Volleyball Heads to Central Florida for Three Matches

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball will head south for the weekend as the Bears make the trip to Central Florida for three matches. Play begins on Friday (Sept. 12) when the Bears take on Florida Atlantic beginning at 4 p.m.

Brown will then play Arkansas State on Saturday (Sept. 13) at 12 p.m. before closing out the weekend against UCF on Sunday (Sept. 14) at 1 p.m. All three matches of the weekend can be seen on ESPN+.

GAME LINKS
Friday, Sept. 12
vs Florida Atlantic | 4 p.m.
Watch | Live Stats

Saturday, Sept. 13
vs Arkansas State | 12 p.m.
Watch | Live Stats

Sunday, Sept. 14
at UCF | 1 p.m.
Watch | Live Stats

THE FIRST SERVE

Brown is coming off a 2-1 opening weekend, finishing second in the Ocean State Cup with three-set wins over Bryant and Rhode Island.
Sophia Wolfson and Julia Kakkis each had strong weekends to start the season as the duo earned spots on the All-Tournament Team.
Wolfson, who leads Brown in kills/set (3.67), hitting percentage (.443) and blocks/set (1.00) after one weekend, collected two games with double-figure kills, including a career-high 14 kills against Rhode Island. Wolfson also hit .625 against Bryant and .500 against the Rams.
Kakkis guided Brown's offense with 11.33 assists per set, finishing with 41 assists against URI. The 41 assists are tied for the most by a Bear in a three-set match during the 25-point rally scoring era (since 2008). Kakkis tied her mark from last season against Columbia.

SCOUTING FLORIDA ATLANTIC

Florida Atlantic is 5-2 overall and will play Arkansas State on Friday before playing Brown. The Owls have only played in three set matches this season and earned sweeps against Marshall and Southern Indiana, while being swept by Michigan last weekend.
Entering the weekend, Florida Atlantic leads the nation in assists per set at 14.14 and is fifth in the NCAA with 15.05 kills per set.
Anna Hartman leads the Owls and is 10th in the NCAA with a .495 hitting percentage. The offense runs through both Emsley Venard (7.38 assists/set) and Victoria Hensley (5.24 assists/set).

SCOUTING ARKANSAS STATE

Arkansas State is 2-3 on the season and has alternated wins and losses to start the year. The Red Wolves are coming off a split of two matches with No. 16 Missouri last week with both matches going five sets.
The Red Wolves are led on offense by Kaitlin Whitlock with 3.23 kills per set and Daedrianna Cail is hitting a team-best .465, which is 19th in the nation.
On defense, three players are averaging over 2.00 digs per set, led by Mia Maloney's 2.91.

SCOUTING UCF

UCF enters the weekend 5-1 and will have matches against Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic before taking on the Bears to close the weekend. The Knights only loss of the season came against Miami last weekend in three sets.
Skylar English leads the NCAA averaging 1.00 service aces per set for a team that is averaging 2.15 aces per set. The Knights also have the 10th-best hitting percentage in the NCAA at .314.
Avah Armour and English are leading UCF's offense with 3.75 and 3.56 kills per set, respectively.

INSIDE THE SERIES

This will be Brown's first meeting against all three teams this weekend.

BROWN PICKS UP IVY HONORS IN 2024

Jessie Golden led the Ivy League digs with 4.16 digs per set in the regular season and increasing that number to 4.41 digs per set during Ivy League play. Golden finished the year with 22 matches of double-figure digs and had six matches with at least 20 digs.
Masha Sidorova finished third in the Ivy League with 3.82 kills per set during league play and was second on the team with 2.07 digs per set for the season. The junior led Brown with 21 double-figure kill games and led Brown with nine double-doubles. Sidorova also had four matches with 20+ kills, including a career-high 26 against Princeton. In all four matches with 20 or more kills, Sidorova hit over .300.
Beau Vanderlaan finishes her career with an honorable mention nod after finished third in the Ivy League with 1.10 blocks per set. The senior collected 92 blocks this season and became just the second Bear to ever collect 400 career blocks. She led Brown with a .273 hitting percentage and averaged 2.00 kills per set.
Julia Kakkis shined in her first season at Brown taking over setting duties halfway through the season. Kakkis averaged 8.95 assists per set and finished the season with five-straight 40+ assist matches. The freshman picked up a career-high 53 assists against Princeton on Nov. 3 and finished the year on a 15-match streak of at least 10 assists.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

Brown will have to get used to being away from home as the Bears will play their first 14 games away from the Pizzitola Sports Center. The Bears will play their first five Ivy League games away from home before taking on Harvard on Oct. 17.

COMING UP GOLDEN

Jessie Golden was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year for the second-straight season. The Tampa, Fla., native, as well as former Bear Victoria Vo have combined to give Brown three of the last four Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Golden reached 1,000-career digs last season and currently has 1,131 digs. Golden is just 302 digs away from moving into third all-time in Brown program history.
Golden comes into her senior year with a career 4.06 digs per set number. That number would be third all-time in program history. Golden has finished with a higher digs per set number than 4.06 in each of her last two seasons.

KAKKIS TAKING CONTROL

Sophomore Julia Kakkis took control of Brown's offense when the freshman setter took over the spot at the beginning of Ivy League play last season. Kakkis finished the year with 8.81 assists per set and earned Honorable Mention Ivy League honors in her first year on College Hill.
Kakkis finished the year with 16-straight matches of double-figure assists and had a season-best 53 assists against Princeton.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Brown will be playing on ESPNU for the second-straight season as the Bears will host Princeton on national TV on Nov. 2 at 12 p.m. Last year Brown and Princeton also played on ESPNU in Providence with Princeton coming away with a five-set win.

WINNING WAYS

Brown has now posted four-straight seasons with winning records in Ivy League play after finished 8-6 last season. Brown's tied its longest stretch of winning league records as Brown was over .500 from 1987-90. The Bears posted a .500 record or better from 1983-90.
Brown's 11 wins last season made it six-straight seasons of double-digit wins for Brown. The last time Brown had seven-straight double-digit win seasons came from 1996-2002.

SOAKING UP THE SUNSHINE

Brown will be making its first trip to Florida since 2018, when the Bears made the trip to Stetson for a three-game tournament. Brown will be playing at UCF in the second weekend of its season this year as the Bears will be taking on three brand new opponents. Brown has never played Arkansas State, UCF or Florida Atlantic. It will be the only three teams on Brown's schedule that they have not played before.

CHECKING OUT THE CONSTITUTION STATE

Brown's final weekend of the non-conference schedule will be a trip to UConn for three games. Over the weekend Brown will take on UConn, Sacred Heart and Marist.
While Brown has faced off against UConn 30 times in program history with the Bears holding a 9-21 record against the Huskies. Brown broke a 12-match losing streak back with a three-set win in 2023 but lost the matchup last year.
Brown's other opponents at UConn have not been on the Bears' schedule for a while. The last time Brown faced off against Sacred Heart was in 2021 when the Bears won in four sets. Brown is 4-2 all-time against the Pioneers.
The Bears have not played Marist since 2004 when Brown lost a four-set match in Poughkeepsie. Brown is 2-1 all-time against Marist.

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