EMU Volleyball Hosts WMU and NIU For Senior Weekend

Volleyball vs. Western Michigan & Northern Illinois
Date	Friday, Nov. 3- Saturday, Nov. 4
Location	Ypsilanti, Mich
Game Notes	EMU Notes
Live Stats	vs. Western Michigan \| vs. Northern Illinois
Live Video	vs. Western Michigan \| vs. Northern Illinois
Twitter	@EMU Volleyball \| @EMUAthletics

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) -- The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team returns to Ypsilanti for its final home swing of the season, welcoming Mid-American Conference foes Western Michigan University and Northern Illinois University to the Convocation Center Friday, Nov. 3 and Saturday, Nov. 4.
   EMU (11-17, 3-9 MAC) has the chance to play spoiler on Senior Weekend, as both Western Michigan (14-9, 7-5 MAC) and Northern Illinois (7-20, 6-6 MAC) battle for playoff position over the final two weekends of regular season play.

SENIOR SENDOFF
Eastern Michigan University celebrates the careers of the middle blocking duo of Samantha Falco (Antioch, Ill.-Antioch Community) and Kelly Ferguson (Lemont, Ill.-Lemont) this weekend. The two have teamed up to make the Eagles' front line defense one of the best in the Mid-American Conference, as EMU is second in blocks per set.

Falco wraps up a four-year career with the Green and White, registering over 300 kills and surpassing the 200 mark for total blocks. She's averaged 1.40 kills per set and 0.99 blocks per set over the last two seasons for EMU. The Antioch, Ill. native currently leads the MAC in total blocks.

Ferguson spent the last two seasons with Eastern Michigan after transferring in as a junior. The Lemont, Ill. native has 430 career kills, averaging 2.00 per set, and has a career attack percentage of .314. She's currently second in the MAC in attack percentage (.360), and is fourth in blocks per set (1.08).


CARRYING THE LOAD
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 by averaging 11.7 kills and 9.8 digs over the last six matches. The Solon, Iowa native leads EMU in kills (295), points (352), and aces (32), while adding 274 digs and 46 total blocks.
Redshirt sophomore Cassie Haut (Monroe, Mich.-St. Mary Catholic Central) upped her production over the last six matches as well, averaging nine kills per match and never having fewer than seven kills in a contest. The Monroe, Mich. native has also averaged over five digs per match in that time frame, registering her first career double-double with a 10-kill, 13-dig performance at Ball State, Oct. 28.
   In addition to Smith and Haut, freshman April Houston (Minneapolis, Minn.-Southwest) has also stepped up in the absence of Strefling, responding to the additional playing time with career-highs in kills and/or blocks in three of the last four matches. The Minneapolis, Minn. native set a new career-high in kills with 10 at Ball State Oct. 28, and had a personal-best seven blocks against Akron Oct. 20.
   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 holds a 23-33 all-time record against Northern Illinois, snapping a four-match losing streak earlier this season with a 3-2 win on Sept. 29. EMU has a record of 8-9 against NIU in the Convocation Center, but its been since Sept. 22, 2012 that the Green and White have won at home against Huskies.

Eastern hasn't had much success against Western Michigan in its history, compiling a 22-64 record all-time. The Eagles fell in four sets earlier this year in Kalamazoo, and have now lost 14 of their last 16 against the Broncos. EMU did, however, defeat WMU in the Convocation Center a season ago, 3-1.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
Redshirt junior Mallory Rajewski continues to topple milestones in her third season with the Green and White, passing the 1,900 assist plateau against Ball State Oct. 28 and inching closer to the EMU top eight in all-time assists. She now trails Jill Briner by just 44 assists. The Midland, Mich. native has 646 assists on the season and is averaging 6.21 assists per set. To add to her distribution prowess, Rajewski is also averaging 2.78 digs per set and has a team-high 14 double-doubles on the season. 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 800th kill Oct. 28 at Ball State. The Solon, Iowa native has averaged over 233 kills per season in her first two years, and is already at 295 in 2017. She is 164 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 3-9 in conference play, the Eagles are tied with Kent State in 10th place. Eastern needs to win all four of its remaining matches and hope for some help from others for a chance at the MAC Tournament.

WHERE THEY RANK
The Eagles are in the top half of the MAC in four team categories, including first in blocks per set (2.47), third in opponent hitting percentage (.180), fifth in digs per set (16.5) and sixth in kills per set (12.58). Several individuals are in the top 10 of conference rankings as well, including Samantha Falco and Kelly Ferguson, who are second and fourth in blocks per set, respectively. Ferguson is second in the conference in attack percentage, libero Alyssa LaFace (Allen Park, Mich.-Allen Park) is seventh in digs per set average, and outside hitter Jordan Smith is ninth in service aces per set.

ON THE HORIZON
Eastern Michigan wraps up the 2017 regular season with two road matches next week, first traveling to Central Michigan Thursday, Nov. 9 for a 7 p.m. match, and finishing the season with MAC East opponent Kent State Saturday, Nov. 11 at 5 p.m.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Samantha Falco

Kelly Ferguson

Cassie Haut

Alyssa LaFace

Mallory Rajewski

Jordan Smith

Eastern Michigan Athletics