LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University volleyball program will open up the homecoming athletic events inside E. E. Simmons Gymnasium at 6 p.m. Thursday when it faces heated rival Jackson State in a critical SWAC East matchup.
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The Lady Braves (3-14, 1-6 SWAC) have three players that find themselves on the SWAC leaderboards. Juniors
Jasmine Chambers and
Fiapaipai Iosia are third in assists per set (6.11) and digs per set (3.73) respectively, while sophomore
Sydney Joseph sneaks into the top-10 of the kills per set rankings at 2.18.
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Joseph leads the purple and gold with 120 kills while playing in all 17 matches so far and Chambers has been the top server for the majority of the season with 14 aces.
Sophomore
Simone Barren has kept the top spot as Alcorn's leading blocker with 34 and redshirt senior
Singryd Valadares paces all Lady Braves with at least 100 attack attempts in hitting percentage (.184).
"We're really excited we are able to host during homecoming week," said head coach
Melissa Robinson. "We look forward to our students, faculty and staff, alumni coming out to support."
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Scouting the Jackson State Lady Tigers (8-13, 4-1 SWAC)
JSU has seen all of its wins except one (West Alabama) come against fellow HBCUs with victories over Delaware State, South Carolina State and Florida A&M to go along with its four conference triumphs.
As a team, the Lady Tigers have been top-three or better in the SWAC for multiple categories including assists per set (10.18), digs per set (13.85), kills per set (11.18), total assists (743), total digs (1,011), total kills (816) and total blocks (123.0). To go along with its elite play in those categories, Jackson State is allowing a league-low .187 hitting percentage to its opponents.
Preseason First Team All-SWAC Middle Blocker Marina Bianchi Brito has been excellent in rejecting opponents attacks as she has 53 blocks on the season for an average of 0.83 per set, the fifth-best mark in the conference.
Freshman phenom Jylen Whitten has been nothing short of spectacular for the blue and gray, ranking inside the top-60 nationally for points (262.0), attacks (689) and kills (235) as well as top-two in the SWAC for all three areas. Whitten tops the league leaders in terms of kills per set (3.13) and points per set (3.51).
Fellow freshman Alana Washington has been a quality defender for the Lady Tigers, leading the conference by a wide margin with 4.50 digs per set and a top-30 NCAA ranking for total digs (315).
Through 64 all-time contests, the series is all squared at 32 apiece between the Lady Braves and Lady Tigers. The two teams split last season's meetings with each side winning on its home floor.
#FearTheBrave
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