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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The 2016 season officially gets under way this weekend as the Purple Aces travel to the Indiana Invitational where they will face Marshall, Indiana and Northern Kentucky.  Evansville faces off against Marshall to open the season on Friday before taking on the Hoosiers and Norse on Saturday.
 
Action begins on Friday at 4 p.m. CT versus the Thundering Herd before the Aces face the Hoosiers on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT.  The tournament wraps up at 4 p.m. CT against the Norse.
 
A young 2016 squad features two starters from a season ago - sophomores Mildrelis Rodriguez and Rocio Fortuny.  The Aces also return six other letterwinners that will be competing with four newcomers for starting positions and playing time.
 
Mildrelis Rodriguez is the top returning offensive player for UE as she accumulated a total of 217 kills in last year's freshman campaign.  That translated to 2.01 per set.  She also did a nice job on defense, registering 349 digs.  That put her second on the team with 3.23 per set and tops among all returners.  Her average saw her finish in 14th in the MVC.
 
Sophomore Rocio Fortuny finished her first season at Evansville as the top blocker on the squad.  Seeing time in 110 sets, she posted a total of 100 blocks, including 11 solo blocks.  Those totals saw her finish 10th in the MIssouri Valley Conference.  She was the top freshman blocker in the league.  Fortuny also notched a total of 134 kills in 2015.
 
Another sophomore was the Purple Aces' most accurate offensive weapon last season at Elizabeth Giller hit .220 in 2015.  She finished with 92 kills in 236 attempts with 40 errors.  Defensively, Giller recorded 59 blocks as a freshman.
 
Jelena Merseli is the most experienced returning setter for UE.  In her first season with the squad, Merseli was limited to 81 sets, but made the most of her time.  She notched 337 assists, good for an average of 4.16 per set.
 
The Thundering Herd is coming off of a 16-14 season last year and performed extremely well in the early part of the season, winnings its first four matches and eight out of the first nine.  They went 7-9 in Conference USA before dropping their opening match in the C-USA Tournament.
 
Indiana posted a 16-16 record in 2015 while going 6-14 in the Big Ten.  The Hoosiers won ten of their first 12 matches out of the gate, including wins over Virginia Tech, Bowling Green and Northern Arizona in the Indiana Invitational last September.
 
Last season, the Norse were 14-16 while going an even 8-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference.  In a meeting at the Carson Center on Sept. 12 of last year, NKU earned a 3-0 decision in a hard-fought match that saw them take the final set by a tally of 27-25.
 

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