LAKE CHARLES—Fresh off its first Southland Conference win of the season against Lamar on Thursday, the McNeese volleyball team will look to conclude the weekend with another SLC victory when the Cowgirls take on Sam Houston State at 2 p.m. Saturday.
 
McNeese (10-8, 1-2 SLC) will look to even its Southland Conference record against the Bearkats who enter the match with an 8-7 overall record and are 1-1 in the SLC.  Admission is free, courtesy of the American Press.  Fans can follow all Cowgirl home matches through live stats or live streaming.  Both links can be found on the McNeese home page by going to www.mcneesesports.
 
The Cowgirls' first conference victory of the season came in a five set thriller over Lamar Thursday.  Sam Houston State also picked up its first SLC win of the season with a 3-1 win at Nicholls Thursday night.  The Bearkats dropped its SLC opener 3-2 at Lamar last Saturday.
 
Senior Rachal Cagnina continues to lead the Cowgirls with 212 kills and junior Amber Fryer is coming off matches where she has led the Cowgirls in kills.  Fryer recorded a career-high 26 kills against Jackson State earlier this week and put down a match high 16 against Lamar Thursday night.
 
The Cowgirls' defense came up big Thursday night with McNeese picking up 27 blocks and four players ended the match with 10 or more digs apiece.  Freshman Shelby Poehls and sophomore Rebecca Korenek both led the Cowgirls with eight blocks apiece.  All eight of Poehls' blocks were assisted while Korenek had one solo and assisted on seven of them. Sophomore Chrysta Stuart leads the team with 54 blocks and junior Kinberlyn Patterson has 262 digs for an average of 3.80 per set.
 
Sam Houston State is led by Devene Wells-Gibson's 4.61 kills per set, 25 service aces, and a .201 hitting percent. Michelle Griffith has the best hitting percent on the team at .282 and Claire Kilpatrick is averaging 3.95 digs per set.