VALDOSTA, Ga.- The Valdosta State volleyball team will hit the road for its first road trip of the 2024 season, heading to the Lions Volleyball Fall Tournament in St. Leo, Florida this weekend. Over the course of Friday and Saturday, the Blazers are set to take on four teams including: St. Edward's, UVA Wise, Saint Michael's, and Saint Leo. VSU kicks off the tournament against Saint Edward's at 9 a.m. on Friday morning; Valdosta State's full schedule for the Saint Leo Tournament is listed below:

For live stat links and streaming options for each of those four exciting matchups, visit vstateblazers.com and head to the volleyball schedule page or visit the tournament page on Saint Leo's website located here.
 
Kicking off the season at home in the Fall Tournament at Valdosta State last weekend, the Blazer volleyball team went 2-2 in its four opening matchups on Friday and Saturday. The Blazers dropped the season-opener to Converse 3-0 on Friday morning before bouncing back to defeat Winston-Salem State 3-0 on Friday evening. Valdosta State then fell in three sets to regional foe Rollins on Saturday afternoon before downing Erskine in the final match of the tournament, 3-0.
 
Last weekend, the Blazer offense was led by the trio of senior Jojo Smith, senior Christina Pettigrew and junior Katie Callenberger racking up 127.5 of VSU's 216 total points in the tournament. Smith led the way with 36 kills and three aces along with 40 digs and seven blocks defensively. She recorded her first double-double of the season in the matchup against WSSU recording 14 kills and 12 digs in the win. Meanwhile, Pettigrew continued to be a dominant force on defense, squaring up a team-high 11 blocks and eight solo rejections while also tallying 31 kills and four aces. Callenberger proved to be a force on both sides of the net, picking up 29 kills, one ace and eight solo blocks over the four-game stretch.
 
Senior setter Audrey Bennett showed she is still a focal point of this Blazer team, doing a little bit of everything totaling a team-high 125 assists, 22 kills, four service aces, 31 digs and five blocks. Sophomore Lily Glover and senior Kaia Baker proved to be an exceptional pair at libero, racking up 111 of the Blazers' 251 digs with Glover leading the team in the category with 64. Finally, senior Mackenzie Murray continued to show off her offensive prowess, picking up the second most kills on the team with 33 for 2.54 kills per set.
 
For the upcoming tournament, St. Edward's enters with a 3-1 record after downing Arkansas at Monticello, Newman and Purdue Northwest in the Hilltopper Classic last weekend. The Hilltoppers are led by the offensive trio of Mia Clay, Landry Baughman and Kat Neille who combined for 110 of St. Edward's 186 kills so far this season, amassing 119.5 total points. Meanwhile Althea Morris leads the team in assists with 146 while Cora Young has a team-high nine blocks. The Hilltoppers are led by head-coach Jared Te'o who went 7-21 overall and 3-13 in the Lone Star Conference in his first season as the head of the program in 2023. The matchup against VSU this season marks the first time these two teams have squared off in recent history.
 
UVA Wise also enters St. Leo, Florida with a 3-1 record after downing West Alabama, King and Bluefield State in Cavalier Classic last weekend.The Cavaliers offense is led by Kaylee Scarce who holds a team-high 45 kills for 3.46 kills per set while Kamryn Livingston has a staggering 10 aces over the course of four matches. The Cavs are led by head coach Alyssa Hanley, who is in her third season at the position. Last season, Hanley led UVA Wise to a 9-17 overall record with a 2-16 mark in the South Atlantic Conference. This is also the first time UVA Wise and VSU have met in recent history.
 
Saint Michael's comes to Saint Leo University with a 2-1 record after knocking off Assumption and Middlebury last weekend in a pair of hard-fought contests. The Purple Knights are led by attackers Nora Schulze with 54 kills and Grace Almeida with 40 kills along with Kyla Farnan who has a team-leading nine aces. Meanwhile, Kaeleigh Cucura leads Saint Michael's on defense with a towering 14 blocks over the course of three matches. The Purple Knights are coached by Head Coach Lauren Brough who is entering her second season at the helm of the program. In 2024, she led Saint Michael's to a 6-13 record with a 4-7 stand in the Northeast 10 conference. Much like the previous teams mentioned before, this is the first time the Purple Knights will take on the Blazers in recent history.
 
Hosting school Saint Leo enters the tournament with a 2-1 record, defeating Adelphi and Emory & Henry in the Eckerd Tournament last weekend. The Lions are led by the trio of Anyaliz Rodriguez, Oliwia Durka and Paula Perez Rosales who account for 106 of SLU's 147 kills so far. Meanwhile Rodriguez leads the team on defense with 10 total blocks in the young season. Head Coach Natalia Koryzna is in her fourth year at the helm of the program, leading the team to a 9-20 record with a 4-16 stint in the tough Sunshine State Conference. Saint Leo is the only familiar foe for VSU in the tournament, taking two of the last seven matchups with the Blazers since 2012. Just last season, the Blazers and Lions duked it out in The Complex at the Blazer Volleyball Tournament in a hard-fought contest which saw VSU take the match, 3-1.
 
Following this weekend's tournament, the Blazers will return home to The Complex to host two big-time teams from the SSC including the number one-ranked team in the nation Tampa, as well as Florida Southern. Action kicks off on Friday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m. when the Blazers and Spartans take the court. For more information on the upcoming matchups as well as all things Valdosta State volleyball, visit vstateblazers.com and head to the volleyball schedule page.