SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State volleyball team begins a five-match home stand with a 7 p.m. non-conference match against Texas-Permian Basin on Tuesday before hosting West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico in a pair of Lone Star Conference matches this weekend at the Junell Center.

The Belles (16-5, 9-4 LSC) are coming off two four-set road wins last weekend at St. Edward's and Texas A&M-Kingsville and are currently on a four-match winning streak. ASU is 8-1 in home matches this season and 7-1 in non-conference play entering its midweek contest against the Falcons (11-13, 6-8 Heartland Conference). The Belles earned a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16) win over UTPB back on Sept. 16 in Odessa.

ASU hosts rival West Texas A&M (25-3, 12-0 LSC) at 7 p.m. on Friday and ENMU (11-13, 4-8 LSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The Belles are currently tied with Tarleton State (19-5, 9-4 LSC) for third in the LSC standings with WT leading the way and Texas Woman's second with two weeks to play.  The Belles, who have won seven straight matches at home, enter this week averaging 21.00 digs per set as a team and own a 1,596-1,437 dig advantage over their opponents and have a .188 team attacking percentage through 21 matches this season. The team has a .946 reception percentage and is averaging 13.4 assists per set.
 
Belle Roster Report
Brianna Sotello is coming off the best weekend of her collegiate career where she recorded 20 kills and 21 digs in the win over St. Edward's before having 17 kills and 23 digs at Texas A&M-Kingsville. The 20 kills against the Hilltoppers and the 23 digs against the Javelinas are new career-highs for the freshman from San Antonio. Sotello now has 104 kills and 106 digs this season and four double-digit kill matches with a previous high of 15 coming at ENMU earlier this season. She has recorded five straight double-digit dig matches after not having one prior to the stretch of double-digit dig totals against A&M-Commerce (10), Cameron (12), Midwestern State (11), St. Edward's (23) and TAMUK (23).

Mallory Blauser also had a strong weekend for the Belles, providing 29 kills (4.14 per set) last weekend and continues to lead ASU with 291 kills this season. Blauser, a sophomore from Round Rock, has also provided 38 blocks this season and has 15 double-digit kill matches this season. With a .204 season attacking percentage, she is coming off a 21-kill performance against the Javelinas where it was the fourth match with 20-plus kills. Abbie Lynn is only five kills away from 200 in her freshman season after finishing last weekend with 10 kills. Lynn is averaging 2.87 kills per set this season with 10 double-digit kill performances and a season high of 18 coming in matches against Midwestern State and Texas Woman's.

Zoey Hanrahan led the Belles with five blocks in each match last weekend and also provided 17 kills. Hanrahan, a sophomore from Pflugerville, leads ASU with 65 blocks this season and has also contributed 137 kills in her second season. Hanrahan has provided three or more blocks in 14 matches this season with a high of six at Texas Woman's. ASU's all-time digs leader in program history, Shelby Wilt had 41 digs during last weekend's road trip and now has 385 digs in her senior season and 2,247 in her career. She has recorded double-digit dig performances in 20 of the 21 matches this season with the only single-digit match being a nine-dig match at Tarleton State. The defense was also bolstered last weekend by Alexa Johnson's 30 digs and Katie MacLeay's 22 digs. A junior captain from San Antonio, MacLeay is second on the team with 262 digs (3.45 per set) for the Belles this season and is tied with Wilt for the team lead with 19 service aces. She has 1,044 digs through 91 career matches at ASU.

Johnson leads the Belles with 737 assists (11.17 per set) this season and established a new career high with 57 assists in the win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday. Johnson has also supplied 152 digs and 49 kills from the setter position. A sophomore from Nebraska, Johnson is in her first season at ASU after transferring from Lamar University this season.

Arielle Bond comes into this week's play with 99 kills this season and has 572 in her career, while Cerbi Ritchey has 68 kills this season and 291 in her career. Ritchey had nine kills last weekend, while Daeleigh Castile had seven kills during the two road matches and now has 77 kills in her freshman season. Klohe Harrion has added 28 kills this season, while also having 17 blocks in her sophomore season.
 
Texas-Permian Basin Report
UTPB is 5-7 away from Odessa this season and is currently 3-2 against LSC opponents with wins over Midwestern State, Texas A&M-Kingsville and ENMU on its resume. Along with its loss to the Belles, UTPB is 1-1 against ENMU this season. The Falcons are on a two-match winning streak after earning a five-set win over Dallas Baptist and then a four-set win over the Zias last weekend in Odessa.

Last Time Around
ODESSA – Cerbi Ritchey , Daeleigh Castile and Abbie Lynn each put away 12 kills and Alexa Johnson had 48 assists to help lead the Angelo State volleyball team to a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16) non-conference win over Texas-Permian Basin on Tuesday at the Falcon Dome.

The Belles (8-1, 3-0 LSC) extended their winning streak to seven matches with a .307 hitting percentage and eight service aces against their Heartland Conference opponent. ASU also limited its errors to 17 in the four-set match and held UTPB (3-4) to a .270 hitting percentage. Lynn, who was named the Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career earlier on Tuesday, came out strong with seven kills in the first set on nine attacks. Lynn hit .333 against the Falcons and also provided a block from the right-side hitter position. Shelby Wilt led the Belles with 15 digs to take her career total to 2,237 and Johnson added six digs to go along with her 48 assists. Ritchey's 12 kills were a season-high and Mallory Blauser and Zoey Hanrahan each added six kills. Hanrahan and Castile both had two blocks, while Kelly Hasbrouck , Haley Bianco and Katie MacLeay each added eight digs for the Belles who are now 4-0 on the road this season.  

Angelo State bounced back from dropping the second set of the match by limiting UTPB to a .094 attacking percentage in the third set where Castile led the way with four kills and Hanrahan had three. ASU was sure to put the match away with a season-high .545 attacking percentage in the fourth set with Castile finishing the final race to 25 with five kills on six attack and Blauser producing four kills. Ryley Carman led the UTPB attack with 19 kills and a .474 hitting percentage, while Taylor Harmon contributed 17 digs in the Falcon effort. UTPB had a 6-4 block advantage in the match Rachel Dixon producing a match-high five blocks.

ASU has taken three straight wins over UTPB in the all-time series which has now been cut to a 6-4 advantage for the Falcons.