After hitting a few bumps in the road, the University of Evansville volleyball team (8-7, 1-2) returns home to face Missouri Valley foes Indiana State and Illinois State in the Aces’ first full weekend at Carson Center.

The Purple Aces match-up with Indiana State Friday followed by Illinois State on Saturday. Both games are slated for 7:00 p.m.

“This is going to be a huge weekend for us,” said Evansville head coach Mike Swan. “We would love to sweep our conference matches over the weekend because it would help put us in a pretty good situation. The way things have started out in the Valley right now, it’s going to be really interesting to see where this thing ends up at the end of the year because everybody is beating up everybody.”

UE looks to bounce back this weekend after a tough loss at Lipscomb Tuesday night. Senior Ginta Gabruseva has exploded offensively as of late, as she has led the team in kills in four out of the last five games. Sophomore Brooke Maher leads the team with 159 kills while Gabruseva follows with 158. Junior Emily Wandersee has a team-high .262 attack percentage with 152 kills on 393 attempts.

History will also be made soon for sophomore Ellen Sawin and junior Julie Sylvester. Sawin’s 615 assists this season almost reaches her 2008 total of 622. For her two years, the setter has 1,237 assists and is 27 away from breaking into the list of UE’s all-time assists leaders. Sylvester is also close to making the top 10 list for career digs. Over her career, Sylvester has tallied 946 digs and now stands 11 digs away from the list.

Indiana State enters Friday with a 5-11 overall record and 1-3 conference mark. The Aces have been winners of the last 10 matches against the Sycamores. Ana Maira Charun has stepped up during conference play for the Sycamores, as she has posted a team-high 47 kills. Defensively, Kiya James has collected 254 digs this season while the team itself is being outblocked by opponents 43-17.

“We have had a lot of success against Indiana State as of late, but I think they are much improved this year,” Swan said. “They have a couple of new players that are doing a good job for them, and they had a huge win over the weekend by upsetting Drake in three. I think it will come down to us serving aggressive and taking them out of their system. If we can do that I think we have a good shot of getting another win against them.”

Illinois State has recorded a 6-9 record in the 2009 season while being 1-3 in the league. Mallory Leggett continues to be a consistent force for the Redbirds with 183 total kills and 57 in conference play. The Redbirds have help getting their offense started from Kristin Stauter and Jessica Pratapas, as the duo has 532 assists between them.

“With Illinois State, it’s a team that has kind of had our number over the last few years,” Swan said. “We beat them a few years ago at home, but we haven’t been able to get past them since that point. I know they struggled early this year and took some tough losses. Their offense is geared around their two outside hitters, so we really need to focus on shutting them down, playing good defense and spreading out our offense.”