DETROIT -- The Wayne State University volleyball program (15-12 overall) will begin GLIAC Tournament play at Saginaw Valley State (18-9 overall) on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m.  WSU is the fifth seed, while SVSU gets to host one of the four quarterfinal matches by virtue of being the fourth seed.  This is the first postseason contest between the two programs.

LAST MEETING
The Warriors and Cardinals met once during the regular season and SVSU won that matchup in four sets inside the Matthaei.  Wayne State took the first set 25-13 before Saginaw Valley State won the next three games by scores of 25-21, 25-23 and 26-24.  Hailey Richardson paced the offense with 16 kills and 14 digs for her eighth straight double-double.  Taylor Wagner added 12 kills, while Kamryn Duffield dished out 40 assists.  Ellie Rodriguez dug 23 balls to anchor the defense.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS
Head coach Will Stanton is in his 16th season with SVSU volleyball.  Junior outside hitter Sarah Tabit leads the team with 350 kills (3.30/set), while sophomore outside hitter Emily Friesl has 275 kills (2.78/set) and freshman outside hitter Maria Vukaj is third on the team with 228 kills (2.43/set).  Junior Hannah Tabit is team's main distributor with 930 assists (9.79/set).  Junior libero Abbie Toland leads the squad with 487 digs (4.73/set), while Friesl has 88 total blocks to lead the roster.

SENIOR CO-CAPTAIN
Senior Hailey Richardson is putting together another fantastic season.  She ranks second in the league with 407 kills and 4.28 kills per set.  She joined the 1,000-kill/1,000 dig club earlier this season and has been named the GLIAC South Division Player of the Week on four occasions (Sept. 10th, on Oct. 1st, Oct. 22nd and Oct. 29th).

ANCHORING THE DEFENSE
Ellie Rodriguez has been one of the best defensive players in the league for much of her four years at Wayne State.  She ranks second all-time in program history with 1,644 career digs and she is tied-for-sixth with 461 digs this season and third at 4.75 digs per set.

SENIOR CLASS
The six-member senior class were honored prior to the final home contest on Oct. 27th against Parkside, which WSU won in three sets.  This senior class has won 62 matches over the past four seasons and helped return the volleyball program to the GLIAC Tournament in each of the past three seasons.

BUILDING A WINNER
Head coach Tim Koth is in his fifth season at the helm of the WSU volleyball program.  He has led the Warriors to the GLIAC Tournament three straight seasons after WSU had missed the playoffs for the four seasons prior.  The quarterfinal win last season over GVSU in the GLIAC Tournament was the first postseason victory for WSU since 2012.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH KOTH
"SVSU has had a very nice bounce back season after a down year last fall.  They are great competitors that play very hard and are well coached.  We will need to be at our best on Wednesday night.  At this time of year, you hope to be healthy, and trending in a positive direction - I think we are, and I look forward to seeing how we compete this week in the tournament."

UP NEXT
A Warriors victory will advance them to the semifinal round against either top-ranked Ferris State or eighth-seeded Parkside.  The two semifinal matchups will take place at the highest remaining seed's campus on Friday before Saturday's championship contest.  The winner of this tournament will receive an automatic bid into the 2018 NCAA Tournament.