VALDOSTA, Ga.- The Valdosta State volleyball team (18-10, 12-6 GSC) is set to conclude the 2024 regular season at home this weekend when Trevecca Nazarene and Lee enter The Complex for a pair of key matchups. The Blazers will first take on the Trojans of Trevecca on Friday night at 6 p.m. before hosting the Lee Flames on Saturday for senior day at 1 p.m.
 
All of the Blazer volleyball action will be available on vstateblazers.com where links can be found for live stats and streaming. Video streaming is offered through FloSports with a paid subscription. For more information on how to subscribe and watch nearly every Valdosta State athletic event, see here.
 
Heading into this weekend, the Blazers sit in third place in the Gulf South Conference rankings with the GSC Championship Tournament looming. West Florida leads the conference with a perfect 18-0 conference record, followed by Alabama Huntsville in second who sits at 14-4. The Blazers remain in third with a 12-6 league record followed closely by Mississippi College in fourth (11-7), Lee in fifth (10-8) and Trevecca in sixth (10-8). With the second through sixth spots so close, this weekend is crucial for the final seeding heading into next week's GSC Tournament.
 
Valdosta State is coming off its final road trip of the regular season with the Blazers going 1-1 last weekend. VSU opened the stretch with a quick three-set victory over West Alabama in Livingston before dropping a gritty four-setter to Mississippi College in Clinton. Over the weekend, senior Kaia Baker surpassed 1500 career digs as the Porta Westfalica, Germany native racked up 32 digs for 4.57 digs per set against UWA and MC. For the season, Baker leads both the South Region and GSC in total digs with 513, ranking 18^th best in the nation. On average, she tallies 5.08 digs a set for best in the region and conference.
 
During last weekend's stretch, VSU was led offensively by the senior trio of Christina Pettigrew, Mackenzie Murray and Jojo Smith. Murray led the group in kills with 18 for the weekend while Pettigrew hit a team-best .261. Meanwhile, Smith recorded her ninth double-double of the year against the Choctaws with 10 kills and 16 digs while tacking on 17 total kills for the weekend. The duo of setters in senior Audrey Bennett (20 assists) and redshirt-freshman Avery Mullins (30 assists) combined for 50 assists over the stretch. Baker racked up a team-high seven service aces while Pettigrew led the defense in blocks with eight total rejections.
 
For the season, the aforementioned trio of seniors Jojo Smith, Christina Pettigrew and Mackenzie Murray lead the Blazer offensive attack with Smith in front of the pack at 293 kills on the year. Smith also has nine double-doubles this season alone. Meanwhile, Murray trails just behind Smith with 277 kills while Pettigrew has tallied 273 kills this season, hitting a team-best .289. Pettigrew leads the charge for the Blazer defense at the net with a squad-high 72 blocks this season, including 30 solo blocks. The pair of setters in Bennett (642 assists) and Mullins (372 assists) have combined for 1014 assists, keeping the VSU offense rolling. Baker has been an impressive defensive force for the Blazers, sitting at first in the GSC in digs with 513 while also ranking first in digs per set at 5.08 a frame. The Blazers are also first in the conference in digs with 1691 on the year for a conference best 16.58 digs per set.
 
Coming into The Complex for the first time, Trevecca Nazarene sits at 13-16 overall with a 10-8 conference record heading into this weekend's matchup. The Trojans recently defeated Lee in three sets in Nashville last Thursday before dropping a hard-fought five-setter to AUM on the road last Friday. Trevecca Nazarene is under the direction of head coach Emily Moore who is 88-82 in her sixth season with the Trojans. Back on October 18th, the Blazers defeated the Trojans in the first matchup in recorded history between the two programs, 3-0. Since then, TNU has gone 5-4, defeating the likes of Montevallo, Mississippi College and Lee.
 
The strength of the Trojans lies in their defensive ability as they rank second in the conference in both total blocks (243) and blocks per set (2.23). Individually, Trevecca has two players who rank in the top ten in the GSC in blocks including Reese Payne who ranks first with 120 total blocks and Mackenzie O'Loughlin who ranks third with 110 total rejections. Meanwhile Emma Titus leads the TNU offense with 302 kills for 2.77 kills a set. Titus also is no slouch on the defensive end with 65 total blocks on the year.
 
Lee enters the weekend with a 16-14 record with a 10-8 mark in the GSC and will take on West Florida on Friday before coming to Valdosta on Saturday. The Flames are under the direction of head coach Christa Fabre who is 33-29 in her second season as the leader of the Lee volleyball program. Valdosta State and Lee are tied dead-even at 10-10 in the matchup history, with each team taking five of the last ten matchups, 5-5. The matches against Lee have been nothing short of battles with five of the last matches coming down to five sets including this season's five-set contest on Oct. 19 which resulted in Lee emerging victorious at home.
 
As a team, Lee currently sits at the top of a few major categories in the Gulf South Conference including first in kills (1414), first in service aces (228) and second in hitting percentage (.223) just to name a few. Individually, Sara Palumbo ranks fifth in the league in kills with 311 on the year while Carmen Perez ranks first in service aces with 49. Meanwhile, defensively, Izzy Denton ranks second in total digs in the league with 466 this season.
 
Following this weekend's matchups, the Blazers will prepare for the GSC Championship Tournament which kicks off next week. With the conference race coming down to the wire, the schedule for the tournament is yet to be determined. Once the dust settles this weekend, be sure to stay tuned to vstateblazers.com for the latest on what's next for the Blazer volleyball team.