EMU Volleyball With Crucial Road Trip This Weekend

Volleyball at Toledo & Ball State
Date	Friday, Oct. 27 - Saturday, Oct. 28
Location	Toledo, Ohio - Ball State, Ind.
Game Notes	EMU Notes
Live Stats	vs. Toledo \| vs. Ball State
Live Video	vs. Toledo \| vs. Ball State
Twitter	@EMU Volleyball \| @EMUAthletics

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team hits the road for a crucial Mid-American Conference swing through the University of Toledo, Friday, Oct. 27 and Ball State Saturday, Oct. 28. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN3.

EMU (11-15, 3-7 MAC) is currently on the outside looking in at the MAC Tournament picture, with this weekend serving as an opportunity to move up in the standings. Toledo (10-12, 5-5 MAC) is directly ahead of Eastern, while Ball State (14-9, 6-4 MAC) is in second place in the MAC West.

The Eagles snapped a five-match losing streak Friday, Oct. 20 with a 3-1 victory over Akron. The win marked the first 'W' of the month of October for EMU, and snapped its longest losing streak of the season.

Eastern junior Jordan Smith (Solon, Iowa-Solon) has been forced to carry the offensive load for the Eagles since the injury to freshman Franki Strefling (Niles,Mich.-Buchanan), and has responded with four double-doubles of kills and digs in the past five matches. The outside hitter has averaged 14.2 kills and 12.4 digs per match in that span and has led EMU in kills in 15 of 26 matches.

Redshirt junior Mallory Rajewski (Midland, Mich.-Midland) has been a stalwart at setter this season for Eastern Michigan, surpassing the 20-assist plateau 18 times and the 30-assist mark on three occasions. The Midland, Mich. native has 12 double-doubles on the season, which leads the team, and has had double-digit assists and digs in eight of the last 10 matches.

Friday's victory over Akron marked just the fourth time this season that Eastern topped a .250 attack percentage. The Eagles were able to hold the Zips to a meager .124 percentage in the four-set victory.

Saturday's loss to Buffalo marked the Eagles' third-straight loss to the Bulls. Prior to 2015, EMU had compiled a 15-1 record against UB. Buffalo out-blocked Eastern Michigan 8-5, marking just the seventh time this season that the Eagles were out-blocked by their opponent.

Eastern Michigan surpassed its 2016 total for wins with its 3-0 victory over Toledo Sept. 23 and has equaled its MAC total of three from a season ago with the Oct. 20 win over Akron.

Fans can follow the games via live stats through the links found on the volleyball schedule page of EMUEagles.com. Additionally, the action on the court will be live-tweeted from the team's account, @EMUVolleyball.

ALL-TIME AGAINST THE OPPONENTS
Eastern Michigan is 56-14 against Toledo in the all-time series, including a 3-0 sweep of UT in the Convocation Center earlier this season. The Eagles are 29-7 against the Rockets since 1999, have won four of their last five matches in Savage Arena, and seven of the last eight meetings overall.

Eastern looks to avenge a 3-1 loss at home to Ball State on the opening weekend of MAC play earlier this season, and end a three-match losing streak against the Cardinals. EMU is 25-48 all-time against BSU, and last won in Muncie Nov. 13, 2015.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
The 2017 season serves as a special opportunity for setter Mallory Rajewski, as the junior is quickly climbing the Eagle ranks in career assists. In her third season with the Green and White, the Midland, Mich. native moved into the ninth-place spot on the all-time list, passing Lauren Viney (2002-03), in a Sept. 22 loss to Ball State. She's since surpassed 1,800 assist mark and needs 32 more to reach 1,900. The junior currently trails eighth place by 95 assists. After a 2015 campaign in which she tallied the fifth-most assists by a freshman (747), Rajewski totaled 479 assists in 2016 and already has 595 in 2017.

Also making her way up the Eastern Michigan record books this season is junior Jordan Smith, who collected her 700th kill Sept. 29 at Northern Illinois. The Solon, Iowa native has averaged over 233 kills per season in her first two years, and is already at 276 in 2017. She is 183 kills away from joining the Eagles' Top 15.

MAC TOURNAMENT PICTURE
EMU is currently on the outside looking in at the MAC Tournament picture. With a record of 3-7 in conference play, the Eagles are tied with Central Michigan in ninth place. Eastern is two games back of Ohio, Northern Illinois and Toledo with six games to play.

WHERE THEY RANK
The Eagles are in the top half of the MAC in six team categories, including first in blocks per set (2.49), third in opponent hitting percentage (.176) and digs in aces per set (16.51). Several individuals are in the top 10 of conference rankings as well, including Kelly Ferguson (Lemont, Ill.-Lemont) and Samantha Falco (Antioch, Ill.-Antioch Community), who are second and third in blocks per set. Ferguson is second in the conference in attack percentage, libero Alyssa LaFace is sixth in digs per set average, and outside hitter Jordan Smith is 10th in service aces per set.

BLOCK PARTY
Not only are the Eagles' the MAC leaders in blocks per set, the senior middle blocking duo of Samantha Falco and Kelly Ferguson are each in the top three of blocks per set. Ferguson is currently in second place in the conference with an average of 1.14 blocks per set, while Falco sits in third place with a 1.08 average.

As a team, EMU eclipsed its 2016 block total in just 19 matches this season, roaring past its mark of 179.5 blocks with a 17-block performance against Northern Illinois, Sept. 29.

ON THE HORIZON
Eastern Michigan wraps up its regular season home schedule with games Friday, Nov. 3 and Saturday, Nov. 4 against Western Michigan and Northern Illinois. The Eagles take on the Broncos of WMU at 7 p.m. on Friday and celebrate its two seniors, Samantha Falco and Kelly Ferguson, on Saturday against NIU.

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Players Mentioned

Samantha Falco

Kelly Ferguson

Alyssa LaFace

Mallory Rajewski

Jordan Smith

Franki Strefling

Eastern Michigan Athletics