COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech women's volleyball team head to Lake Charles, La. for it's third tournament of the season as they look to take on Alcorn State, host McNeese State, Louisiana Monroe, and Prairie View A&M.
On Friday, the Golden Eagles will face Alcorn State at 12:15 a.m. CT and McNeese State at 7 p.m. They open Saturday with a 10 a.m. match versus Louisiana Monroe, and will close out the weekend with a 2:30 p.m. match against Prairie View A&M.
"Last week, I mentioned wanting to find our identity," head coach Dave Zelenock said. "I think we are still figuring it out. We are slowly getting players back from long term or short-term injuries and add we keep adding pieces the puzzle starts to look a little clearer. Last weekend we had better defensive and offensive numbers and we expect that trend to continue this weekend."
Know your Golden Eagles (1-6) – Tennessee Tech went 1-3 at the East Carolina Invitational. The Golden Eagles defeated Norfolk State for its first win of the year and fell to East Carolina, Morgan State and UNC Wilmington. Junior Cody Dodd recorded 57 kills and 13 blocks to be named to the all-tournament team. She recorded her first career double-double with 18 kills and 11 digs against Norfolk State. Freshman Jordan Wachowiak recorded 19 blocks and 19 kills over the weekend. Sophomore Sharon Anderson dished out 133 assists over the four matches to go with 30 digs. Tennessee Tech will participate in the McNeese State Invitational where it will face Alcorn State and host McNeese State on Friday and ULM and Prairie View A&M on Saturday.
"I expect that we will see a variety of styles and abilities," Zelenock said of this weekend competition. "Some have a really structured system and play pretty straight-forward, some are a little harder to predict with what they will do. As with most of our opponents, we feel like we have the physical ability and skill to control the match if we play a good mental game, which is where we have struggled the last two weeks. Managing our unforced errors and avoiding those point runs of three-plus are going to be key to getting the results we are looking for. All of these teams are hungry to win so we know that there will be an intensity that each team brings, we need to match and surpass that."
Scouting the Lady Braves (2-3) – Alcorn State is proving to be a defensive team early this season as they are holding their opponents to just a .147 while tallying 12.2 digs and 1.2 blocks a set as a team. Erica Caddell is leading the team in points as she has tallied 40.5 points over the first few weeks.
Scouting the Cowgirls (5-3) – McNeese State is riding a two-game winning-steak heading into their home tournament, most recently claiming wins over Jackson State and Texas Southern. The Cowgirls are led by Malina Sanchez, who is averaging 4.08 points per set, which includes an impressive 27 services aces. The Cowgirls are averaging 11.91 kills per set, while hitting a clip of .193.
Scouting the Warhawks (2-5) – Louisiana Monroe is coming off a weekend where they went 2-2, earning their first two wins of the season. Hope Pawlik is leading the Warhawks with 3.19 kills per set on an impressive .249 hitting percentage. However, the Warhawks opponents are hitting an average of .224 and they will need to find a way to stop the offenses around them this weekend.
Scouting the Panthers (2-7) – Prairie View A&M comes into the weekend with a 2-7 record following the TCU Nike/Molten Invitational where they played two volleyball powerhouses in host Texas Christian and the University of Miami. The Panthers are averaging 11.2 kills per set, but are being blocked by their opponents an average time of 2.7 times per set. Candace Alexander paces the Panthers with 3.46 points per set.
