TOWSON, Md. -- As crunch time in the league schedule arrives, the Towson University women's volleyball team makes a southern swing this weekend for a pair of Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) matches. After spending a weekend in the northern climes of the league footprint, the Tigers head to the southern-most CAA member institution on Saturday for a 1 p.m. showdown at the College of Charleston before a Monday match at UNCW for a 7 p.m. first serve.

First Serve
Last weekend, Towson played a pair in the northern limits of the CAA. This trip sees Towson hit the southern most swing through the league with matches at Charleston and UNCW.

In The National Rankings
This week's teams were neither ranked nor mentioned in the polls this week.

Scouting the Tigers
Towson had a well-rounded match Wednesday night as the Tigers concluded the nonconference portion of the 2018 schedule. Towson collected a straight-set win at Delaware State as all 16 Tigers dressed for the match saw the court. Senior Jocelyn Kuilan continues her team lead in kills with 251 to date in her quest to become the program's all-time kills leader. Rookie Emily Jarome is close behind with 245 while Olivia Finckel joins the pair north of 200 kills, bringing her season total to 211. Jarome leads Towson with a kills per set average of 2.75 while Kuilan knocks down 2.73 per frame. Junior Marrisa Wonders leads Towson's setting efforts with 411 assists, surpassing the 400 mark for the third time in her career. Freshman Kristin Spengler is second with 289 while senior Peyton Moyles ranks third with 154. Redshirt senior Anna Holehouse sits atop the service ace charts with 20 while Jarome and Silvia Grassini are tied for second with 17 apiece. Holehouse leads Towson in digs as well, raising her season total to 450. Wonders sits in second with 180 digs. At the net, Olamide Sonuga leads Towson's efforts with 82 total blocks, including 75 block assists. Finckel ranks first in solo blocks with nine while making 73 total stops. Grassini is third in total blocks with 70. Finckel, Grassini, Kuilan and Holehouse have played in all 92 sets for Towson so far in 2018. Grassini has the team's best attack percentage at .346, just five thousandths of a percentage point ahead of Sonuga's .341 attack percentage.

Scouting the Cougars
Charleston enters Saturday's matchup with a 15-9 overall record and a 6-4 mark in the CAA after a four-set home loss Thursday night against James Madison. Devon Rachel continues to lead the Cougars' offense with 319 kills, averaging 3.88 per set. Kennedy Madison is in second place with 293 kills and a 3.45 per set average. Madison leads in attack percentage with a .317 while Peyton Eisnaugle ranks second with a .306 clip. Allison Beckman is the top server with 21 aces and just seven service errors. She also ranks first for Charleston as the primary setter, posting 936 assists, averaging 11.28 per set. Defensively, McKala Rhodes leads the back line with 359 digs, averaging 4.03 per set. She has been the target of many serves, ranking second with 25 reception errors. Devon Rachel is second in digs with 237, averaging 2.89 per frame. At the net, Charleston is balanced with three players making at least 50 total blocks. Madison paces with 60 total, including a team-best 16 solo blocks. Mandy Napierala is second with 56 total stops and eight single blocks as Eisnaugle has 51 blocks, with six coming alone. Charleston is particularly strong in solo blocks, posting 42 while allowing opponents just 27 solo stuffs. Charleston leads the CAA in solo blocks, four clear of second-place Elon's 38. The Cougars have done well at home in 2018, winning 10 of their 14 matches, but have dropped three of their last four matches at TD Arena.

Towson-Charleston History
Saturday's showdown will be the 13th meeting all-time between the Tigers and the Cougars. Charleston leads the all-time series 10-2 as Towson will look to halt a five-match slide against the Cougars. Towson is looking for its first win over the Cougars since sweeping Charleston during the 2015 season. The Tigers are in the hunt for their first win in Charleston since a 3-1 victory on Oct. 18, 2015, the first meeting between the teams that season.

Towson-Charleston By the Numbers
All-Time Series Record Charleston Leads 10-2
at Towson Charleston 5-1
at Charleston Charleston 5-1
at Neutral Sites n/a
at Unknown Sites n/a
First Meeting 2007 - Charleson 3, Towson 0
Last Meeting Oct. 14, 2018
Charleston 3, Towson 0 (Towson, Md.)
Streak Towson -5

Last Time Out vs. Charleston | Oct. 14, 2018 | Towson, Md. | SECU Arena
A slow start out of the gate saw the Tigers fall 3-0 against Charleston in the first meeting of the season between the programs at SECU Arena. Towson was led by 11 kills from Silvia Grassini while Jocelyn Kuilan posted 10 herself. Anna Holehouse had 17 digs against the high-octane Cougar offense. Devon Rachel led three Charleston players with double-digit kills as she posted a match-best 17 at a .410 percent clip. McKala Rhodes led the match with 26 digs.

With a Win Saturday Towson Would...
- Halt a five-match slide against the Cougars dating back to the 2015 season.
- Win its second-straight road match this season.
- Give the Tigers a win in five of their last six true road matches.
- Be Towson's first win in Charleston since a 3-1 victory over the Cougars in 2015. It would be the program's second-ever win in Charleston over the Cougars.
- Raise Towson's conference winning percentage over .500 up to 6-5.

Scouting the Seahawks (As of Oct. 25)
With a Friday night match against Delaware and a Saturday match against James Madison pending, UNCW sits at 11-8 overall and 4-5 in the CAA, ranking sixth in the league standings. Maddy Kline leads UNCW's offense with 194 kills with Anna Moss in second with 138. Kline averages a team-best 2.90 kills per set in 2018. Halle Hunt is atop the team standings with 22 service aces. Katie McCullough begins the weekend with 291 digs, ranking first for the Seahawks while Kline is second with 169. McCullough averages 4.16 digs per set this season. At the net, Kendall Bender is the top threat, making 87 total blocks, inlcuding a team-best eight solo stops. Moss ranks second with 64 total blocks while Madison peters is third with 53 total halts.

Towson-UNCW By the Numbers
All-Time Series Record Towson 30-8
at Towson  Towson 19-1
at UNCW Towson 10-5
at Neutral Sites UNCW 2-1
at Unknown Sites n/a
First Meeting 1979 - Towson 2, UNCW 0
Last Meeting Oct. 12, 2018
Towson 3, UNCW 2 - Towson, Md.
Streak Towson +6

Last Time Out vs. UNCW | Oct. 12, 2018 | Towson, Md. | SECU Arena
It was a come-from-behind victory for the Tigers in the first meeting of the season against the Seahawks as Towson rallied from a 2-1 deficit to claim a 3-2 victory. Towson won the first set 25-, but fell 25-15 and 26-24 in the second and third. The Tigers went on to pick up sets four and five by a 25-18 and 15-9 count, respectively. Three Tigers surpassed double-digit kills, led by Emily Jarome's 17. Jocelyn Kuilan knocked home 14 while Annie Ertz finished with a dozen. It was a well-rounded defensive effort for Towson as five players posted double-digit digs, paced by 28 from Anna Holehouse. Four Tigers contributed multiple block assists, including a team-best four from Olivia Finckel. Silvia Grassini added three while Jarome and Kuilan had two each.

2,000 Digs
Early in the Tigers' first set at James Madison, redshirt senior libero Anna Holehouse became the first player in Towson history to post 2,000 digs. She finished with match with 20 digs, bringing her career total to 2,123. She is also the seventh player in CAA history to reach the 2,000 digs mark. She trails James Madison's Jena Pierson (2,189) for third all-time in league history. To date, Holehouse has 443 digs in 2018. She needs another 279 digs to overtake the league's all-time record of 2,401, held by Delaware's Stephanie Barry.

Holehouse averages 4.89 digs per set in 2018, putting her on pace for potentially 88 more in regular season with at least 18 more sets on the docket in the regular season.

Kuilan's Big Swing
Senior Jocelyn Kuilan is firmly one of the top offensive players in program history. The right sider has knocked down 1,424 kills in her career at Towson, ranking third all-time and is the sixth player in program history with at least 1,300 kills. In the Tigers' five set win at Hofstra, Kuilan surpassed Liz Goubeaux's mark of 1,404 (2001-04). April Hoffman (2002-05) leads the career records with 1,588 kills. Kuilan averages 391 kills per season, including a rookie season with 426. Kuilan will need 165 kills to take the program's career record.

Sets on Sets on Sets on Sets
Two Tigers in their final seasons are climbing the program's all-time sets played list. Jocelyn Kuilan has seen time in 458 sets since stepping on the court for the first time in 2015. After three sets at Delaware State, Kuilan ranks fourth all-time in program history, sitting nine back from Maddie Haseltine's 467. Redshirt senior Anna Holehouse has seen action in 445 sets, ranking 10th. Lindsay Flaherty ranks first all-time with 481 career sets played. With at least six sets on the remainder of this week's schedule, Kuilan could pull within three of Haseltine while Holehouse could move into eighth all-time with six sets played.

Time Notes
Please note that Saturday's match, originally listed for 7 p.m. on TowsonTigers.com has been adjusted to a 1 p.m. first serve at TD Arena on the campus of the College of Charleston.

The regular season finale at the University of Delaware is set for a 6:30 p.m. first serve at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Delaware. The match was originally listed for a 7 p.m. start on TowsonTigers.com.

Jarome Named CAA Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 15)
Emily Jarome played all eight sets for the Tigers this weekend as Towson went 1-1 in CAA action. The freshman scored 24 kills, including 17 on Friday against the Seahawks of UNCW as Towson extended its winning streak over UNCW to six. She posted her first career double-double with 10 digs against UNCW while posting another five on Sunday against Charleston. Jarome added three assists and two block assists on the week as well.

Conference Championship Site Preview ... Sort Of
This weekend, the Tigers will get a chance to practice travelling to the site of this year's CAA Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament. Even though the Tigers and Cougars will square off in TD Arena on Saturday, the league tournament will be contested at the F. Mitchell Johnson Center as the College of Charleston hosts the 2018 Gildan Charleston Classic at TD Arena. Towson currently sits in fifth place in the CAA standings, which would qualify the Tigers for the CAA Tournament if the season ended today. The top six teams in the league qualify.

Home Sweet Home: Part One
On Wednesday night, freshman Emily Jarome had the chance to play in her home state of Delaware for the first time as a Tiger after completing her scholastic career at Padua Academy in Dover, Delaware. Memorial Hall, located on the campus of Delaware State University, sits roughly 45 miles from Jarome's hometown of Wilmington, Del. Jarome had a solid showing back in her home state, finishing with five kills on 13 swings, posting two assists and adding three service aces to her line.

Jarome will get a chance to play much closer to home in the regular season finale on Nov. 9 as the Tigers make the quick trip to Newark, Delaware to face the Blue Hens of Delaware. The Bob Carpenter Center is roughly 15 miles from Padua Academy.

Tigers in the Community
Sunday was a busy day for the Tigers. Beginning at 9 a.m., the Tigers helped Towson University in hosting the 2018 Autism Awareness Walk at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium. Following the Autism Awareness Walk, the Tigers crossed the street to SECU Arena to face College of Charleston with a noon first serve. The Tigers sported their blue Autism jerseys for the duration of Sunday's showdown.