No. 11 Mustangs Set Sights On ACC Opener Versus No. 5 Pitt

 
 
SETTING THE SCENE
• Two 8-2 and high 15 groups conflict within the first of a back-to-back matchup between the packages this week inside Moody Coliseum on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT, airing on ACC Network.
• SMU takes on Pittsburgh on Wednesday, seeking to defeat the Panthers for the second straight season at Moody.
• Wednesday’s matchup begins a 20-match ACC schedule for the Mustangs.
• The Mustangs look to win their third-ranked win of the season and second over a high 10 opponent.
• A win towards Pitt on Wednesday night time can be the fiftieth convention win for head coach Sam Erger at SMU.  SMU enters the weekend 49-10 in convention video games in three full seasons in Dallas.
• The matchup on Wednesday night time shall be SMU’s fifth ranked opponent and fourth inside the highest 10. SMU is 2-2 towards the 4 ranked opponents it has performed this season and 1-1 towards these groups ranked within the high 10.
 
QUICK HITS
• SMU ended non-conference play 8-2 because it went 2-0 in Nacogdoches, Texas, with a 3-0 win over SFA and a 3-1 win over UTEP.
• Malaya Jones and Jadyn Livings have gotten top-of-the-line pin-hitter duos within the nation. Each participant has led SMU in kills for 5 of the ten matches this season. Jones and Livings are each ranked high 10 within the ACC in kills per set and are the one ACC tandem to be ranked within the high 150 within the nation.  
• The Mustangs’ win over SFA was the third sweep of the season.
• SMU hit an environment friendly .318 on the week and held its opponents to a .145 common.
• Setter Averi Carlson paced the unit with 82 assists within the matches away from house and added 5 kills. She logged 37 assists, seven digs, two aces, and three blocks towards SFA on Thursday in a sweep, through which the Mustangs hit .383 as a unit, their second-highest hitting share of the season. Carlson then went for 45 kills and eight assists towards a 9-1 UTEP squad.
• Natalia Newsome hit .621 on the week, which ranked second within the nation and first within the ACC, averaging 2.86 kills per set. The sophomore additionally added a team-high 1.43 blocks per set, averaging 5 blocks per match. She notched one other profession efficiency with a personal-best, 12 kills on 18 swings, hitting .611 at SFA on Thursday.
• Malaya Jones led the Mustangs offensively with 4.29 kills per set in two matches, swinging at an environment friendly .357 p.c fee within the two matches. She additionally had a substantial influence defensively for SMU by including 2.86 digs per set and 0.86 blocks per set. The graduate pupil went for 17 kills and a season-high 17 digs towards UTEP on Friday, whereas additionally including 4 blocks. It was her third double-double of the season and twentieth of her profession
• Freshman Kennedi Rogers gave an enormous spark to the SMU offense on Friday towards UTEP, ending the match with a career-high 12 kills on 19 swings, hitting .526 towards UTEP. Seven of her 12 kills got here within the second set alone, which was tied for the third most by any participant in a single set on the SMU squad this season.
• Casey Batenhorst has had an ace in 5 straight matches, three of the 5 with 3+. It is the second-longest streak of her profession. Batenhorst ended the 2023 season with eight consecutive matches with not less than one ace.
 
THREE FOR FIVE ON SETTER OF THE WEEK
• SMU senior setter Averi Carlson earned her third weekly honor from the Atlantic Coast Conference on Monday, as she was named the ACC Co-Setter of the Week on Sep. 22.
• Carlson averaged 11.72 assists per set, which led the ACC, as she pushed the Mustangs to wins over Stephen F. Austin and UTEP. The Lucas, Texas native dished out 37 assists with seven digs, three blocks, and two aces within the straight set victory over SFA, the place SMU hit .383, its second-highest share of the season.
• In the Friday match towards UTEP, Carlson had 45 assists and eight digs within the four-set victory to shut out non-conference play.
• Carlson was additionally named ACC Setter of the Week on September 1 and eight.
 
NATIONAL RANKINGS
• As a group, SMU is ranked high 50 in 5 classes nationally: Hitting Percentage (fifteenth), Assist Per Set (twentieth), Blocks Per Set (thirty first), Kills Per Set (thirty fourth), and Winning Percentage (thirty ninth).
• Averi Carlson ranks third within the nation in assists per set at 11.46. She can also be thirteenth within the nation in whole assists.
• Favor Anyanwu is thirty first within the nation in blocks per set at 1.41 and twenty eighth in whole blocks with 55.
 
SERIES HISTORY
• SMU is 1-1 towards Pittsburgh, with every group successful on its house ground final 12 months.
• Then No. 15 SMU beat No. 1 Pittsburgh in Moody Coliseum final season in 5 units, whereas the Panthers swept the Mustangs in Pittsburgh. The house Pitt match for SMU in 2024 is the fifth-highest attended match in program historical past.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
The Pittsburgh Panthers
• Pittsburgh is 8-2 on the season and has received eight straight after dropping the primary two matches of the season to No. 1 Nebraska after which No. 16 Florida within the AVCA First Serve Showcase in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• The Panthers had been picked to win the lead with 10 of the 18 first-place votes.
• They had 4 gamers on the All-ACC Preseason Team in Olivia Babcock, Blaire Bayless, Ryla Jones, and Bre Kelley.
• Pitt is available in at No. 5 on this week’s AVCA Coaches Poll.

NEW SEASON, NEW FACES

• SMU needed to change 95% of its level manufacturing from a season in the past. With 9 productive gamers graduating a season in the past, Coach Erger and workers have reloaded their roster for the 2025 season, as they return no starters from this system’s historic season.

• The highest returning factors scorer is sophomore Natalia Newsome, who logged 56.5 factors in her rookie season, with 44 kills and 21 blocks.

• SMU introduced in six transfers and 7 gamers out of highschool to go together with 4 returners.

• Each of the six transfers Sam Erger and firm introduced in has NCAA Tournament expertise.

 

AVCA RANKINGS: WEEK 4

• SMU Volleyball dropped to No. 11 on this week’s American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Taraflex Coaches Poll regardless of going 2-0 on the week.

• The Mustangs had been ranked No. 10 within the 2025 preseason rating, marking the primary time that this system was ranked going into the season. No. 10 is the best rating for the Mustangs in program historical past.

• SMU is the fourth highest-ranked ACC squad, trailing T-No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 Pittsburgh, and No. 6 Louisville. After the No. 11 Mustangs, Miami and North Carolina spherical out the highest 25 at No. 24 and No. 25, respectively.  

• The Mustangs will face eight groups that opened the season ranked, together with 5 within the preseason, earlier than ACC play begins towards preseason-ranked No. 3 Pitt on Wednesday, September 24, inside Moody Coliseum.

• The Mustangs cracked the highest 25 for the primary time in final 12 months’s historic season, reaching as excessive as No. 10 within the nation. The Mustangs have been ranked in 17 straight polls. 

 

JONES MAKING NATIONAL NOISE

• SMU Volleyball switch reverse hitter Malaya Jones was named to the AVCA Preseason Division I National Player of the Year Watch List, introduced by Nike Volleyball, on Friday, July 23.

• The 6-0 graduate from El Dorado Hills, Calif., is the primary participant in program historical past to earn a spot on the affiliation’s preseason listing.

• The 2025 Preseason Watch List contains 30 gamers from 20 totally different faculties. More gamers will be added to the mid-season listing in October, adopted by a listing of semifinalists in November, the announcement of the finalists in mid-December, and the reveal of the Player of the Year in Kansas City, Mo., on the AVCA Awards Banquet on Friday, December 19.

• Jones is one in every of seven gamers within the ACC who earned a spot on the listing. Last season, Celia Cullen and Naya Shime had been added to the mid-season listing. 

 

ALL-ACC PRESEASON TEAM

• Malaya Jones, Averi Carlson and Favor Anyanwu had been voted to the All-ACC Preseason group by the ACC coaches.

• The 2024 Preseason Volleyball All-ACC Team consisted of 18 gamers and was voted on by the league’s head coaches.

• Pitt leads the way in which with probably the most gamers on this 12 months’s preseason group, with 4 representatives. SMU, Stanford, and Louisville observe, every having three gamers listed.

 

ACC PRESEASON POLL

• SMU was chosen fourth within the ACC Preseason Poll by the league’s head coaches.

• The Mustangs completed fourth within the ACC a season in the past after being picked sixth within the 2024 preseason.

• SMU trails defending ACC Champion, Pitt, then Louisville and Stanford, whereas North Carolina rounded out the highest 5 behind SMU.

 

YEAR FOUR FOR ERGER

• Head Coach Sam Erger is in 12 months 4 as SMU’s head volleyball coach. Erger appears to be like to proceed the success of this system with back-to-back NCAA event second-round appearances and three straight 20-win seasons, the second-longest streak in program historical past. That contains going 16-4 within the ACC final 12 months. SMU has 11 whole 20-win seasons, three of that are within the three seasons beneath Erger.

• Erger has already taken SMU Volleyball to new heights in simply three full seasons. Before the Erger’s tenure, SMU had solely been to 2 NCAA Tournaments, within the 2015 and 2016 seasons. 

• Erger is 49-10 (83.1%) in convention matches on the Hilltop, successful 15+ in every of the three seasons.

• Erger has 10 ranked wins beneath her belt at SMU, three over high 10 groups.