VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State Blazer volleyball team closes out the 2022 regular season with a pair of home matches this week, while the cross country teams head to the Gulf South Conference Championship and the Blazer football team hosts rival West Florida at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.  The Blazer men's basketball team begins its season this week with the prestigious Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic in Lakeland, Fla. 
 
Volleyball  

The Valdosta State volleyball rounds out the 2022 regular season, hosting Auburn Montgomery on Nov. 3 and then West Georgia on Nov. 4 at 6 p.m., inside The Complex.  
 
The Blazers enter the week with a 12-18 record overall, a 6-8 mark in the Gulf South Conference and are coming off sweeps of Shorter and Christian Brothers and a 3-0 loss at Union last week.  VSU enters the final two matches of the regular season sitting eighth in the conference standings as the top eight teams qualify for the postseason conference tournament, beginning Monday, Nov. 7 on campus sites.  Right in front of the Blazers are Alabama Huntsville and Shorter, who are each 7-7 in league play.  VSU has a two-match lead on Lee (4-10) and the Blazers need one win in their final two matches to clinch a spot in the GSC postseason tournament.  
 
On the year, the Blazers are hitting .153 and have recorded 1,165 kills, a conference-high 235 aces, good for seventh nationally, 1,619 digs and 221 blocks. The team also leads the conference in aces per set with 2.20. Sophomore Lyara Rosario continues to lead the GSC in service aces with 61, good for fourth nationally, while sophomore Christina Pettigrew leads the conference in blocks and blocks per set with 108 and 1.03, respectively. Sophomore Jojo Smith leads the Blazer offense with 295 kills on the year while sophomore Mackenzie Murray has 213 kills. On defense, Rosario leads the team with 387 digs while freshman Ava Young has 76 blocks at the net behind Pettigrew.  
 
AUM enters the week with a 14-15 record and an 8-6 mark in conference play. The Warhawks are coming off a 3-0 loss to Mississippi College on Oct. 29 and will take on Tuskegee University Monday evening before making the trip to Titletown on Thursday.  The Warhawks come to VSU having won the past six meetings between the two teams and lead the overall series 6-4. Last season, the AUM defeated the Blazers 3-0 on Nov. 12 in Montgomery while the Blazers and AUM have split the series in Valdosta, each winning twice. 
 
The Warhawks are hitting .184 on the year and have recorded 1,252 kills, 148 aces, 1,683 digs and 167 blocks. Kendall McCain leads the offense with 284 kills on the season and has a team-high 260 digs on defense while Kyla Ffrench has a team-high 81 blocks at the net.  
 
For the Wolves, West Georgia enters the week with a 12-19 record and a 4-11 mark in the GSC and will round out the regular season with VSU. The Wolves are coming off a 3-1 victory over Rhodes College on Oct. 29, and a narrow 3-2 win over Christian Brothers on Oct. 29. UWG has won the past six matches with VSU as the Wolves defeated the Blazers 3-1 earlier in the season in Carrollton.  
 
UWG is hitting .155 on the year and has 1,266 kills, 212 aces, 1,765 digs and 240 blocks. Emilee Harris leads the offense with 274 kills while Sydney Blackmon has a team-high 505 digs on defense and Sanai Young has 108 blocks at the net.   
 
This match with UWG also is part of the Red Clay Rivalry Series as UWG leads 2.5-0 in the annual series thus far, with the win earlier in volleyball, along with victories in women's soccer and football.  VSU and UWG also will compete this weekend in the GSC Cross Country Championship for both men and women, where two points in the series will be up for grabs.
 
Cross Country  

The men's and women's cross country teams are scheduled to compete at the GSC Cross Country Championships, Saturday, Nov. 5 in Montevallo, Ala., at the Montevallo Cross Country Course. The men's 8K race is slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET, while the women's 5K race is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. ET.  
 
Both events will be streamed through FloSports and live results will also be available throughout the event.  For the complete list of information including media coverage, visit GSC Championship Central.  
 
The cross country teams are coming off the UAB XC Invitational on Oct. 14, also at the Montevallo Cross Country Course. The women's team took home 11th overall while the men's team took seventh overall.  
 
All athletes on the women's team recorded personal bests including sophomore Caitlyn Koske, who finished as the top Blazer runner with a time of 22:56.10 for 30th overall last time out.  Junior Katie LaCroix, followed suit with a time of 24:17.6, 69th overall, and junior Kyleigh Rice finished 72nd overall with a time of 24:32.4. Junior Jaycie Anderson finished with a time of 26:32.2 while freshman Emily Phillips was the final Blazer runner with a time of 28:37.8.   
 
For the men, senior Brishen house finished as the top Blazer with a time of 25:04.7, good for a season-best and 20th overall out of 176 runners. Junior Logan Kraus was the second VSU runner home in 51st place with a time of 26:06.6, while junior Adam Mastrobuono followed suit with a time of 26:09.7, good for 53rd overall and a season best.  Junior Charlie Eaton, finished 61st overall with a personal record and a time of 26:30.7 and junior Dalton Pender finished with a time of 26:41.40, good for a personal best.  
 
Junior Braedon Bensley followed Pender with a personal best time of 26:45.5 and sophomore Alec Munger finished the race with a season best time of 26:58. Freshmen Gavin Sadowski, River Livingston, and Matthew Herndon followed with a time of 27:28.6, 27:38.4, and 28:17.4, respectively, while sophomore Austen Sekowski rounded out the Blazer finishers with a time of 28:20.4. Herndon recorded a personal best while Sekowski recorded a season best.

The GSC Championship will feature Alabama Huntsville, Auburn Montgomery, Christian Brothers, Lee, Mississippi College, Montevallo, Shorter, Union, West Alabama, West Florida and West Georgia. 
 
Following the conference championship, the NCAA DII South Region Cross Country Championships are slated for Nov. 19 in Lakeland, Fla.  
 
Men's Basketball  

The Valdosta State men's basketball team is set to open the 2022-2023 season at the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic in Lakeland, Fla. The Blazers will open the classic with Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 3:30 p.m., and round out the weekend with Hillsdale College on Sunday, Nov. 6, also at 3:30 p.m. 
 
The SBC National Hall of Fame Classic, hosted this year by Florida Southern College, features some of the top NCAA Division II basketball programs in the country including GSC foe Alabama Huntsville, Dallas Baptist, Flagler College, Florida Southern, Hillsdale, Lincoln Memorial, defending national champion Missouri Northwestern, Nova Southeastern, West Texas A&M and Valdosta State.  
 
Ticket pricing, live streaming and live stats can be found on the SBC Hall of Fame Classic Central, or by visiting the men's basketball schedule page on vstateblazers.com.  
 
Last season, the Railsplitters ended the year with a 26-5 record and a 21-3 mark in the South Athletic Conference. The team made a deep postseason run, falling to Carson-Newman in the second round of the SAC Men's Basketball Championship and then defeating No. 6 Georgia College in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 100-65, before falling to No. 2 Queens in the second round of the tournament. 
 
The Chargers are slated to tip off against Dallas Baptist on Nov. 5 at 11 a.m., before facing off against VSU on Sunday. Hillsdale ended last year with a 23-8 overall record and a 15-5 mark in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and made an appearance in the NCAA DII Championship Quarterfinals, falling to Indiana (PA) 67-55. The meeting with the Blazers will also be the first time the two teams meet.  
 
This season, the Blazers were selected third in the 2022-2023 Preseason Coaches' Poll, while defending GSC Champion Alabama Huntsville was picked first.  
 
Head coach Mike Helfer, who enters his 18th season at the helm of the Blazers, returns a solid core of talent, as well as eight fresh faces to the team. In addition, Helfer has also named former graduate assistant Nate Nowicki as the new assistant basketball coach ahead of the season.   
 
Helfer returns seniors Jacolbey Owens, Maurice Gordon, Cam Hamilton, Kelan Walker and Mohamed Fofana in addition to junior Cam Selders and redshirt freshman Dylan Garrington.   
 
Last season, Hamilton led the team in three-pointers with 64 out of 180 attempts, while Owens had a team-high 144 field goals in 322 attempts. In addition, Owens also led the team averaging 15 points per game and 83 free throws made out of 144 attempts.   
 
Helfer also welcomes five transfers and three incoming players. Sophomore Caden Boser, who was named to the 2022-2023 newcomer watchlist and is a transfer from University of Missouri-Kansas City.  At UMKC, he appeared in 17 games as a freshman in 2020-2021, and then played in 30 games, with three starts, and averaged 11.8 minutes per game in the 2021-2022 season.   
 
Jay Rucker, a transfer from Emmanuel College, appeared in 28 games as a sophomore last season and recorded 24 starts, 294 points, 157 rebounds, 25 assists and 20 blocks. Junior Lee Flenor, a transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, recorded 240 points and went 103 of 171 from the field through 623 minutes of action last season while junior Mike Isler, a transfer from Tallahassee Community College, was named to the All-Panhandle Conference second team last season through 31 games.  
 
Graduate Student Ryan Black, who was the second Blazer named to the Newcomer Watchlist, is a transfer from Holy Cross College in Notre Dame, Ind. He played in 28 games with 27 starts last season and recorded 394 points, 136 rebounds and 32 steals during his senior campaign.   
 
In addition to the transfers, sophomore and Valdosta native Jace Lavan, freshman and Lowndes High School alum Jarcqves "JJ" Williams, and sophomore Christian Connor, a native of Snellville, Ga, all join the roster.  
 
Following the SBC Classic, the Blazers will play in the GSC/ SIAC Regional Challenge in Pensacola, Fla., facing off against Fort Valley State on Nov. 12 at 8:30 p.m. and Clark Atlanta on Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m. before opening GSC action on Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. against Lee inside the Complex.  
 
Football
 
The Blazers return home to host No. 8 West Florida on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.  VSU is coming off a thrilling 58-37 victory at North Greenville on Saturday as it outscored the Crusaders 44-9 in the second half after trailing 28-14 at intermission.  Check back with vstateblazers.com later in the week for a preview, links to live stats, streaming, ticket information and more of the game.