FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Indiana Tech volleyball team heads to Sylvania, Ohio, on Wednesday to battle with undefeated and 18^th ranked Lourdes before hosting Concordia, Cornerstone and Northwestern Ohio in a Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Crossover on Saturday for Senior Day to conclude the regular season.
 
Indiana Tech (20-13, 12-7 WHAC)
 
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m. at No. 18 Lourdes (25-0, 19-0 WHAC) – Sylvania, Ohio (Tam-O-Shanter)
Saturday, Nov. 7, 12 p.m. vs. Cornerstone (23-10, 12-7 WHAC) – Fort Wayne, Indiana (Schaefer Center)
Saturday, Nov. 7, 3 p.m. vs. Northwestern Ohio (14-21, 7-12 WHAC) – Fort Wayne, Indiana (Schaefer Center) Senior Day
 
Follow Along: Live stats will be available for all matches, while live video will be provided for the matches on Nov. 7. All links can be found at IndianaTechWarriors.com. You can also check out the action on Twitter by following @IndianaTechVB and @INTechWarriors.
 
Last Time Out: The Warriors dropped a pair of matches on Sunday at the Siena Heights Crossover. In the first session against No. 22 Madonna, Tech fell in four games before getting swept by the host Saints in the nightcap. Against the Crusaders, Cassie Sarabia led the Warriors with a game-high 15 kills, while Jazmin Alexander added 13 and Katelyn St. Martin recorded nine. St. Martin would also tally two aces and total blocks. Taylor Kelso had a game-high 24 digs, while Karli Jones and Autumn Stokes would dish out 26 and 20 assists, respectively. Later against Siena Heights, Sarabia would again lead the Orange and Black with a game-high 18 kills, while Jones dished out 20 assists. Kelso would record a game-high 18 digs and St. Martin had 10 digs, seven kills and two more aces.
 
Head Coach Kourtney Wilson: Now entering her fourth year at the helm for the Indiana Tech volleyball team, head coach Kourtney Wilson holds a 75-56 record, the second most wins in program history. Last season, Wilson led the Warriors to an 18-17 record, finishing eighth in the WHAC with a 9-13 mark before losing to #15 Davenport in the WHAC Tournament quarterfinals. She has coached 18 WHAC All-Academic team members, 10 All-Conference selections, nine NAIA Scholar-Athletes, one All-Freshman team selection in Taylor Kelso, and one NAIA All-American, Kelsey Cox. In her first season at the helm, Wilson led her squad to a 25-12 record with a 9-2 mark in conference play. The Warriors finished the year third in the WHAC standings and advanced all the way to the conference tournament semifinals.
 
Scouting the Opposition: Lourdes – The Gray Wolves have run the table so far through 25 games and have only gone to five sets in three of those matches. The 18^th ranked team in the nation received 268 votes in last week's NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll and will almost certainly move up when the rankings come out Tuesday evening. Stephanie Ruffing leads the team in kills (309) is hitting at a .309 clip while also recording 197 digs, 32 total blocks and 20 aces. Michi Jimenez is third in the WHAC in digs per set (4.9) and has 419 in all.
 
Cornerstone – The Golden Eagles take on Northwestern Ohio on Wednesday before heading to Fort Wayne and just snapped a two-game losing skid on Saturday at the UNOH Crossover, defeating Michigan-Dearborn in three sets. Tech is tied for third with Cornerstone at 12-7 in the WHAC standings with three matches to go. Chelsea Lake, Megan Newhouse and Johanna Egerer all have over 230 kills, with Lake leading the way at 352 and a .279 hitting percentage. Defensively, Lake leads the team in digs with 435, while Amber Carmean and Newhouse are right behind with 422 and 401, respectively.
 
Northwestern Ohio – The Racers went 1-2 last week and will face off with Cornerstone in Grand Rapids on Wednesday before heading to the Summit City. Nora Fa'atiga leads the way offensively for UNOH with 314 kills and is second on the team in digs with 227. Cierra Anderson has the team lead in digs with 409 and has 22 aces as well.
 
Series History: Lourdes – Tech is 5-3 against the Gray Wolves since Lourdes joined the WHAC in 2010, but dropped their first meeting earlier this season in three sets.
 
Cornerstone – Tech is 12-9 against the Golden Eagles since 2005, and won their previous matchup Sept. 25 in five sets.
 
Northwestern Ohio – The Warriors are 9-3 against the Racers since 2008 and won the last matchup in four sets on Sept. 19 in Lima.
 
Making Her Way into the Record Books: Junior libero Taylor Kelso made history Oct. 17 at the Concordia Crossover. In the come-from behind five-set victory, Kelso recorded 37 digs to tie former standout Kayla Hartman's record. The Colonel Crawford High School product now has 674 digs on the season and needs 44 more to reach the programs single season record, also held by Hartman.
 
We're Going to Need a Bigger Shelf: Kelso picked up her third WHAC Defender of the Week Award on Oct. 19 after recording 81 digs over three games for the week of Oct. 12-18. Kelso tied the program record for digs in a match with 37 on Saturday against Aquinas and picked up 24 against Davenport and 20 in the win over Concordia. She is the first player in the league to win the weekly award three times this year.
 
A Look at the Standings: With only three conference games left on the slate, the Warriors find themselves tied with Cornerstone and Davenport for third place at 12-7. If the season ended today, Tech would hold the tiebreaker via head-to-head results and face off with Aquinas in the WHAC Tournament quarterfinals. Undefeated and 18^th ranked Lourdes sits atop the WHAC standings at 19-0 and 25-0 overall, while No. 22 Madonna has only two blemishes on its conference record at 17-2. The Orange and Black hold a two-game lead over Aquinas and Siena Heights. The top eight teams will make the WHAC Tournament, which will be held Nov. 13-14 at the location of the regular season champion.
 
Hitting Machines: The trio of Cassie Sarabia, Jazmin Alexander and Katelyn St. Martin all rank in the top-15 in the WHAC in total kills. Sarabia leads the team with 392, third most in the conference and tied for 34^th in the country, while Alexander and St. Martine are tied for 13^th with 278. Sarabia and St. Martin also rank in the top-20 in kills per set with 3.32 and 2.53, good for fourth and 16^th, respectively, while Alexander is at 22 with 2.38 kills per set.
 
All-Around Player: Senior Katelyn St. Martin finds herself all over the floor for the Warriors and shows up all over the stat sheet for the Orange and Black. The Zionsville, Indiana, native ranks first on the team in aces (36), second in digs (350) tied for second in kills (278), second in kills per set (2.53) and is seventh in total blocks (26). She's recorded 20-plus digs in three straight matches from Oct. 14-17, even leading the team with 23 against Concordia on Oct. 14, which was the first time all season Taylor Kelso did not lead the Warriors in that category. The Hamilton Southeastern High School product recently passed 1,000 career digs as well.
 
Sharing the Rock: Setters Karli Jones and Mara Zell have combined for 1,036 of the Warriors 1,408 assists and the Orange and Black are tied for 18^th in the nation in total assists. Tech's 11.64 assists per set ranks in a tie for 36^th in the country as well. Those numbers are both good for third in the WHAC.
 
National Acclaim: Junior outside hitter Cassie Sarabia made Indiana Tech history when she was named the NAIA National Attacker of the Week back on Sept. 29. Sarabia is the first Tech player to garner the national award and was coming off back-to-back WHAC Attacker of the Week Awards as well. The Rossford, Ohio, native had 57 kills for the week of Sept. 21-27, including a career-high 25 kills against Davenport, two off tying the program record for a match. She recorded her second straight double-double against the Panthers with 15 digs and also hit a team-high .392. In the Warriors victory win against Cornerstone, she had a game-high 19 kills while also picking up 13 digs for her first double-double of the season and also had a team-high 13 kills in the win over Lawrence Tech on Sept. 23.
 
Twice As Nice: Juniors Cassie Sarabia and Taylor Kelso were chosen at the WHAC Attacker and Defender of the Week, respectively, for two weeks in a row on Sept. 21 and 28. Sarabia had 91 kills over the two weeks and had two games where she hit over .300. Kelso had 132 digs over the same stretch.
 
Digging Force: Taylor Kelso has made a living diving on the floor over her three years with the Warriors. She has 1,836 digs for her career and moved into third place all-time at Tech on Sept. 26 when she recorded a then season-high 33 against Davenport. She has only failed to break double-digit digs once this year, when she only notched nine against Concordia on Sept. 9. Kelso has reached 30 or more digs five times in her career. Her 674 digs on the season are the eighth most in the nation and lead the WHAC, while her 5.57 digs per set currently ranks 15^th in the nation and leads the conference as well.
 
Block Party: Freshman Gabby Staggs has made her living at the net this season. She ranks second in the WHAC in total blocks (114) and fifth in the WHAC in blocks per set (0.97). Nationally, the Goshen, Indiana, native ranks in a tie for 40^th in total blocks. She reached the double-digit plateau for the first time this season against Lawrence Tech as she finished with 10 total blocks. She has played in all but three sets this fall and ranks fourth on the team in kills (172).
 
This and That: As a team, the Warriors are ranked in the top-50 in six categories. They are tied for 18^th in total assists (1,408), 22^nd in total kills (1,518), tied for 36^th in assists per set (11.64), 41^st in kills per set (12.55), 37^th in total digs (1,959) and 50^th in total blocks (224).
 
Going the Distance: All three of the Warriors victories for the week of Sept. 21-27 (Lawrence Tech, Cornerstone, and Davenport) went five sets. The wins over the Golden Eagles and Panthers also came within 24 hours of each other. The last time the Warriors had a three-match streak of playing all five sets came in 2013 when they opened the season with three straight five-setters at the St. Thomas (Fla.) Invitational. That fall they opened with a 3-2 victory over the hosts before dropping the next two matches to #19 Lindsey Wilson and RV Kansas Wesleyan.