Sept. 3, 2014
After going 2-1 at the San Francisco Invite to start the season, the Mustangs host the SMU Doubletree Invitational in Moody Coliseum Friday and Saturday. SMU will face Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. Friday, and take on Texas Southern Saturday at 12:30 p.m. before wrapping up the first home weekend against Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Saturday night.
Caroline Young earned all-tournament honors after leading the Mustangs with 33 kills. Avery Acker was also honored, finishing with double-doubles in the first two matches. She recorded 110 assists in 10 sets, and also had 27 digs. Morgan Heise tallied 38 digs, nearly reaching her career high with 22 against Georgia. SMU hit .224 with 125 kills, while opponents hit just .133 with 101 kills.
Georgia Tech enters the tournament 2-1 with 3-0 wins over Jacksonville and Gardner-Webb before a 3-1 loss at South Carolina. Teegan Van Gunst led the team with 33 kills. Ashtaan Horton hit .415 with 27 kills and had 15 blocks. The Yellow Jackets combined for 31 blocks in 10 set, and Annika Olsen had 40 of the team's 143 digs. Opponents hit just .161, while Georgia Tech hit .295.
Texas Southern is 1-2 after hosting a tournament to start the season, beating Prairie View A&M after losses to New Orleans and Grand Canyon.
Oklahoma is 2-1 with wins against Idaho and Georgia Southern before a 3-2 loss at No. 10 Florida. Madison Ward led the Sooners with 51 kills. Taylor Migliazzo had 50 digs during the 12 sets, and Julia Doyle recorded 131 assists. As a team, Oklahoma hit .263 with 159 kills, but the Sooners were out-blocked 25-17.
SMU is just 2-4 all-time against the field, and will be facing Texas Southern for the first time in program history. The Mustangs are 1-2 against Georgia Tech, last playing against the Yellowjackets on Aug. 25, 2012 when SMU lost 3-2 in Atlanta. The Mustangs lost 3-0 in 1997, and won 3-2 in 2008. Against the Sooners, SMU won the first meeting 3-0 in 2001 before a pair of 3-0 losses in 2011 and 2012. All three matches were played in Norman, Okla.
TEAM CAPTAINS
Senior Caroline Young and junior Avery Acker were selected as captains by the vote of their teammates. The duo also served as captains last season, along with Maddie Lozano, who graduated in May. Under their leadership, the Mustangs went 22-9 and finished second in the American Athletic Conference with a 14-4 record during the league's inaugural season. Acker earned AVCA All-America Honorable Mention in her first season as the full-time starter at setter, and Young earned All-America honors after the 2012 season.
SETTER OF THE YEAR
Avery Acker was named 2013 Setter of the Year in the American Athletic Conference, assisting on 1,199 of SMU's 1,526 kills. She averaged a league-best 11.56 assists per set against conference opponents, and averaged 11.21 overall. She recorded a career-high 57 assists in a four-set win against Davidson, and eclipsed 40 assists 13 times, including five matches with at least 50 assists. She set three hitters and a middle blocker who earned all-conference accolades.
RETURNING AWARD WINNERS
Setter of the Year Avery Acker was joined on the All-American Athletic Conference First Team by Caroline Young and middle blocker Janelle Giordano. Outside hitters Cailin Bula and Abbey Bybel were named to the second team. Young finished second in the conference, averaging 3.51 kills per set against league opponents. Bula and Bybel were also in the top 15, averaging 2.86 and 2.68 respectively. Giordano was sixth in the league overall with a .308 hitting percentage during her freshmen campaign, and sixth in league matches with 1.19 blocks per set.
Morgan Heise
As a freshman, Morgan Heise ranked 10th overall in the American Athletic Conference with 3.62 digs per set. She posted a season-high 24 digs at Cincinnati, and finished with at least 15 digs in 13 matches, including a pair of three-set matches. She was named Best Libero at the SMU Doubletree Classic, tallying 37 digs in 10 sets. The Hempstead, Texas, native had just 16 serve-receive errors in 524 total attempts. She also had 111 assists. She had 38 digs in 10 sets at the San Francisco Invite to start 2014.
BACK IN MOODY
After playing the 2013 season in the Dedman Center on campus due to renovations in Moody Coliseum, SMU returns for its first season in the updated facility. Improvements to the facility include expanded concourses, new event space, offices, team locker rooms and meeting space. The volleyball team also has a new locker room, as well as its own athletic training room. The Mustangs are 142-91 (.609) all-time at home, with a 10-2 record last season in the Dedman Center. In 17 seasons played in Moody Coliseum, SMU has a 132-89 record, including a 38-15 mark from 2009-2012.
TEAM USA
Janelle Giordano was one of 12 players selected to the USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team for a tour of Europe July 8-19. The middle blocker was one of just two freshmen chosen to the squad. UCLA's coach Mike Sealy was the head coach of the team, which earned a silver medal at the Global Challenge tournament in Croatia. The team played matches in Slovenia, Italy and Croatia, and even competed against the Croatian National Team in an exhibition match before the Global Challenge.
MIDDLE BLOCKERS
Janelle Giordano and Kristen Stehling accounted for 23 of SMU's 26 blocks in the first three matches. Giordano was second on the team last year with 113 blocks, earning first-team all-conference honors. She also hit a team-high .463 in San Francisco with 23 kills. Stehling, an outside hitter in 2013, had 19 kills and five aces in the first three matches.
Caroline Young
Caroline Young averaged 3.30 kills per set, scoring 33 in the first three matches. The senior hit .348 with just nine errors in 69 attempts. She also had six aces and nine digs with six blocks. She reached double figures in kills in all three matches, and led the team with 12 against Georgia and 11 against San Francisco.
Abbey Bybel
Abbey Bybel finished the weekend with 27 kills and is second on the team with 34 digs, recording her fourth career double-double with 12 kills and 14 digs against Fordham, both match highs. She also had a team-high 11 digs against San Francisco.
Avery Acker
Avery Acker averaged 11.0 assists over the first three matches, and had 27 digs, finishing with double-doubles against San Francisco and Georgia. The junior had 32 assists and 10 digs in the opener, and followed it up with 43 assists and 10 digs against the Bulldogs. She also had nine blocks, including one solo block.
Lauren Mills
Freshman Lauren Mills played in all three matches, including a start against Fordham. She played in seven sets, and finished with 16 kills, three blocks, two aces and a dig. In three sets against Georgia, Mills had eight kills, and she hit .222 against Fordham.
PRESEASON FAVORITE
With five all-conference award winners and the starting libero returning from a team that went 22-9 and finished second in the league last season, SMU was picked to win the American Athletic Conference this season, collecting nine of 11 first-place votes. UCF (second) and Tulane (third) also received a first-place vote from the league's coaches. Avery Acker, Caroline Young, Cailin Bula and Janelle Giordano were all voted to the all-preseason team.
