DAYTON - The Wright State volleyball team will serve a tournament hosts the next two weekends, beginning on Friday afternoon as the Raiders host the 2021 Tru by Hilton Dayton Beavercreek Invitational inside McLin Gymnasium. In addition to the host Raiders, the tournament field also includes Ball State, DePaul and Marshall.
Tournament action begins Friday afternoon with Marshall and DePaul, while the Raiders open play Friday night at 7 p.m. against Ball State. The first 300 fans at Friday's Wright State contest will receive a Raider Family rally towel. Tournament play continues Saturday beginning at 10 a.m., with the Raiders slated to take on Marshall at 12:30 p.m. and later wrap up the tournament Saturday night at 7 p.m. against DePaul. Both of Saturday's Raider matches will be on ESPN+.
Fans can follow the action via live stats for all matches in addition to the two Saturday ESPN+ streams.
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL HOMEPAGE | TOURNAMENT NOTES
BALL STATE MATCH: LIVE STATS
MARSHALL MATCH: LIVE STATS | WATCH ON ESPN+
DEPAUL MATCH: LIVE STATS | WATCH ON ESPN+
Wright State is coming off of a 2-1 start to the season last weekend at the Spartan Invitational, sweeping Canisius Friday afternoon before capping the weekend with a thrilling, five set win over Michigan State on Saturday night.
Megan Alders and
Callie Martin were each named to the Spartan Invitational All-Tournament team after Alders finished the weekend with 40 kills, including a career-high 22 kills against Michigan State, while Martin filled her weekend stat line with 32 digs, 14 kills, four aces, four assists and three blocks.
KNOW THE FOES
-Ball State opened the season with four wins last weekend, including a pair of sweeps and a four set victory over Horizon League foe Green Bay. The Cardinals were 9-12 overall in spring 2021, with all matches coming in MAC play. The Raiders lead the all-time series 14-8 against the Cardinals, including a win in the last meeting during the 2019 season.
-Marshall turned in a 2-1 opening weekend while hosting its own tournament, dropping the season opener to Alabama before back-to-back wins over Austin Peay and Miami (OH). The Thundering Herd finished spring 2021 with an 10-5 overall record with an 8-4 mark in Conference USA play. The Raiders and Thundering Herd have met 12 times previously, with Wright State leading the series 8-4. The last meeting was in 2010.
-DePaul began the year with a 2-1 weekend, falling in the opener in four sets to Southeast Missouri State before a pair of sweeps against Central Michigan and Bradley. The Blue Demons were 6-5 overall in spring 2021 with a 3-5 mark in Big East play. This will be the eighth meeting all-time between the Raiders and Blue Demons, with both teams having won four matches. The last meeting between Wright State and DePaul was back in September 2002.
HORIZON PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Megan Alders was named the Horizon League Player of the Week by the League office on Wednesday afternoon. Alders led Wright State to a pair of season-opening wins last weekend, including notching a career-high 22 kills in the Raiders' victory over Michigan State. Her 40 total kills over 11 sets produced a 3.64 kills/set average as she also tallied double-digit kills against Canisius with 11 in the first match of the season. Alders ended the weekend with a .269 hitting percentage on 93 total attacks, the most on the Raider roster through three matches, and also added two digs and two blocks to her final numbers.
FIRST OF TWO
This weekend marks the first of back-to-back weekends with tournament hosting duties for the Raiders, who will also welcome teams to McLin Gymnasium next weekend as part of the Flyer-Raider Invitational co-hosted with Dayton. Wright State will take on Central Michigan next Friday afternoon to begin tournament action before playing across town at Dayton Friday night. In total, the Raiders will host four of the six tournament matches inside McLin Gymnasium.
GOOD TO BE HOME
Despite their 8-0 road record last spring, and a 16-4 overall mark away from McLin Gymnasium over the past two seasons, the Raiders have been more than happy to play inside their familiar confines. Under head coach
Allie Matters, Wright State is 25-4 at home over the last three seasons. The Raiders 25 home wins since Matters took over surpasses the 21 total home wins that the program tallied from 2011-2017 before Matters arrived. Wright State has won 19 straight Horizon League regular season home matches stretching across the 2018, 2019 and spring 2021 seasons.
