Volleyball Preview: Chicago State Invitational

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball at Chicago State Invitational
Friday-Saturday, Sept. 15-16, 2017
Jacoby Dickens Center • Chicago, Ill.

Match 11: Louisiana (4-6) at Chicago State (7-4)
Friday, Sept. 15 • 1 p.m. (CDT) • Jacoby Dickens Center (2,500) • Chicago, Ill.
Series: First Meeting
Last Meeting: First Meeting
Live Stats

Match 12: Louisiana (4-6) vs. Wright State (3-7)
Friday, Sept. 15 • 5 p.m. (CDT) • Jacoby Dickens Center (2,500) • Chicago, Ill.
Series: First Meeting
Last Meeting: First Meeting
Live Stats

Match 13: Louisiana (4-6) vs. Eastern Michigan (7-6)
Saturday, Sept. 16 • 2 p.m. (CDT) • Jacoby Dickens Center (2,500) • Chicago, Ill.
Series: Eastern Michigan leads 1-0
Last Meeting: 8/27/10 at Huntsville, Texas – Eastern Michigan W, 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 21-25, 25-20)
Live Stats

Rosters: Louisiana | Chicago State | Wright State | Eastern Michigan
Schedules: Louisiana | Chicago State | Wright State | Eastern Michigan
Season Stats: Louisiana | Chicago State | Wright State | Eastern Michigan
Ragin' Cajuns Twitter: @RaginCajunsVB
Opponents' Twitter: @ChicagoStateVB | @WSUVball| @EMUVolleyball

SETTING THE SCENE
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball team plays in its final non-conference tournament of the season Friday-Saturday, Sept. 15-16 in Chicago.

The Ragin' Cajuns (4-6) are competing in the Chicago State Invitational at the Jacoby Dickens Center on the CSU campus.

Louisiana opens tournament play on Friday facing Chicago State at 1 p.m. and Wright State at 5 p.m. The squad wraps up tournament play on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Eastern Michigan.

The weekend event marks a homecoming trip for graduate senior setter Jessica Bartczyszyn who hails from nearby Cary, Ill. A two-time all-conference and two-time all-area selection at Cary-Grove HS, she'll play collegiately near her hometown for the first time in her career.

The Ragin' Cajuns seek to rebound from three hard-fought setbacks at last week's Rice Adidas Invitational. The point differential in the Rice match was seven points and Louisiana claimed set victories from Cal and Mississippi State while out-digging and out-blocking both.

Stacey Reilly (Sr., OH, Houston, Texas) and Hali Wisnoskie (Fr., OH, Columbus, Texas) lead the offensive efforts, averaging 2.86 and 2.85 kills per set, respectively. Dree'Ana Abram (So., MB, Marshall, Texas) and Nia Antoine (Jr., MB, Lafayette, La.) have combined for 71 blocks in the middle over the first 37 sets.

Bartczyszyn has averaged 9.16 assists per set in helping direct the Ragin' Cajuns to a .205 hitting percentage. Freshman Avery Breaux (Fr., S, Scott, La.) was inserted into the starting lineup last Saturday at Rice and handed out 20-plus helpers in the first two matches working with Bartczyszyn to run the offense.

Louisiana enters the weekend seeking to post a winning record in tournament play, which would mark the first such occurrence since 2014. The Cajuns have posted a combined 3-4 record between the Sawyer Camillo Classic and Rice Adidas Invitational.

NOTEWORTHY
NICE TO MEET YOU: The matches with Chicago State and Wright State mark the first-ever meeting with both programs.

MILESTONE WATCH: Stacey Reilly's career digs tally stands at 996 which has her four shy of becoming the first outside hitter in the rally scoring era to reach 1,000 career digs.

STONEWALL: With 10 blocks in matches against Cal and Mississippi State last Saturday, the Ragin' Cajuns have reached double figures in blocks five times. The team has had at least five blocks in all but one match.

IT STARTS WITH DEFENSE: One of the Ragin' Cajuns' goals for the season is to have the top defense in the Sun Belt. After three weeks, the team leads in blocks (2.51/set) and sits second in digs (16.35/set).

WIZ OF THE OFFENSE: Each of the previous two weekends, freshman Hali Wisnoskie has led Louisiana in kills in a tournament. She tallied 32 kills on a .338 hitting percentage at the Rice Adidas Invitational. She landed at least eight kills each match, highlighted by a weekend-high 16 kills on a .519 percentage against Mississippi State

EARNING RECOGNITION: Hali Wisnoskie was named the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Week for matches played Sept. 4-10. She is the first individual in Louisiana's program history to earn SBC Freshman of the Week since the award was instituted by the conference office in 2013.

CONSISTENT SOURCE: A season ago, Stacey Reilly proved to be a go-to source for offense, reaching double digits in kills 23 times. She enters the Chicago State Invitational having produced double digits in kills in six of the past seven matches.

SUPER SENIOR: Setter Jessica Bartczyszyn is not your normal senior…she's a graduate student. Bartczyszyn received her bachelor's degree in English last spring. She's now pursuing a career in nursing.

VETERAN ATMOSPHERE: After spending the past two seasons nurturing and developing a young squad, head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot has experience on her side in 2017. The Ragin' Cajuns returned all but one starter and 13 players from last season. The program's current roster features 10 upperclassmen.

UP NEXT
Louisiana starts Sun Belt Conference play with the Georgia road trip Friday-Saturday, Sept. 22-23. The Ragin' Cajuns meet Georgia Southern in Statesboro on Friday at 5:30 p.m. (CDT), then travel to Atlanta to face Georgia State on Saturday at 5 p.m. (CDT).

FOLLOW THE RAGIN' CAJUNS
For more information on Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball, as well as all of Ragin' Cajuns Athletics, visit RaginCajuns.com. Fans can also follow along with the team on Facebook (/ULVolleyball), Twitter (@RaginCajunsVB) and Instagram (@RaginCajunsVB).

#GeauxCajuns

Volleyball Preview: Chicago State Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Dree'Ana Abram

Nia Antoine

Jessica Bartczyszyn

Avery Breaux

Stacey Reilly

Hali Wisnoskie

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University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

Volleyball Preview: Chicago State Invitational

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Dree'Ana Abram

Nia Antoine

Jessica Bartczyszyn

Avery Breaux

Stacey Reilly

Hali Wisnoskie

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