SMU plays its first home matches of the 2018 campaign Friday and Saturday, hosting the DoubleTree Classic. The home tournament is the first of two for the Mustangs, who started the season at Lipscomb with the LUV Invitational in Nashville, Tenn. The Mustangs start the tournament against NC State Friday at 12:30 p.m., and take on Arkansas State at 7 p.m. The tournament concludes against No. 15 Creighton Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
ABOUT SMU
The Mustangs went 21-11 last season, marking the fifth straight year with at least 20 wins. SMU advanced to the NIVC for a third consecutive postseason appearance. With a 15-5 record in the American Athletic Conference, SMU finished tied for second in the league. The Mustangs have been in the top two in each of the five seasons with two championships.
Four starters and the libero return from last season's squad, including all-conference award winners
Brittany Adams and
Kendall Patterson. The Mustangs added seven freshmen to the roster, the largest incoming class in program history.
SCOUTING NC STATE
NC State opened the season at home, winning a five-set match against VCU before falling in four sets to Washington State. Melissa Evans led the offense with 29 kills, while Teni Sopitan scored 21. The Wolfpack hit just .102 as a team, averaging 10.0 kills per set.
SMU is 1-1 all-time against NC State, losing in five sets on the road in 2016. The Mustangs won a neutral-site match 3-0 in 1999.
SCOUTING ARKANSAS STATE
Arkansas State has a 2-1 record, winning at Memphis in its last match. The Red Wolves also defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff, but lost to Stephen F. Austin, with all three matches ending in three sets. Carlisa May leads the team with 36 kills, averaging 4.0 per set. Timber Terrell is hitting .439 with 23 kills, and has five blocks.
SMU is 2-0 all-time against Arkansas State. The Mustangs swept the Red Wolves on the road last season (28-26, 25-23, 25-16).
Brittany Adams had 10 kills in the match, while
Lexi Nordmann posted five blocks. The Mustangs won 3-0 in 1998 at Kentucky.
SCOUTING No. 15 CREIGHTON
Creighton is ranked 15th in the AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll, despite a 1-2 record. The Bluejays knocked off then-No. 5 Kentucky in five sets before losses to Northern Iowa and then-No. 10 USC. The USC loss has a five-set match that lasted over three hours with a 28-26 loss in the first, a 25-22 loss in the third and an 18-16 loss in the fifth. Taryn Kloth and Jaali Winters lead the team with 53 kills each. Creighton is hitting .202 with 13.62 kills per set.
This is the first meeting between the two programs.
chasing a milestone
In 22 seasons as the only head coach in program history,
Lisa Seifert has amassed 385 wins, including 122 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 79-19 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 188-102 all-time in home matches and 176-100 in matches played at Moody Coliseum. Since the renovation to Moody Coliseum in 2014, SMU is 42-11 in home matches over four 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 directed the SMU offense while splitting time in the 6-2 system, but it was Heim, a freshman, who led the charge with 42 assists, 6.0 per set. Patterson posted a 4.14 average with 29 assists. The junior also had 13 digs and a kill to Heim's 11 digs. Patterson was third in The American with 10.05 assists last season. She led the league as a freshman with 10.95 assists, and now has 2,541 assists for her career, eighth all-time at SMU.
ON THE ATTACK
Senior
Brittany Adams led the Mustangs with 22 kills in the first two matches, ranking in the top 10 in The American with 3.14 per set. Freshman
Rachel Woulfe was just behind Adams with 21 kills, averaging 3.0 per set. Both players hit above .200, with Adams leading the Mustangs' offense with a .214 attack percentage while Woulfe hit .208. One of three seniors on the roster, Adams leads the team with 334 sets played, and is the only player on the roster with more than 300 sets played.
MONTANA WATTS
Montana Watts was named to the all-tournament team at Lipscomb after averaging 5.71 digs per set, ranking 33rd in the NCAA after opening weekend. The junior tallied 40 in seven sets. She ranked fourth in The American with 5.03 digs per set last season. As a team, SMU led the league with 17.93 digs per set and limited opponents to a .190 attack percentage.
MONTANA WATTS
Ryan Palmieri scored 18 kills with 16 digs as the only six-rotation player for the Mustangs during opening weekend. The freshman averaged 2.57 kills in the two matches, and was one kill from a double-double with nine kills and 11 digs against Iowa.
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.
RECORD-SETTING DAY
SMU set a conference and program record with 23.0 total blocks in a five-set win at Cincinnati. Freshman
Meryn Kennedy led the defense with 12 blocks (1 BS, 11 BA), and junior
Kelly Brunstein posted 10 (5 BS, 5 BA), both career highs.
