FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

SOMERS, Wis. (Nov. 6, 2014)-- Its crunch time for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside volleyball team, closing out the regular season this weekend against McKendree University and the University of Illinois Springfield inside DeSimone Gymnasium.  
 
The Rangers host McKendree on Friday at 7 p.m. before closing the home slate and regular season on Saturday at 3 p.m. against the Prairie Stars. Live stats and video will be available for both matches.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (14-12, 7-9 Great Lakes Valley Conference) dropped three tight matches last week and now stands a game-back of eighth place University of Southern Indiana for the final spot in the conference tournament.
 
The Rangers held early leads in all three losses, winning the opening set 26-24 against Lewis University on Oct. 29 before dropping the next three in a 3-1 (24-26, 25-20, 25-23, 25-17) setback. On Saturday, UW-Parkside won the opening two sets 25-19 and 25-22 but a Miner surge in the third set, turned the tide and gave S&T the 26-24 set win. The Miners claimed the next two sets 25-15 and 15-9 to escape DeSimone Gymnasium with the win. The following day, Parkside won the first set 25-21 but was unable to hold on, falling in five sets (21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 18-25, 15-11).
 
Jackie Langer and Rebecca Roembke lead the Ranger attack and along with Megan Pekarek are the only UW-Parkside players to appear in all 101 sets this season. Langer averages a team-best 3.0 kills per set while Roembke adds 2.7 per set along with 2.8 digs per set on the defensive end.
 
Pekarek is the Rangers' primary setter, averaging 8.4 assists per set while Lauren Hickson chips in 2.1 assists per set. Meghan Conley averages a team-best 3.5 digs per set while Jessi Mainczyk and Langer average 2.7 and 2.4 digs per set, respectively. Sonja Burnson leads the Rangers in blocks, collecting 99 this season, including 10 solo blocks.
 
About the Bearcats: McKendree (17-11, 10-6 GLVC) comes to Wisconsin riding a two-match win streak, downing William Jewell College 3-0 last Saturday before edging University of Missouri-Saint Louis 3-2 the following day.
 
The Bearcats have excelled on the road this season, owning an 11-4 mark in games played outside of Lebanon, Illinois.
 
Arela Williams leads the McKendree attack, averaging 3.4 digs per while Sophie Fairman chips in 2.8 per set. Aubry Dickmann averages 5.6 assists per set while Breanna Howe adds 5.1 per set. Defensively, Abby Hanger sports a team-best 3.1 digs per set.
 
About the Prairie Stars: Illinois Springfield (10-16, 2-14 GLVC) heads into the weekend having won two of its last three matches. The Prairie Stars split last weekend's GLVC contests, downing William Jewell 3-1 on Saturday, snapping an 11-match GLVC skid before falling to Rockhurst in straight sets the next day. UIS rebounded on Wednesday, rolling non-league foe Oakland City University 3-0.
 
Shelby Geers leads the UIS attack with 2.7 kills per set while JoAnna Hoffman averages a team-best 4.2 assists per set. Ashley Beaton has 24 service aces on the year while defensively Kayla Katarzynski leads the team with 4.7 digs per set.
Crossover Magic: Over the past three seasons, the Rangers have compiled a 8-1 mark at the annual Mizuno GLVC-GLIAC Crossover Tournament. UW-Parkside steamrolled the GLIAC with a perfect 3-0 mark in both 2012 and 2013 while posting a 2-1 mark at the event this season.
 
NCAA Stat Rankings: UW-Parkside ranks 37th nationally (out of 287 teams) in total blocks with 210 on the season. Individually, Sonja Burnson sits 43rd, averaging 1.1 blocks per set.
 
GLVC Preseason Prognostications: UW-Parkside was picked to finish sixth in the East Division in the 2014 GLVC Coaches' Preseason Poll, released on Aug. 26 by the league office. The Rangers collected 58 points in the rankings and was four points shy of fifth place McKendree University. Defending champion University of Indianapolis was picked to win the East Division followed by Lewis University, University of Southern Indiana and Bellarmine University. In the West, Truman State University claimed the top spot followed by Rockhurst University, University of Missouri-Saint Louis and Missouri University S&T.
 
Road Warriors: UW-Parkside's opening seven matches were all on the road along with 12 of the first 14. The schedule balances out towards the end of the season with the final five regular season matches all at home inside DeSimone Gymnasium.
 
DeSimone Advantage: Over the past four seasons, UW-Parkside has compiled a record of 36-17 in home matches at DeSimone Gymnasium. The Rangers were 9-5 at home last season with two of the five losses coming at the hands of nationally-ranked foes.

Parkside's Paciero: Head Coach Christine Paciero begins her fourth season at the helm at UW-Parkside, owning a career mark of 131-89 and a 68-51 record with the Rangers. Paciero compiled a 63-38 record in three seasons at Dominican University (2008-2010) before taking over the reins at Parkside. She notched her 100th career win in the 2013 season opener, downing Anderson University on Sept. 6.
 
All-Academic: The UW-Parkside volleyball squad earned both the Team Academic All-GLVC Award and the AVCA Team Academic Award for the first time in program history during the 2013-2014 academic year. The Rangers boasted a team grade point average of 3.38.