THE TEAMS:   

• Tarleton State Texans (7-20 overall, 2-12 WAC)  

• Utah Valley Wolverines (17-9 overall, 8-6 WAC)

WHERE: Orem, Utah
ARENA: Lockhart Arena 
TIME: 7 p.m. CT 

STREAMING PLATFORM: ESPN+

TEXAN VOLLEYBALL MATCH DAY: Tarleton State Volleyball is heading to Orem to face the Utah Valley Wolverines on Thursday evening. The Texans are looking to even the season series after falling to Utah Valley in five sets at Wisdom Gym last month. The Purple and White need to win out in order to keep their conference tournament hopes alive.

QUICK HITS:

• On Monday, Allison Bryant broke Tarleton's record for most kills in a D1 season. She sits at 387 kills in 2024, which ranks 39th in the nation.

• Megan Hodges has three consecutive matches of 30-plus assists. She notched 36 on Monday against UT Arlington.

• Tarleton is 16th in the nation in total digs (1747). The Purple and White also rank 38th nationwide in digs per set (16.48).

• 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 last Monday, notching 34 digs against the Wildcats. This marks a WAC single-match high this season, making her the only player in the conference to have 30 or more digs in a match this year.

• Megan Hodges reached her 2,000th career assist against ACU on Oct. 28, becoming the eighth Texan all-time to achieve this mark.

• Halcomb reached her 1,000th career dig at Tarleton this season, becoming the 16th Texan to do so and the second in Tarleton's D1 era.

• Emma Burke notched her eighth match of double-digit kills this season against UTA on Monday.

• Allison Bryant notched her seventh double-double of the season last Monday, registering 18 kills and 17 digs in Abilene.

• Halcomb leads the WAC in total digs with 440, while Hodges ranks fifth in the conference with 685 total assists.

• The Wolverines lost to UTA in three sets during their most recent match on Nov. 9. 

• Emma Burke ranks seventh in the WAC with 1.04 blocks per set and is fifth in total blocks with 110.

• The Texans lead the conference in total digs by a margin of 245. GCU is in second place with 1502 total digs.

• 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.

• Hodges holds the Texans new D1 era single match record with 48 assists. She has reached that number twice this season. Hodges is currently sixth in the WAC in assists per set (6.46). 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.

• Tarleton currently sits two matches outside of Abilene Christian and Seattle U for WAC playoff seeding. Seattle U and ACU each have four conference wins.

• The Texans need to win on Thursday and Saturday for a chance to make the WAC tournament. They also need Seattle U or ACU to lose their final two matches. Tarleton will play Seattle U for their last match of the season on 11/16/24.

• If the Texans and ACU are tied following the conclusion of the season, Tarleton holds the set tiebreaker over the Wildcats. Seattle U holds a 3-1 set lead over the Texans, so Tarleton would need to beat the Redhawks in four sets or less on Saturday for the tiebreaker over Seattle U.

• 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:

• Tarleton is 2-4 against the Wolverines all-time.

• The Texans are 1-0 in Orem. 

• Utah Valley took the last matchup between the two teams, 3-2.

• Allison Bryant tallied 20 kills against UVU last time out.

• Megan Hodges registered 30 assists and Emma Halcomb notched 20 digs against UVU on 10/12/24.

OPPONENT SCOUTING REPORT:

• The Wolverines rank fourth in the conference with an 8-6 WAC record.

• Utah Valley is 3-3 in their last six matches.

• The Texans took Utah Valley to five sets last month in Wisdom Gym.

• The Wolverines have two players in the WAC top-five for kills. Avery Shewell ranks third with 4.08 kills per set, followed by Sami Blackett who averages 4.08 kills per set.

• Evalyn Chism averages 9.89 assists per set, which ranks second in the conference.

• Avery Shewell averages a WAC-leading 0.51 aces per set.

BRYANT MAKES TEXAN HISTORY:

• Allison Bryant notched nine kills on Monday against UTA, setting a new Tarleton record for most kills in a Division I season.

• Bryant sits at 387 kills this year, breaking the previous record of 381 held by Lauren Kersey in 2021.

• Bryant has 731 kills during two seasons at Tarleton.

• She is on pace to become the first Texan to notch 400 or more kills during a Division I season.

• Bryant set a record earlier this year for most kills in a Tarleton D1 match (27).

TEXANS RANK AT TOP OF NATION:

• Allison Bryant ranks 39th in the nation in kills this season (387) and 18th in total attacks (1130).

• The Texans rank 16th in the country with 1747 total team digs.

• Tarleton is 38th in the nation in digs per set (16.48).

STATS AMONG THE WAC:

• Allison Bryant is second in the WAC in total kills (387) and sixth in kills per set (3.65).

• Emma Burke is fifth in the WAC in hitting percentage (.295).

• Emma Halcomb is 1st in the WAC in total digs (440) and second in digs per set (4.23).

• Halcomb is the only WAC player to have 400 digs thus far.

• Emma Burke is seventh in the WAC with 1.04 blocks per set.

• Burke is fifth in total blocks with 110.

• Hodges is sixth in the WAC in assists per set (6.46).

• Hodges is fifth in total assists (685).

• Tarleton is 1st in the WAC in digs (1747) and digs per set (16.48).

• The Texans lead the WAC in total kills (1285).

• The Texans are sixth in the WAC in assists per set (11.27).

HALCOMB WINS 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.

• The senior 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.

WIN OUT FOR TOURNAMENT HOPES:

• Tarleton currently sits two matches outside of Abilene Christian and Seattle U, who each have four conference wins.

• Tarleton will play Seattle U one more time this season on 11/16/24.

• If the Texans and ACU are tied following the conclusion of the season, Tarleton holds the set tiebreaker over the Wildcats. Seattle U holds a 3-1 set lead over the Texans, so Tarleton would need to beat the Redhawks in four sets or less on Saturday for the tiebreaker over Seattle U.

Following Saturday's match, Tarleton will head to Seattle for their final regular season match against the Redhawks. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+ with first serve set for 3 p.m. CT.