The University of Evansville volleyball team (11-10, 4-6) returns to Carson Center after sweeping Southern Illinois last week at home. The victory put the Aces and Salukis in a tie for sixth place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. The Aces will have their work cut out for them this weekend as they host the two teams at the top of the MVC standings. The Aces will host Missouri State (21-3, 10-1) Friday and Wichita State (19-4, 10-1) Saturday. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.

Missouri State won its fifth straight game against Indiana State on Saturday. The Bears fell behind early in game one but pulled out the 30-21 win, holding ISU?to a .022 hitting percentage. Jamie Adams led the Bears in game three hitting .500 with seven kills. Missouri hit .256 overall and held ISU to .096 average. Terri Del Conte led all players with 16 digs, Cara Hackmann added 10 and Sara Thomas and Katelyn Panzau each had nine.

Wichita State swept Illinois State (30-26, 30-28, 30-22) for its 12th straight victory last Saturday at Charles Koch Arena. The Redbirds and Shockers battled back and forth and traded points for most of the match. Wichita State hit .268, while holding Illinois State to .149. Emily Stockman led the Shockers attack with 18 kills, while Sara Lungren and Stepanie Tokarz both posted 12 kills.

The Aces came on strong against Southern Illinois last Thursday, hitting .368 in game one and controlling the tempo for most of the game. In game two, the Aces fell behind 20-12 but rallied back to score 13 of 14 of the next points to win the game 30-25. The Salukis and Aces battled neck in neck in the third game but with the help of some timely blocking the Aces pulled out the sweep with a 30-27 victory in game three. Sally Kulupka led UE with 12 kills and Ginta Gubruseva contributed 11 kills.

In the most recent NCAA national rankings, UE senior Julie Walroth ranked fifth in the nation in digs per game and Evansville as a team ranked 13th overall. This week, Walroth received State Farms MVC defensive player-of-the-week honors for the third time this season and Prairie Farms MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week.

After this weekend, the Aces will travel to Drake on  Nov. 2 for a 7 p.m. contest.