The Youngstown State volleyball team will make its annual swing through Wisconsin this weekend to play Green Bay and Milwaukee in matches that will conclude the first half of league play. The Penguins will play at Green Bay on Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern and at league-leading Milwaukee on Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern. Both matches will be broadcast on the Horizon League Network.

The matches will serve as a good measuring stick for the Penguins. They will enter the weekend with a 3-2 mark in conference play, which is tied with Green Bay for third place in the standings. Milwaukee is 5-0, which is a game ahead of second-place Valparaiso and two games up on YSU and Green Bay.

YSU was on both sides of a sweep last weekend, losing to Valparaiso on Friday before bouncing back to defeat UIC. Although both matches were sweeps, they were both competitive with four of the six sets being decided by two points. Valpo edged YSU 25-17, 28-26, 27-25, and YSU got by UIC 25-23, 31-29, 25-20. Senior libero Erika West averaged 6.33 digs per set in the two matches to earn Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Painesville, Ohio, native also collected the 1,000th dig of her career in the match against UIC. Junior outside hitter Alexis Egler paced the offense with 4.5 kills per set, and she has reached double digits in kills in six of the past seven matches.

The Penguins will remain on the road next week when it plays at Cleveland State on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. YSU defeated the Vikings to start conference play on Sept. 27 at Beeghly Center.

@YSUVolleyball Quick Hitters

• Mark Hardaway is in his second season as YSU's head coach. Last year he led the Penguins to a 15-14 record, their best since 1999.
• The Penguins have beaten Kent State, Akron and Cleveland State in the same season for the first time in school history. Add in a victory over Robert Morris, and YSU has wins over four of the six schools located within 120 miles of campus.
• Behind its league-best 2.62 blocks per set, YSU is holding opponents to a .171 attack percentage. That ranks second in the conference, and it's 26 points lower than last season's mark of .197.
• Jenna Cavanaugh's 10 blocks against UIC on Saturday were the most by a Penguin in a three-set match since rally scoring began in 2001. Cavanaugh leads the Horizon League with 1.41 blocks per set.
• YSU's 15 blocks vs. UIC were the most in a three-set match since 2001.

Recapping Last Weekend

L, 0-3 vs. Valparaiso – Valparaiso needed extra volleyball in each of the final two sets but held on to sweep YSU 25-17, 28-26, 27-25 on Oct. 11 at Beeghly Center. Alexis Egler had 14 kills to lead all players, and Erika West registered a match-best 16 digs. Valparaiso had three players with at least 12 kills. The Penguins, averaging 2.61 blocks per set heading into the match, had just two blocks in the contest. That allowed Valpo to hit .311 as a team, which took away from YSU's solid .228 attack percentage.

W, 3-0 vs. UIC – Erika West recorded the 1,000th dig of her career, and middle blocker Jenna Cavanaugh had a historic day in leading YSU to a 25-23, 31-29, 25-20 sweep of UIC on Oct. 12. Cavanaugh surpassed 300 career blocks in the match, and her 10 blocks in the contest helped YSU register 15 as a team. Nichele Johnson added eight blocks, and Alexis Egler paced the offense with 13 kills. Shannon Watson added 10 kills.

Scouting Green Bay

• Green Bay is 8-10 overall and 3-2 in Horizon League play with conference wins over Wright State, Oakland and UIC. The Phoenix lost to UWM in four sets and Valparaiso in five.
• Three Green Bay players are averaging more than three kills per set, and freshman Shannon Hurley leads the league with 3.23 kills per set. The Phoenix also have the top players in the league in assists per set (Emily Riese) and digs per set (Jillian Bauer).

Scouting Milwaukee

• Milwaukee has bounced back from a down year in 2012 to start 5-0 in Horizon League play in 2013. Only two of the five league teams have been able to win a set against the Panthers.
• UWM is outhitting conference opponents .279 to .116, and three Panthers are averaging at least 2.8 kills per set during league play. For the year, preseason offensive player of the year Rachel Neuberger ranks second in the league with a .322 attack percentage, and Julie Kolinski ranks seventh with 3.03 kills per set.

Winners of Seven Out of Nine

• Youngstown State has won seven of its last nine matches dating back to a 3-1 victory over Akron on Sept. 21. Other than YSU's eight-match winning streak early last season, the Penguins had not won seven out of nine matches since 2008.
• Statistically, the Penguins have been better over the last seven matches in every statistic except digs. The biggest difference is in hitting percentage. YSU is hitting .232 as a team over the last seven matches after hitting .192 over its first 11 matches. Opponents have been held to a .140 mark over the last seven matches after hitting .192 in the first 11.
• Additionally, YSU is averaging 1.56 more blocks per set than its opponents over the last seven matches.

Seniors Hoping to Cross Off Green Bay

• Youngstown State's seven seniors have yet to beat Green Bay in their careers, and they're hoping that changes this weekend.
• Of the teams that have been in the Horizon League each of the past four seasons, YSU has not beaten Valpo and Green Bay.
• The Penguins topped Cleveland State for the first time since 2001 on Sept. 27. YSU's seniors had not won a set against the Vikings in their careers before the 3-0 victory.

YSU Finishes up Strong Non-Conference Schedule

• The Penguins went 8-7 in the non-conference season. While that was short of last year's mark of 10-4, the eight wins still represented the second-most for the program since 2006.
• The strength of opponents was much stronger in 2013 than in 2012. YSU's non-conference opponents have an average RPI of 187.6 this season, ahead of 234.5 last year.

Egler Enjoying Career-Best Year

• Junior outside hitter Alexis Egler is off to the best start of her career, posting career highs in kills, digs, blocks and points per set. She's also hitting .191, which is above the .175 she hit as a sophomore.
• Egler's biggest uptick has been in kills. She's averaging 2.79 kills per set, 0.64 more per set than she did last season.
• Egler was the first Penguin freshman to record 200 kills and 200 digs since Jessica Fraley in 2004. She is one of only five players to go 200-200 in the first two years of a YSU career and the first since Amber Nagy in 1997-98. She needs seven digs to go 200-200 this year.

Three Players of the Week in the Last Four Weeks

• Three different Youngstown State players have earned weekly awards from the Horizon League over the last four weeks.
• Senior libero Erika West is the reigning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week after averaging 6.33 digs per set against Valparaiso and UIC. Missy Hundelt was named the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 30, and Aly Ryan was the league's defensive player of the week on Sept. 23.
• Penguins have been named the Horizon League offensive or defensive player of the week seven times in the past two seasons. There were zero YSU players to earn the honor in 2010 and 2011.

West, Hundelt Join Century Clubs

• YSU seniors Erika West and Missy Hundelt have both eclipsed significant career milestones this season. West reached 1,000 career digs on Oct. 12 against UIC, and Hundelt got her 1,000th kill on Sept. 7 against Toledo.
• West became the 13th Penguin in school history to reach the century mark in digs and one of only two (Laurie Shives) to do it in three seasons. West transferred to YSU before her sophomore year.
• Hundelt became the 12th player in YSU history to record 1,000 kills in her career. Her total of 1,125 ranks as the fifth-most in school history.