University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagles Hit the Road Again
9/6/2018 4:49:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Hattiesburg, Miss. – The Southern Miss volleyball team, for the second consecutive weekend, will hit the road for the Home2Suites Tallahassee Seminole Volleyball Invitational. In Tallahassee, the Golden Eagles will battle Florida A&M, Florida State and VCU.
Sarah Bell, who is chasing the all-time assists record, leads the charge for Southern Miss with 323 assists on the season. Kylie Grandy, who recently joined the 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs club, paces the Golden Eagles offensively with 121 kills. On the defensive side, Alexis Coombs has 35 blocks on the season.
Stephanie Radecki's club is coming off a weekend in which they went five sets in all four matches. Against Ohio State, the two teams traded sets until the Buckeyes took the fifth set. On Saturday, Southern Miss won twice against Little Rock and Samford. To close out the Rebel Invitational, the Golden Eagles nearly completed a comeback against Ole Miss, but fell in five.
Tournament Schedule
Friday, 6 p.m. – Southern Miss vs. Florida A&M
Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – Southern Miss vs. Florida State
Saturday, 4:30 p.m. – Southern Miss vs. VCU
Florida A&M
The Rattlers, still searching for their first win, enter the weekend with eight losses. Maria Yvett Garcia leads Florida A&M with 100 kills and Radka Dimitrova is not far behind at 70. At 6-foot-1, Elena Dimitrova leads the Rattlers with 189 assists and averages 6.10 assists per set.
Southern Miss and Florida A&M last met in 2009, resulting in a 3-2 win for the Golden Eagles. The other two occasions ended in favor of Florida A&M.
Florida State
The Seminoles enter the weekend at 1-4 with a win over TCU. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado State were all ranked when the Seminoles were handed losses, while Cincinnati is now receiving votes after knocking them off. Payton Caffrey, a 6-foot junior, leads Florida State at the net with 82 kills and an average of 4.10 kills per set. Defensively, Taryn Knuth has 26 blocks and four of those are solo blocks.
In the 15 career meetings, the Seminoles have held Southern Miss winless. The two last met in 2000, resulting in a 3-0 sweep for Florida State.
VCU
The Rams, like Florida State and FAMU, head to Tallahassee with a losing record. Vicky Giommarini, a 6-foot junior, who has totaled 76 kills through seven games, leads the two-win Rams. Jasmin Sneed leads the A10 with an average of 1.55 blocks per set and sits in second with a hitting percentage of .352.
The Rams and Golden Eagles have met just four times and each school has a pair of wins. The last meeting came in 1994 with a 3-1 win for VCU.
