The Westminster volleyball team will travel to South Dakota for the first time as they play a pair of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matches this weekend. The Griffins visit Black Hills State on Friday in Spearfish, S.D., before playing at South Dakota Mines on Saturday in Rapid City, S.D. Both matches are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
 
COVERING THE GRIFFINS
Both matches will be broadcast live on the Griffins TV Game Central portal located at portal.stretchinternet.com/westminster. The video production is being generated by the host institution.
 
Live stats for both of the matches will also be available in the Game Central portal during the broadcast.
 
FOLLOWING WESTMINSTER VOLLEYBALL
Make sure to like Westminster Griffins on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and You Tube for the latest news about the Griffins. Updates of the weekend will be available on Twitter by following @wc_griffins.
 
Fans can stay connected with Westminster Volleyball by following @griffinvolleyball on Instagram.
 
ABOUT WESTMINSTER
Westminster heads to South Dakota at 5-16 overall and 2-11 in RMAC action. The Griffins are looking to snap a six-match losing skid. They have gone 1-6 on road matches this season and 4-10 in all matches played away from the Behnken Field House. They enter the week in eighth-place in the Rocky Division and tied for 14th overall in the RMAC.
 
The Griffins are hitting .146 on the season while averaging 10.96 kills per set. They are coming off one of the better offensive weekends of the season that saw the team record 106 kills in a pair of home matches last weekend. The team averages 1.04 service aces per set. Griffin opponents are hitting .213 as Westminster averages 15.13 digs and 1.74 blocks per set.
 
Amara Culpepper leads the team with 253 kills and .242 hitting. The sophomore ranks eighth in the RMAC at 3.29 kills per set and she has led the team in kills during 13 matches this season. Culpepper is coming off back-to-back 20-kill matches for the first time in her career.
 
Alyse Horton is second on the team with 175 kills with Jessica Chellsen adding 135 kills. Desiree Wickwar is also over 100 kills for the season as she enters the week with 109. Jacey Saunders has a team-best 369 assists while Taylor Gustafson has 355 assists.
 
Jaden Green is tops among the Griffins with 16 aces with Megan Gallegos adding 15. Gallegos also leads the squad with 321 digs and she ranks seventh in the conference at 4.34 digs per set. Culpepper leads the team with 55 blocks and Kate Tsourmas is averaging 0.91 blocks per set to rank eighth in the league.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
• Black Hills State – The Yellow Jackets will begin play this week at 7-14 overall and 4-9 in RMAC play. They have gone 4-3 at home this season and are coming off a weekend that saw them defeat Fort Lewis and fall to Adams State. BHSU averages 10.59 kills per set and they are hitting .135 for the season.
 
Friday will mark the first-ever meeting between the Griffins and Yellow Jackets.
 
• South Dakota Mines – The Hardrockers start the week at 7-16 overall and 3-10 in conference matches. They have gone 4-3 in home matches on the year and they snapped a three-match losing skid with a 3-1 win over Fort Lewis on October 24. SDSMT is hitting .138 this season while posting 11.52 kills per set.
 
Westminster and South Dakota Mines will play for the first time on Saturday.
 
500/500 FOR HORTON
Earlier this season, Horton became the sixth player in team history to record 500 kills and 500 digs as a Griffin. Horton is averaging 2.33 kills per set this season and hitting .150. She has seven matches with double-digit kills this season with 12 matches with 10-plus dig. Horton currently ranks sixth in school history with 622 career kills and ninth with 729 digs.
 
GUSTAFSON OVER 1,000
During non-conference play, Gustafson became just the fourth player in school history to record 1,000 career assists. The sophomore finished last season with 890 assists, the third-most assists by a freshman and sixth-most overall in team history. This season, Gustafson is averaging 5.46 assists per set and she has led the team in assists 13 times. She begins the week fourth in school history with 1,245 career assists.
 
CULPEPPER CLIMBING
Culpepper has been the Griffins most consistent offensive threat this season and she leads the team with 253 kills and .242 hitting. Culpepper has nine matches with at least 15 kills this season and she has lead the team in kills 13 times. The sophomore set a school record by hitting .650 with 15 kills against Cal State East Bay on September 11 and was named to the Shark Invitational All-Tournament Team. Culpepper is 12th in school history with 459 career kills and she is ninth all-time with 137 blocks. Her 253 kills this season rank as the 14th-most for a single season in school history.
 
CHASING 400
Head Coach Al Givens enters the week just one win shy of 400 for his coaching career. He has a career record of 399-541 and is 15-34 in less than two years leading the Griffins. In his 30th season as the head coach of a collegiate program, Givens has recorded 23 seasons with at least 10 wins.
 
UP NEXT
Westminster return to the Behnken Field House for the final weekend this season when they host a pair of conference matches next weekend. The Griffins welcome Colorado Mines to town on November 6, before a visit from Colorado Christian on November 7. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. and tickets are available at WestminsterGriffins.com/tickets.