Mustangs Play At USF Friday and At UCF Sunday

Friday, October 26

Tampa, Fla.

6 p.m.

SMU

USF

Photo by: Sharon Ellman

Mustangs Play At USF Friday and At UCF Sunday

Oct 24 | Volleyball

SMU at USF
Oct. 26 – 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT
Live Stats
The Corral – Tampa, Fla.

SMU at UCF
Oct. 14 – 1 p.m.
Video: UCFKnights.tv | Live Stats
The Venue at UCF – Orlando, Fla.

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After defeating defending conference champion Wichita State and Tulsa to extend the home win streak to five matches, SMU returns to the road for matches at USF and current league leader UCF. The Mustangs battle the Bulls in Tampa Friday at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT. The road trip concludes Sunday against the Knights in Orlando at 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT.

ABOUT SMU
The Mustangs are 8-11 overall and 5-4 in The American. Senior Brittany Adams leads the team and is ninth in The American with 2.93 kills per set. Freshmen Hannah Jacobs, Ryan Palmieri and Rachel Woulfe are each scoring at least two kills per set, and sophomore Lexi Nordmann is leading the conference with a .333 attack percentage. In a 6-2 system, Kendall Patterson is 10th in the league with 6.04 assists per set, and freshman Lily Heim is averaging 4.85 assists per set.

Defensively, SMU is second in the conference with 17.23 digs per set and third with 2.16 blocks per set. Montana Watts is 16th in the NCAA with 5.53 digs per set, and averaged 7.0 in the wins against Wichita State and Tulsa to earn Defensive Player of the Week honors. Nordmann leads the team and is eight in the league with 1.05 blocks per set, and Meryn Kennedy is tied for 10th with 1.03 per set.

SCOUTING USF
USF is 15-7 overall with a 4-5 record in The American, losing four of its last six matches. Jac'cara Walker leads the team with 3.32 kills per set and is hitting .227. She is one of four attackers on the roster with at least two kills per set. The Bulls and their opponents are both averaging just under 13 kills per set, but USF is hitting .226 while opponents have an attack percentage of .189.

SERIES HISTORY
SMU is 7-3 all-time against USF with a 4-1 record against the Bulls in Tampa. The Mustangs won each of the last three, including a 3-1 win at home last season in the only meeting of 2017. The two programs first met in Tampa in 2002, with USF winning 3-1. The Bulls won the first conference match with a 3-2 win in Dallas on Oct. 18, 2013. Since that defeat, SMU is 7-1 against USF, losing just three total sets in Tampa.

SCOUTING UCF
UCF is the only unbeaten team remaining in The American with a 9-0 record in conference matches after a 3-2 victory at Cincinnati. The Knights are 18-3 overall, including a win against then-No. 7 USC. McKenna Melville leads the team with 4.24 kills per set, and Kristina Fisher averages 2.99 per set. As a team, UCF is outscoring opponents 13.94-12.77 with a .248 attack percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
SMU is 14-5 all-time against UCF, winning the last five straight, including four straight sweeps. The two teams first met in 2005 as members of Conference USA. SMU won the first four matches in the series, which has featured at least one match every season since the first meeting in 2005.

CHASING A MILESTONE
In 23 seasons as the only head coach in program history, Lisa Seifert has amassed 393 wins, including 124 over the past five seasons. Seifert earned her first win on Aug. 31, 1996, with a 3-1 victory against Wichita State at Nevada. The match was the third of SMU's inaugural season. Her 100th win came on Sept. 12, 2003, in a 3-1 victory against Stephen F. Austin. It was the fourth of 23 wins that season. A sweep against North Dakota on Sept. 12, 2009, became the program's 200th win, and Seifert got her 300th victory against on Oct. 12, 2014, with a 3-2 win against Tulane. The season started with a record 11-match win streak after an opening loss, propelling the Mustangs to a 26-6 record. She would become the third coach with 400 wins at SMU.

WIN   DATE   OPPONENT   SCORE
1       8/31/96   Wichita State   3-1
100   9/12/03   Stephen F. Austin   3-1
200   9/12/09   North Dakota   3-0
300   10/12/14   Tulane   3-2

2017 ALL-CONFERENCE AWARDS
Four Mustangs earned all-conference accolades in 2017, including setter Kendall Patterson, a second straight second-team honor, while Brittany Adams was also named to the second team. Katie Hegarty and Lauren Mills were tabbed for the first team as seniors. Throughout the program's history, 31 players have been honored with 52 all-conference selections, including 25 first-team awards. Through five seasons in the American Athletic Conference, 11 players have earned 23 all-conference selections.

2018 PRESEASON AWARDS
Brittany Adams and Kendall Patterson were named to the American Athletic Conference Preseason Team. The duo earned all-conference accolades at the end of the 2017 season after leading the Mustangs to a third straight postseason appearance.
Adams, a senior outside hitter, was second on the team with 354 kills as a junior, ranking ninth in The American with 3.19 per set. She also had 311 digs, recording 13 double-doubles. She scored at least 10 kills 21 times, including a career-high 23 kills at Houston. Patterson had 1,216 assists as a sophomore, and was third in the league with 10.05 per set. She posted 14 double-doubles, averaging 2.47 digs per set. She finished with a career-high 60 assists against Temple, and eclipsed 50 assists five times.

LARGEST CLASS IN HISTORY
Head coach Lisa Seifert signed the programs largest freshman class, adding seven first-year players to the roster. The Mustangs return four starters and the libero from a 21-win squad in 2017, including all-conference award winners Brittany Adams, a senior outside hitter, and Kendall Patterson, a junior setter who was the league's Freshman of the Year in 2016.

No.   NAME   POSITION   HEIGHT
   3   Maddie Pernecky   DS   5-9
   5   Sydney Lobato   S   5-10
   7   Lily Heim   S   6-0
   10   Hannah Jacobs   OH   6-2
   14   Bria' Merchant   DS   5-8
   15   Ryan Palmieri   OH   6-1
   18   Rachel Woulfe   OH   6-2

20-WIN SEASONS
SMU has won at least 20 matches in a season eight times, including each of the last five seasons. The Mustangs won a program-best 27 matches in 2015.

   YEAR   RECORD
   1999   20-13
   2003   23-7
   2010   25-6
   2013   22-9
   2014   26-6
   2015   27-6
   2016   26-8
   2017   21-11

AMERICAN SUCCESS
SMU is 84-23 in American Athletic Conference matches since the league's inception five seasons ago. The Mustangs finished runner-up behind champions Louisville and UCF in the first two years before winning back-to-back championships. The Mustangs have finished in the top two of The American all five seasons.

MOODY MAGIC
The Mustangs are 195-105 all-time in home matches and 182-101 in matches played at Moody Coliseum. Since the renovation to Moody Coliseum in 2014, SMU is 51-17 in home matches over five seasons, including a program-best 15-1 record in Moody in 2014. SMU clinched what at the time was at least a share of its first conference championship with a 3-1 win against Houston in front of its home fans on Nov. 15, 2015. SMU won 12 straight home matches during the 2015 season.

TEAM CAPTAINS
Kendall Patterson and Kelly Brunstein were selected as team captains for the 2018 season. Team captains are elected by the players. Patterson was a team captain last season, and has earned all-conference honors each of her first two seasons. Brunstein was third on the team in kills with 106 as a junior, and second with 104 blocks.

AVCA TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD
The SMU volleyball team earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the sixth time in seven years, helping the organization to another record high. SMU is one of 164 Division I women's programs to achieve the honor, and 973 programs overall, increasing from 835 last year. The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that maintained at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

SETTING THE SCENE
Lily Heim and two-time all-conference selection Kendall Patterson split the setting duties for the SMU offense in the 6-2 system. Patterson leads the way with 447 assists, ranking 10th in The American with 6.04 per set, while Heim, a freshman, has 349 assists, averaging 4.85 per set. In 2017, Patterson was third in The American with 10.05 assists. She led the league as a freshman with 10.95 assists, and now has 2,988 assists for her career, seventh all-time at SMU.

ON THE ATTACK
Senior Brittany Adams leads the Mustangs with 214 kills, ranking ninth in The American with 2.93 per set. Freshman Hannah Jacobs has 108 kills and is second on the team with 2.63 per set, while Rachel Woulfe has 134 kills, 2.0 per set. Ryan Palmieri is averaging 2.05 per set with 90 kills during her first season.

MONTANA WATTS
Montana Watts was named to the all-tournament team at Lipscomb and earned the Best Libero award at the DoubleTree Classic and the DoubleTree Invitational. She is third in The American and 16th in the NCAA with 5.53 digs per set. She ranked fourth in The American with 5.03 digs per set last season. As a team, SMU led the league in 2017 with 17.93 digs per set and limited opponents to a .190 attack percentage. Watts averaged 7.0 digs per set against Wichita State and Tulsa for her first American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week award of the season.

ABOVE THE NET
In 2017, three Mustangs ranked in the top 15 of the conference in blocks, including freshmen Meryn Kennedy and Lexi Nordmann. Nordmann led the team and was third in the league with 1.15 per set, posting 85 in 74 sets as a true freshman. Redshirt-freshman Meryn Kennedy led the team with 112 blocks, averaging 1.08 to rank ninth in the league. Kelly Brunstein was 13th, averaging 0.94 with 104 blocks at middle blocker and on the right side. The trio has SMU third in the league with 2.16 blocks per set this season. Nordmann is eighth in the conference with 1.05 per set, while Kennedy is tied for 10th, averaging 1.03 per set.