The Malone University volleyball team opens Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play this weekend with a home matchup against Hillsdale College on Friday, September 7th and a road match at Ursuline on Saturday, September 8th. Malone, who went 12-6 in conference a season ago, was picked third in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll.
 
Match Info
9/7 Malone vs. Hillsdale – 7:00 pm
9/8 Malone at Ursuline – 1:00 pm
Both matches will be streamed live via the Great Midwest Digital Network at portal.stretchinternet.com/malone

Malone Notes 

• The Pioneers are coming off of a 2-2 weekend at the Hall of Fame City Challenge, which featured sweeps of Southern Indiana and Daemen, a five-set loss to Seton Hill, and a three-set loss to Notre Dame by a total of seven points. Malone enters its third full season in the G-MAC with a 4-4 mark.
• Pioneer hitters Hannah Eliason and Mallory Adams and libero Maggie Hamrock were all named to the All-Tournament team last week.
• Eliason averaged over three kills and a block per set while hitting a robust .383 over 14 sets. On the season she is averaging 2.43 kills and hitting .294. Eliason leads the G-MAC with 1.14 blocks per set.
• Adams, who collected her 1,000th career kill last Friday leads the team in kills (3.11 k/s) and hitting percentage (.325) and is second in blocks (0.96 b/s). All three figures rank in the top-10 in the G-MAC.
• Hamrock is third in the conference in digs, averaging 5.29 per set. Through eight matches, she has already collected at least 20 digs four times. She totaled 20 or more digs six times all of last season.
• Outside hitter Faith Lau is second on the team in digs (2.93 d/s) and third in kills (2.11 k/s).
• Setter Cathryn Miller leads Malone with 154 assists, averaging 6.70 per set.
• As a team, Malone is third in the G-MAC in digs (18.71 d/s), second in blocks (2.18 b/s), and second in opponents hitting percentage (.143).
• The Pioneers' defensive unit is one of six in NCAA Division II to rank in the top-40 in both digs and blocks per set. Those numbers will be important this weekend against Hillsdale and Ursuline, who both rank among the top-3 in the G-MAC in kills.
• Last season, Malone went to four sets in a home loss to Hillsdale and swept Ursuline twice in straight sets.
   

Hillsdale Notes - Roster | Schedule | Stats

• The Chargers went 28-4 last season on their way to winning the G-MAC Championship before falling to Findlay in the Midwest Regional Quarterfinal.
• This season, Hillsdale is 4-3 and 1-0 in the G-MAC. Two of the three losses were in four sets to nationally-ranked teams, including defending National Champion Concordia St. Paul.
• Right-side hitter Paige VanderWall, the 2017 G-MAC Player of the Year and Second Team All-American, leads a list of five G-MAC First Team returners. Vanderwall currently leads the G-MAC in kills (3.83 k/s) while Kara Vyletel is third (3.33 k/s).
• Setter Lindsey Mertz leads the conference in assists per set (10.96) while libero Taylor Wiese is second in digs (5.64/s). As a team, Hillsdale leads the G-MAC in kills (13.60 k/s), and ranks second in hitting percentage (.256), fourth in blocks (1.92 b/s), and is sixth in digs (16.72 d/s).
• In the four-set win against Malone last season, All-Conference middle Allyssa Van Wienen hit .333 with a match-high 14 kills while Wiese had a match-high 27 digs.
   

Ursuline Notes - Roster | Schedule | Stats

• Through seven matches, the Arrows are 4-3 this season, including a 1-1 mark in the G-MAC. This past Monday and Tuesday, they split a pair of G-MAC matches against Trevecca Nazarene and Kentucky Wesleyan, going five sets in both.
• Last season, the Arrows were just 8-21 overall, 3-15 in conference, and 2-9 on their home court.
• Outside hitter Victoria Henderson, a Second Team G-MAC All-Conference pick in 2017, leads the team and ranks second in the G-MAC in kills (3.76 k/s). Setter Katelyn Selleny, older sister of Malone's Elizabeth Selleny, is second in the conference in assists (10.92 a/s).
• Senior libero Kassidy Stilwell, who missed all of last season, is sixth in the conference in digs (4.92). She was second in the G-MAC in 2016.
• As a team, Ursuline leads the G-MAC and is top-20 in DII in digs per set (19.00).