Sun Belt action. 
    • 42 assists, 11 digs at ULM (9/17), 47 assists, 15 digs at ULM (9/18) and 60 assists, 14 digs against JMU (9/30)

A SOUTHERN MAN DON'T NEED HIM AROUND ANYHOW

• This season, Texas State is 3-2 in matches following Emily DeWalt not being named Sun Belt Setter of the Week. 
  • Of those five matches, two came against a conference opponent: James Madison, which the Bobcats split with. 

SWEET HOME ALABAMA

• On Oct. 20, 1977, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, Dean Kilpatrick, Walter McCreary and John Gray were killed in a plane accident outside Gillsburg, Mississppi as Lynyrd Skynyrd were en route to Baton Rouge to a performance at LSU following one in Greenville, S.C. 
• None of the three writers — Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Ed King — of the song, "Sweet Home Alabama" were from Alabama. 
• "Sweet Home Alabama" was released on June 24, 1974. Texas State volleyball's sports information director Chris Allen Brown was born a day after the 19-year anniversary of the song's release, June 25, 1993. 

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