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Volleyball 10/23/2008 8:03:02 PM

Southeastern Volleyball Returns Home for Two-Match Homestand

Lady Lions Host UT-Arlington, Texas State as Conference Stretch Run Continues

HAMMOND - As the 2008 Southland Conference season enters the home stretch, the Southeastern Louisiana University women's volleyball team (7-11, 2-6 SLC) still maintains the hope of earning its first trip to the league tournament since 2002. However, the Lady Lions have their work cut out for them as Texas-Arlington (5-16, 1-6 SLC) and Texas State (13-12, 6-1 SLC) visit Southeastern this weekend.

With eight conference matches remaining, the Lady Lions are currently tied with Northwestern State for the eighth and final tournament spot. With four of those matches taking place on the road and just two games separating fifth and eighth-place, head coach Julie Langford knows the importance of Southeastern's remaining home matches.

"We've struggled on the road this year," Langford said. "But the conference is still pretty wide open. If we want to reach our goal of getting to the conference tournament, we need to play as strong as possible at home."

The first test for the Lady Lions will be the UTA Mavericks, who will bring a youthful squad and a 1-6 league record into Friday night's match. However, the Lady Lions are not looking past the Mavericks.

"They're very young, but they're pretty athletic," assistant coach Jon Haruguchi said. "They've started five freshmen before this year and that always leads to some ups and downs, but they play with a lot of energy and they'll pose some challenges. We'll have to take advantage of their mistakes and try to limit our own against them."

Facing a quick turnaround, the Lady Lions will play host to the defending conference champion Texas State Bobcats on Saturday afternoon.

"Texas State is obviously a strong team," Langford said of a Bobcat squad that enters the weekend tied for the SLC West Division lead. "But we really can't worry about them right now. We want to limit our girls' distractions and just focus on UTA on Friday. We'll worry about Texas State after that. The only way to gain ground at this point is to eliminate our distractions and worry about the next team we're playing."

First serve between the Lady Lions and the Mavericks is slated for 7 p.m. at the University Center in Hammond. Saturday's match will begin at 2 p.m. Admission for both matches is free for all fans and live stats will be available at www.LionSports.net.

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