Thursday, September 08, 2011

• Five Atlantic Sun student-athletes have accumulated at least three double-doubles early on in the season. Belmont's Maggie Johnson leads the way with five ahead of Kennesaw State's Alyssa Lang and Jacksonville's Kendall Courtney with four. Hannah Miranda from Belmont and ETSU's Megan Devine both have three double-doubles.

• Lipscomb's Katie Rose, the A-Sun Player of the Week, set two program records at the Lipscomb Invitational. The senior middle blocker totaled seven service aces against Tennessee Tech and then managed eight solo blocks against Appalachian State. The eight solo blocks were the most in the A-Sun since 2006 when Campbell's Rachel Templin equaled that mark.

• Jacksonville's Kylie Jacob continues to lead the conference in hitting percentage as the sophomore sits at .359 through nine matches. Her mark would rank as the seventh best all-time in the A-Sun. Jacob has two games where she hit over .625. As a whole, four A-Sun student-athletes are hitting above .275.

• The chase for most kills in a season is a tight one early on as Belmont's Johnson and ETSU's Devine are tied with 122 kills. They are the only two with over 100 kills, while Jacksonville's Taylor Nyquist is one away at 99 on the year. Nyquist totaled 65 kills last week including 21 in a win against Clemson. Last season, Lipscomb's Alex Kelly led the way with 454, while two others managed over 400 including Belmont's Kayla Albritton (411) and North Florida's Paige Pridgeon (410).

• USC Upstate's Emily Sanders racked up 55 assists against Radford, which tied Jacksonville's Kendall Courtney for the most this season in a single game. In total, Sanders accumulated 101 assists at the Radford Invitational to improve her season total to 177, which ties her for fourth-most in the A-Sun behind JU's Courtney (347), Kennesaw State's Sara Metroka (283) and Belmont's Hannah Miranda (271).

• FGCU's Jill Hopper has 60 kills on the season, which is the most by an A-Sun freshman. ETSU's Ivey Rice ranks second with 57. Last year, ETSU's Devine led the way with 360 as a freshman, while UNF's Pridgeon compiled 350 as a freshman in 2009.

• Two A-Sun student-athletes are in reach of conference career records as Belmont's Johnson and Mercer's Charlotte Harris approach the career kills and digs records, respectively. Johnson currently sits at 1,029 career kills only 92 away from tying Melissa Roy (Stetson, 1994-97) at 1,171 for tenth place. Harris has amassed 996 career digs - including 109 this season - to move her 208 away from a tie for tenth place with former Bear Jackie Viren (2002-05) at 1,204.

• This weekend, four A-Sun teams are at home as Stetson, Jacksonville, North Florida and Kennesaw State all welcome teams into their home arenas. For Jacksonville, North Florida and Stetson it is the first chance to play in front of their home crowds. So far, A-Sun teams are a combined 7-12 in home games.

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