TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – After a weekend in the Mid-South, Indiana State volleyball returns to the court Wednesday evening for a road tilt at IU-Indianapolis.
 
First serve is set for 7 p.m., with the match being carried on ESPN+.
 
Last Time Out
Indiana State went 2-1 at the Bluff City Showdown in Memphis, Tennessee, picking up a four-set win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and a three-set win over Lamar. The Sycamores were one of three teams in the field to finish 2-1, and claimed the top spot by virtue of the head-to-head results between the tied teams.
 
Emma Kaelin and Emily Weber were named to the Bluff City Showdown All-Tournament Team, while Indiana State's 2-1 weekend was its best non-conference weekend since the 2021 season.
 
Top-Tier Trees
Indiana State had a pair of athletes earn all-tournament honors at the Bluff City Showdown, as Emma Kaelin and Emily Weber were among the best in the four-team field over the weekend in Memphis.
 
Kaelin averaged 4.18 kills and 2.45 digs per set for the Sycamores in 11 sets played, representing the best attacking weekend of her career. She set a career-high with 16 kills against both Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Lamar, and also added 10 digs against Arkansas-Pine Bluff to record her 20th career double-double.
 
Weber averaged 9.18 assists per set running the Sycamores' offense, including a season-high 41-assist outing in the win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. She also had 35 assists in the Trees' three-set win over Lamar, and added 16 digs and five blocks from the defensive side for the weekend.
 
Topping The Charts
Indiana State has been one of the best teams in the nation when it comes to service aces this season. The Sycamores enter Wednesday's match ranked 10th nationally in aces per set with 2.20, and have averaged more than two aces per set in each of their first three weekends of play.
 
Indiana State's 2.20 aces per set rank first in the MVC, while the Sycamores' 66 total aces rank second in the conference and inside the top 40 nationally. In addition, Ella Scott leads the MVC with 0.57 aces per set, a mark which ranks just outside the top 30 nationally.
 
Scott isn't the only Sycamore who has seen success from the service line this season. Indiana State already has three players with double-digit service aces this year (Ella Scott – 17, Cadence Gilley – 11, Emma Kaelin – 11), with three others recording five or more aces this year (Emmy Sher – nine, Emily Weber – eight, Macy Lengacher – five).
 
Set One Success
Indiana State accomplished something at the Bluff City Showdown that the Sycamores' had not previously done in a non-conference weekend in head coach Ashlee Pritchard's tenure. The Trees won the opening set in each of their three matches in Memphis.
 
The Sycamores claimed the opening set in their matches against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (25-13), Lamar (25-20) and Memphis (25-19), marking the first time this season that the Sycamores took the opening set in a match.
 
Prior to last weekend, the last time Indiana State took the opening set in three straight matches was in November 2021 against Missouri State (27-25), Southern Illinois (28-26) and Bradley (25-19).
 
Shutdown
Indiana State's win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff was its best defensive showing of the 2024 season, as the Sycamores limited the Golden Lions to a .098 hitting percentage for the match. Included in that mark was a negative hitting percentage for UAPB in the first set, which the Trees took by a commanding 25-13 margin.
 
Indiana State won two of their three sets in the match by double-digits, taking the first set 25-13 and the third set 25-14. Arkansas-Pine Bluff hit below .150 in each of the sets won by the Sycamores, while the Trees forced UAPB into 24 attack errors for the match.
 
Bluff City Block Party
Indiana State's three-set win over Lamar at the Bluff City Showdown featured the Sycamores' best blocking performance of the season. The Trees had eight total blocks in their win over the Cardinals, an average of 2.67 per set.
 
Ella Scott was a major factor at the net with five block assists, while Emily Weber and Hannah Baudin both played a significant role in the Sycamores' block total with each posting one block solo and two block assists. Indiana State also did not commit a block error in the match against Lamar.
 
IU-Indianapolis At A Glance
IU-Indianapolis enters Wednesday's match with an overall record of 4-6, including a 2-2 mark at home. The Jaguars have home wins over SIU Edwardsville and Butler, and also notched an away win at Bellarmine and a neutral-site win over Rider.
 
Ell Patterson leads the Jaguars with 120 kills, averaging 3.00 per set while hitting .232. Morgan Ostrowski (73), Carly Doros (62) and Maia Long (59) all have more than 50 kills, while Grace Purichia has dished out 341 assists this season (8.53 per set). Addie Evans leads the team with 141 digs, with Patterson also surpassing the century mark in digs this season. Doros and Ostrowski both have more than 20 blocks for the Jaguars.
 
Andrew Kroger is in his second season at the helm of the IU-Indianapolis program and owns a 13-26 record as the Jaguars' head coach. Kroger went 9-20 in his first season in Indianapolis, and also owns previous head coaching experience at La Salle and North Alabama.
 
Series History vs. IU-Indianapolis
Indiana State owns a 19-9 record all-time against IU-Indianapolis, including a 7-2 mark in matches in Indianapolis. The Jaguars won last season in Terre Haute to snap a two-match Sycamore win streak in the series.
 
Wednesday's meeting is the first in Indianapolis since the 2014 season, which the Sycamores won in five sets.
 
Up Next
Indiana State takes part in the Purdue Fort Wayne Invitational September 20-21 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Sycamores will face St. Francis (Pa.), Eastern Michigan and Purdue Fort Wayne during their stay in Northeast Indiana.

Follow the Sycamores
For the latest information on the Sycamore Volleyball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from both the App Store and the Google Play Store.