The UTEP volleyball team (9-11, 2-5) will play host to Marshall (12-8, 3-4) on Friday, October 25 at 6 p.m. MT at Memorial Gym.
This match is the annual “Pink Out” game for the Miners. Tickets are just $3 if you attend the match wearing pink. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for kids, and may be purchased by calling (915) 747-5234.
The Thundering Herd are coming to the Sun City on a four-match losing streak. Three of those losses have come against top teams in Conference USA (Rice, WKU and North Texas), and the other was against Middle Tennessee. Ciara Debell has been the workhorse on the offensive end with 286 kills this season. Destiny Leon has amassed 100 blocks to lead the Marshall defense.
The Orange and Blue won five matches all of last season. They have already surpassed that mark with nine victories. UTEP has also matched the Conference win total from 2018 (two) only seven games into the C-USA schedule.
During 2018 the Miners were victorious in only one match in Memorial Gym, and in 2019 they have three.
Redshirt freshman Kenidy Howard has made great use of her time on the floor at middle blocker. Ten matches ago Howard began to see major playing time. Since then she is leading the team with 41 total blocks and 1.11 blocks per set.
Sophomore Serena Patterson paces the team in kills with 191. This is a new career high for the outside hitter, who posted 165 last season. She is also up to a .188 hitting percentage, which is .080 points higher than her 2018 mark.
The Miners have posted a .380 hitting % or higher on two different occasions this year. The first was against Montana (.393), and the most recent coming versus LA Tech (.381). Prior to these two matches, the last time this happened for UTEP was on August 26, 2011 against Southern (.412).
Cheyenne Jones and Serena Patterson were nearly unstoppable in the sweep against LA Tech. Jones had 14 kills on a .545 hitting clip, and Patterson posted 13 kills and a .550 hitting percentage. This efficiency helped propel the Miners to a .381 hitting percentage as a team, and their first conference victory of the year.
The match will be live streamed at CUSA.tv and live stats will be available as well.
