Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern volleyball team will wrap up the regular season this weekend with a pair of road matches at Nebraska-Kearney and Fort Hays State.
 
Game time for the match at No. 12 Nebraska-Kearney is 6 pm with the match against Fort Hays State set for 5:30 pm. Live results and live video will be available for each match and links to each can be found in the story links section above.
 
The Lions (13-14, 8-10 MIAA) enter the weekend riding a three-game win streak and have on four of the last five matches including wins against No. 24 Central Missouri, No. 14 Washburn and No. 19 Central Oklahoma.
 
Southern has secured a spot in next weekend's MIAA Tournament in St. Joseph. The Lions currently sit in 7^th place in the standings and need just a win to secure at least 7^th place, however the Lions sit just one game out of sixth-place, as well.
 
This season, the Lions rank third nationally in total attacks and ninth in total digs, while ranking 16^th in assists and 17^th in kills. Individually, Abbie Casper ranks fourth nationally in digs, while ranking eighth in digs per set. Fernanda Canedo ranks 10^th in total attacks, while Sophie Mader ranks 18^th in total assists.
 
Mader has gone over 1,000 assists this season with 1,035 to date. Casper's 31 digs give her 613 on the season and moves her into second-place all-time in the single-season digs list, passing Amy Barnicle's 600 in 2004. Amelia Neels leads the team and ranks fourth in the MIAA in hitting percentage at .327, while Kierson Maydew has a team-high 95 blocks and Neels has 87.
 
The Lopers (24-4, 14-4 MIAA) have split their last four matches with losses to Central Missouri and Northwest Missouri on each end of that four-game stretch. Emersen Cyza averages 3.93 kills per set and has 369 total on the year, while Peyton Neff dishes out 11.01 assists per set and has 1,079 total. Lexi Stephens has a team-high 32 aces, while Lauren Vandenberg averages a team-high 4.74 assists. Bailee Sterling (80) and Fallon Stutheit (69) lead the team in blocking.
 
FHSU (10-16, 5-13 MIAA) has lost its last five matches and six of the previous seven. The Tigers are one game back of 8^th place Missouri Western in the standings for that final spot heading into the weekend.
 
Mykah Eshbaugh (2.66 k/s) and Riley Tinder (2.65 k/s) lead the team in kills per set, while Jaida Felix a (5.11 a/s) and Elysia Glowacz (4.70 a/s) lead in assists.
 
Tinder has a team-high 33 service aces, while Jaden Daffer averages 4.65 digs per set and Tinder averages 3.39 digs per set, as well. Emily Ellis has a team-high 101 blocks on the season.
 
After this match the Lions will head north to the MIAA Tournament to be held at the St. Joseph Civic Arena. Matches will be played on Thursday, November 10 through Saturday November 12.