RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky’s volleyball team will host a pair of home matches this weekend. On Friday the Colonels will face Jacksonville State at 7 p.m. On Saturday EKU plays Samford at 2 p.m. Both matches will be played at McBrayer Arena.

Eastern is 1-16 overall and 0-7 in Ohio Valley Conference play. Jacksonville State is 8-5 and 5-1 in the OVC. Samford, which plays at Morehead State Friday evening, enters the weekend at 8-7 overall and 3-3 against league teams. JSU, Morehead and Tennessee State each have one OVC loss.

Junior Amanda Wilson leads Eastern with 198 kills. Freshman Leah Nelson is second on the team with 168 kills. Freshman Amanda Fago has turned in three double-digit kill performances in her last six matches. Freshman Kate Hendle is serving as the team’s primary setter. She has 370 assists this season.

Jacksonville State, winners of the last two OVC Tournaments, had its six-match winning streak snapped on Saturday when the Gamecocks lost to Tennessee State, 3-2, at home. The Gamecocks are led by the play of Abbey Breit, the only player to win OVC Offensive Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week this season. She ranks third in the OVC with an average of 4.08 kills per game and has had double-digit dig totals in every match this season.

After putting together a four-match winning streak, Samford has lost three of its last four. The Bulldogs suffered 3-0 losses last weekend at home against Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

Sara Sears leads the Samford attack with an average of 3.07 kills per game. She is also tied for the team lead with 23 aces. Sheriden Stangohr has 154 kills and ranks sixth in the OVC with a .318 attack percentage. Stangohr also ranks fourth in the conference with an average of 1.31 blocks per game.

Samford’s Courtney Gay ranks second in the OVC behind EKU’s Brittany Nobilio with an average of 5.72 digs per game.