Preview | No. 18 Volleyball Closes Homestand against Louisiana

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Match 3 | No. 18 Rice Owls vs. Louisiana | Tuesday, Aug. 29, 6 p.m.
Location: Houston, Texas (Tudor Fieldhouse)
Video Stream: ESPN+
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Tickets: RiceOwls.com
Series: Rice leads, 9-1 Last Meeting: Rice won, 3-0 (9/8/17)

SETTING THE SCENE
The No. 18 Owls close out its season-opening homestand against Louisiana on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

RICE NOTES

Rice enters the week ranked 18th in the AVCA/Taraflex Top 25 Poll. It is its highest ranking since Nov. 4, 2019, when it was ranked 17th.
Following a weekend that saw the Owls go 2-0, senior libero Nia McCardell was named the American Athletic Conference's Defensive Player of the Week. She began the week against Southern Miss, recording a team-high 16 digs while adding seven assists and a match-high three aces. One day later, she had a match-high 18 digs while adding four assists in a sweep of No. 22 USC. For the week, she recorded 34 digs, 11 assists and three aces, averaging 4.86 digs per set and 1.57 assists per set.
Graduate student Emilia Weske was also named to the AAC Honor Roll. She averaged 4.00 kills per set, 0.57 aces per set and 4.71 points per set. She opened the week by recording a team-high 17 kills and a match-high 19.0 points while hitting .342 against Southern Miss. She added an assist and an ace while contributing 12 digs and two blocks. A day later, she had 11 kills and a match-best three aces while recording 14.0 points against USC. For the week, she had 28 kills, four aces, hit .267 and 33 digs.
The Owls were picked to finish second in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference Preseason Poll behind SMU, receiving six first place votes.
Graduate student Emilia Weske (right side) and seniors Danyle Courtley (outside hitter), Nia McCardell (libero) and Sahara Maruska (outside hitter) were all named to the American Preseason Team.
Dating back to 2014 the Owls are 105-21 (.833) in conference play, which includes a 62-4 (.939) record the last five seasons. Rice is 39-1 in conference regular season contests dating back to the 2019 season.
The Owls are 14-11 against Power 5 schools dating back to 2019 and have recorded five Top-25 victories during that stretch.
Rice has appeared in the NCAA Tournament in five consecutive seasons. Last season the Owls defeated Colorado in the opening round of the tournament to advance to the Round of 32 for the third time in the last four seasons.
The Owls are one of only three programs in the state of Texas to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in each of the last five seasons, joining Texas and Baylor. Additionally, Rice is one of just 18 programs across Division I to reach the NCAA Tournament in each of the last five seasons.
Rice returned nine letterwinners and four starters from last season's NCAA Tournament team.
Head Coach Genny Volpe is in her 20th season with the Owls and is the school's all-time leader in total wins (378) and winning percentage (.655).
The Owls will be looking to fill the shoes of a pair of All-Americans. Outside hitter Anota Adekunle, finished her career as Rice's all-time leader in hitting percentage (.408) and setter Carly Graham was a three-time Conference USA Setter of the Year.

-RiceOwls.com-

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