Raiders begin tough stretch

Sunday, October 18

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

1:00 p.m.

Middle Tennessee

Florida Atlantic

10/18/2015 8:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Raiders face Florida Atlantic Sunday

By: @MT Athletics

MURFREESBORO – Middle Tennessee (5-16, 3-4) begins a stretch of playing four matches in eight days when they take on the Florida Atlantic Owls (12-6, 5-2) today at 1pm.

The Blue Raiders are coming off a 3-2 upset win over Rice last Sunday in Houston and will be looking to continue that momentum this week. Florida Atlantic is also coming off a win as they downed UAB 3-0 on Friday while MT had the night off.

Florida Atlantic is led on the front row by Gabriela Martin who leads Conference USA with a .431 hitting percentage. Brittany Brown is also in the top 10 in C-USA in the category as she slots in eighth with a hitting percentage of .328. Martin is tough on the defensive side as well as she ranks second in the conference with 1.11 blocks per set.

Maja Ristic also gets it done offensively with 3.75 kills per set, good enough for sixth in C-USA while Raveen Golston anchors the back row with 4.22 digs per set. Golston's total slots her in fifth in the conference, just ahead of Blue Raider Jacqueline Lux who is sixth with 4.16.

MT has plenty of momentum after their victory over Rice. The Raiders had two performances from the weekend good enough for Player of the Week consideration as Chelsea Ross earned Co-Offensive Player of the Week and Delaney Taylor took home her first ever superlative with the Setter of the Week award.

Ross picked up a season high 30 kills in the win Sunday and continues to inch closer to KeKe Deckard's all-time Blue Raider record. Taylor nearly doubled her career high in assists in the victory as she dished out 62 helpers in the five sets.

Middle Tennessee will also hope that history will be on their side as the Raiders lead the all-time series with Florida Atlantic 15-3. That record includes an 8-0 mark against the Owls at Alumni Memorial Gym, a place that has proven to be a real home court advantage for MT over the years.

Sunday's match is also the annual Dig Pink match to raise awareness for breast cancer research. The Raiders will be wearing pink warm up tops and each fan is encouraged to wear pink as well. The Power of Pink will be set up to raise funds before and during the match and each fan will receive a pink volleyball cutout. Fans should write the name of a loved one on the cutouts to honor them or in memory of them. Also, the first 100 fans will receive a Think Pink tote.