The University of Akron Athletics
Zips Looking to Get Back On Track
September 25 | Women's Volleyball
After a pair of conference losses at home last weekend, the
University of Akron volleyball team will look to right the ship at
Buffalo Thursday night and at Toledo Saturday afternoon.
TEAM NOTES
• Akron has been a very streaky team in 2007. After winning
its first five matches and eight of its first 10, UA has dropped
its last five.
• The Zips' defense has been the strength of the team thus far
in 2007. UA is second in the Mid-American Conference with an
average of 2.46 blocks per game and third with an opposing hitting
percentage of just .169.
• Additionally, Akron is ranked fifth in the league with 17.52
digs per game.
• The Zips have lost their last three meetings with Buffalo,
including a pair of straight-set defeats last season, after winning
the first 17 of the series, dating back to 1982.
• UA will also be looking to snap a three-match losing streak
to Toledo. The Zips haven't won at Toledo since 2002.
PLAYER NOTES
• Sophomore Elizabeth Martin (Lowell, Ind./Lowell) recorded
her team-leading seventh double-double of the year with 14 kills
and 15 digs in a four-game defeat to Kent State last Friday night.
Martin, who recorded the first double-double of her career against
La Salle (Aug. 24) earlier this year, is second on the team in
attack percentage (.161), kills per game (2.70) and points per game
(3.11). Her average of 2.54 digs per game is third highest on the
club.
• Junior Jennifer Stewart (Kentwood, Mich./East Kentwood)
reached a personal milestone on Sept. 14 against Pepperdine by
eclipsing the 1,000-dig mark for her standout career. The libero
and team co-captain has posted 1,074 digs in two-plus seasons in an
Akron uniform after tallying 24 in two matches last weekend.
• With 219 more digs, Stewart will crack the school's top 10
list for career digs. Karen Godzinski (1989-92) holds the school
record for most digs in a career with 2,007.
• Stewart is fifth in the MAC with an average of 4.96 digs per
game. She posted a career high of 35 digs earlier this year at N.C.
State (Sept. 8). It was Akron's highest single-match total since
2004 and the sixth-highest mark in school history.
• Freshman blocker Jess Antosz (Glenshaw, Pa./Shaler Area),
who was named MAC East Division Player of the Week on Sept. 10,
leads the conference in total blocks (66.0), assisted blocks (56),
solo blocks (20) and a blocks-per-game average of 1.18.
• Antosz is also seventh in the circuit with a .296 hitting
percentage.
• Sophomore Brionna Patterson (Sandusky, Ohio/Sandusky) is
fifth in the conference with an average of 3.984 kills per game.
She leads the Zips with 223 kills on the year.
• Sophomore Kara Smith (Secor, Ill./El Paso-Gridley) is sixth
in the league with an average of 10.31 assists per contest.
• True freshman Caitlin O'Patchen (Youngstown,
Ohio/Austintown Fitch) made her first collegiate start against Kent
State last Friday. The setter posted highs of 21 assists and eight
digs in UA's four-game defeat.
