University of North Florida
Jacksonville
Volleyball Set to Face Crosstown Rival, JU
10/18/2010 6:11:11 PM | Volleyball
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida volleyball team will make the short drive to Jacksonville University on Tuesday, Oct. 19 for a 7 p.m. match against the Dolphins in the first of two SunTrust “River City Rumble Battle of the Barrel” contests between the two teams.
Even though both teams are members of the Atlantic Sun Conference, Tuesdays match will not count toward conference standings. The league made a change this year that allows the teams to only play each conference opponent once toward the standings. The match later this season (Nov. 12) at UNF will count in A-Sun play.
The Ospreys (5-16, 2-4 A-Sun) split this past weekend, defeating USC Upstate, 3-1 on Friday before falling to East Tennessee State, 3-0 on Saturday. Leading the team is Paige Pridgeon with 3.86 kills per set. The sophomore outside hitter is also adding 2.82 digs per set and has tallied 20 aces on the season. Senior Jessica Catelano is adding 2.32 kills per set while freshman Anna Budinska and sophomore Dagnija Medina are adding 1.97 and 1.82 kills, respectively.
Freshman Britt Claessens is putting up 8.76 assists per set and is tied with Pridgeon for a team leading 20 aces. On the defensive side, sophomore Nicole Baran has 4.21 digs. Medina and senior Marshay Greenlee lead the team in blocks with Medina tallying 64 while Greenlee has 46 on the season.
JU also split over the weekend, falling to ETSU, 3-1 before dropping Upstate, 3-1. Leading the Dolphins (11-11, 3-3 A-Sun) is Aidan Yeager with 2.71 kills per set. Kathryn Kane is adding 2.48 and Brittany Lehman is tallying 2.29. Kendall Courtney is notching 9.68 assists per set. On the defensive side, Ashley August leads the team with 3.63 digs per set while Yeager has a team-high 70 blocks this season.
The two teams are evenly matched in the all-time series with eight wins each. JU won both matches last season with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-17) win at JU and a 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 25-14, 19-25, 16-14) win at UNF. Pridgeon averaged 4.12 kills against the Dolphins last season notching 11 on the road and 22 at home. Catelano averaged 4.20 digs and Baran averaged 4.0 last season against JU.
The SunTrust River City Rumble is a season-long series between Jacksonville's two Division I institutions – Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida. UNF and JU battle annually for the “SunTrust Old Wooden Barrel,” which is awarded to the school with the most victories during a school year. Each time the Ospreys and Dolphins face each other during the regular season, the game will count toward the SunTrust River City Rumble standings.
Following Tuesday's match, the Ospreys will return home to host an out-of-conference match against Seattle on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.
