THE TEAMS:
WHERE: Stephenville, Texas
ARENA: Wisdom Gym (3,000)
TIME: 1 p.m. CT
STREAMING PLATFORM: ESPN+
TEXAN VOLLEYBALL MATCH DAY: Tarleton State Volleyball looks to bounce back against the Lopes on Saturday after falling to CBU in Wisdom Gym on Thursday. This will be the second meeting between the Texans and Lopes this season. GCU took their last matchup against Tarleton, 0-3, in Phoenix. Tarleton remains within one match of Abilene Christian for WAC postseason seeding following ACU's loss to Grand Canyon on Thursday.
QUICK HITS:
• Emma Halcomb won WAC Libero of the Week for week 10, her second time winning the award this season.
• Halcomb reached a new career high on Monday, notching 34 digs against the Wildcats. This marks a WAC single-match high this season, making Halcomb the only player in the conference to have 30 or more digs in a match this year.
• Tarleton is seventh in the nation in total digs (1576). The Purple and White also rank 26th nationwide in digs per set (16.77).
• Megan Hodges reached her 2,000th career assist against ACU, becoming the eighth Texan all-time to achieve this mark.
• Halcomb reached her 1,000th career dig at Tarleton, becoming the 16th Texan to do so and the second in Tarleton's D1 era.
• Emma Burke registered eight blocks against CBU on Thursday, her second highest block total of her career.
• Halcomb leads the WAC in total digs with 386. Hodges ranks fifth in the conference with 567 total assists.
• Allison Bryant notched her seventh double-double of the season on Monday, registering 18 kills and 17 digs in Abilene.
• Halcomb notched her seventh match of 20 or more digs this season on Thursday against CBU.
• The Lopes are on a two-match win streak, beating both Southern Utah and Abilene Christian.
• Allison Bryant holds the WAC individual high for most kills in a match this season (27). She also ranks 20th in the nation in total kills (350).
• Burke and Bryant both reached 500 career kills as a Texan. Bryant set her highest season kill total of her career against CBU, breaking her previous best of 344.
• The Texans set a new program attendance record of 1,129 fans against ACU during Tarleton's homecoming week.
• Two weeks ago, the Texans had three players break their career highs in service aces. Allison Bryant had five against Abilene Christian, Megan Hodges had five against Utah Valley, and Addison Goss registered four against California Baptist.
• Freshman Tatum Busch set a career-high 23 kills against California Baptist two weeks ago. Her previous career high was 13.
• Bryant was named WAC Player of the Week during week 5. Bryant was named TSU Invitational's MVP as well. She broke the Texans' D1 era kills record with 27 against McNeese on Sept. 17. Bryant also broke her career-high in digs with 23 against Oral Roberts on Sept. 19.
• Freshman Madeline O'Gorman set two career highs last Saturday, notching five kills and four blocks against Utah Tech.
• Hodges holds the Texans new D1 era single match record with 48 assists. She has reached that number twice this season. Hodges is currently seventh in the WAC in assists per set (6.10). She has recorded double-digit assists in every match this season.
• Ansquer and Hodges have combined for 20+ assists each in six matches this season. Hodges has 12 double-doubles this year, a team high.
• With a win against GCU, the Texans would move into WAC playoff seeding. They currently hold the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Wildcats.
• The head coach for the Texans, Mary Schindler, is in her 20th season as the leading lady for Tarleton State Volleyball. The Texan coaching staff also consists of Hannah McManus-Smith (5th season), Damien Hardy (1st season), and graduate assistant Matti Theurer (1st season).
SERIES HISTORY:
• The Texans beat GCU last time the two teams played in Stephenville, 3-1.
• The Texans hold a 1-1 home record against the Lopes all-time.
• The Lopes took their last matchup against Tarleton, 3-0, in Phoenix.
• Tarleton trails the all-time series against GCU, 1-5.
• Last year against GCU at home, Emma Burke notched eight blocks.
• Megan Hodges achieved a double-double last year against GCU (20 assists, 10 digs).
OPPONENT SCOUTING REPORT:
• The Lopes are on a two-match win streak. They currently hold an 8-3 conference record on the season.
• Tatum Parrott ranks second among the WAC with 4.22 kills per set.
• Taylor Kubacak and Parrott both rank among the WAC top-five with 0.41 service aces per set.
• Kubacak averages 7.15 assists per set, which ranks fourth in the WAC.
• GCU is second in the conference with a .220 attack percentage and fourth in kills per set (12.28).
• The Lopes average 2.71 blocks per set, ranking second among the WAC.
TEXANS RANK AMONG TOP OF NATION:
• Allison Bryant ranks 20th in the nation in kills this season (350) and ninth in total attacks (1018).
• The Texans rank seventh in the country with 1576 total team digs.
• Tarleton is 26th in the nation in digs per set (16.77).
• The Purple and White have 1139 total kills, which ranks 41st across NCAA Division I.
• Emma Halcomb is 46th in the nation with 386 digs on the season.
HALCOMB WINS WAC LIBERO OF THE WEEK:
• Emma Halcomb won WAC Libero of the Week for week 10, her second time winning the award this season.
• Halcomb reached a new career high on Monday, notching 34 digs against the Wildcats. This marks a WAC single-match high this season, making Halcomb the only player in the conference to have 30 or more digs in a match this year.
• Halcomb also won WAC Libero of the Week for week five, where she had 26 kills during the Texans win against ULM.
• Halcomb is the first player this season to record 30 or more digs in a WAC volleyball match.
BURKE AND BRYANT REACH 500 KILLS:
• Against GCU, Emma Burke recorded her 500th career kill at Tarleton.
• Allison Bryant sits at 663 kills during just two years at Tarleton.
• Bryant set her highest season kill total of her career against CBU, breaking her previous best of 344.
HODGES AND HALCOMB IN TEXAN HISTORY BOOKS:
• Megan Hodges reached her 2,000th career assist against ACU, becoming the eighth Texan all-time to achieve this mark and the 2nd in Tarleton's D1 history.
• Emma Halcomb just reached her 1,000th career dig last week, becoming the 16th Texan to accomplish this feat and the 2nd in Tarleton's D1 era.
STATS AMONG THE WAC:
• Allison Bryant is second in the WAC in total kills (350) and fifth in kills per set (3.72).
• Emma Burke is fifth in the WAC in hitting percentage (.276).
• Emma Halcomb is 1st in the WAC in total digs (386) and digs per set (4.20).
• Emma Burke is eighth in the WAC with 1.05 blocks per set.
• Burke is fifth in total blocks with 99.
• Hodges is seventh in the WAC in assists per set (6.02).
• Hodges is fifth in total assists (567).
• Tarleton is 1st in the WAC in digs (1576) and digs per set (16.8).
• The Texans are first in the WAC in total kills (1139).
• The Texans are sixth in the WAC in assists per set (11.3).
ALL-TOURNAMENT SELECTIONS THIS SEASON:
• At the beginning of the season, Allison Bryant was selected to the Texas A&M Commerce all-tournament team.
• Tatum Busch was selected to the Tommie Invitational All-Tournament team in St. Thomas, Minnesota.
• Allison Bryant was selected as the Tarleton State Invitational MVP, marking her second all-tournament selection of the year.
• Megan Hodges was also selected to the Tarleton All-Tournament team, along with Emma Halcomb.
SCHINDLER RANKS AMONG TOP IN NATION:
• Head coach Mary Schindler has 380 victories in 621 matches as a collegiate head coach, all at Tarleton.
• She ranks in the top 50 among active NCAA D1 head coaches in victories.
• Entering her 20th season, she is one of 24 active head coaches to coach 20 years or more at the same institution.
• Coach Schindler needs just 20 more victories to reach 400. She is already the winningest Texan coach in program history.
ON THE BUBBLE / CBU RECAP:
• The top 8 out of 9 WAC Volleyball teams make the conference tournament.
• Tarleton fell to California Baptist on Thursday in Wisdom Gym, 0-3.
• With CBUs win against Tarleton, the Lancers moved two matches in front of the Texans in conference seeding.
• With their win against the Wildcats, Tarleton jumped within one spot of Abilene Christian and Seattle U, who are both 3-8 in the WAC.
• With a win on Saturday, Tarleton would jump ahead of ACU, who they currently hold the tiebreaker over.
• Tarleton will face Seattle U one more time before the season comes to a close on Nov. 16.
Following Saturday's match, the Texans will have five days off before their next match against Southern Utah at home on Nov. 7. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+ with first serve set for 6 p.m. CT.
