BOONE, N.C.- Winners of five of their last six contests and three in a row, Appalachian State University volleyball looks to carry their momentum into their semifinal match against number one seed Furman, Saturday November 21. The match is set to begin at Noon in Furman's Alley Gymnasium. By virtue of earning the number one seed, Furman gets to host the tournament.

About the Apps: Appalachian capped off the 2009 regular season winning five of its last six matches, including three contest in a row. The Black and Gold head into the 2009 SoCon Tournament with a 14-16 record on the season, including a 10-6 league record.

The two must-win contests against UNCG and Elon were total team efforts, as the Mountaineers earned production from all over, both offensively and defensively. Senior Maja Jechorek was the offensive standout for ASU in its final two regular season matches, tallying a career-high 28 kills against UNCG and a match-high 17 kills against Elon. Freshman Meghann Forshey and Kelly Rhein chipped in as well on the offensive front. Kasey Sauls was strong as well, recording double-digit assists in both contests. On the defensive end, senior Cassie Engelgau recorded 29 and a season-high 32 digs against UNCG and Elon to lead the Apps.

Five Apps have tallied two plus kills per set, with Jechorek pacing the Appalachian offense, earning a team-best 2.67. Also offensively, Sauls averages 9.52 assists per set, putting her at fifth in the league in the category.

Defensively, Engelgau posts a team-high 4.55 digs per set, and has a total of 496 digs on the season. The California native has totaled 1689 digs in her career, and is 139 away from the school record. At the net it has been all junior middle blocker Caroline Sedon.Sedon has a total of 156 blocks on the season averaging 1.37 per set. She ranks first in the league in blocks per set and 18th in the NCAA. The junior is also just 12 block assists away from the individual season block assists record.

The SoCon Tournament: The Mountaineers are making their first appearance at the SoCon volleyball tournament since 2007, when they fell to UNCG 3-1 in the semifinals. Appalachian is 11-8 in SoCon semifinal games. The 2008 season marked the first time that the Apps had not qualified for the tournament since 2001. Appalachian has won just four SoCon volleyball titles in school history, with the last won coming in 1994. In the 1994 title match, Appalachian defeated Furman 3-2 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Following Furman:Furman defeated The Citadel in its regular-season finale to finish conference action a spotless 16-0 in league play. The Paladins have an overall record of 25-3 and are on an 18 match winning streak. FU’s three lone losses of 2009 came in their season-opener to Jacksonville State and against Michigan State and Clemson, with their last loss came on September 19.

In SoCon action, Furman saw five contests go into fifth set action, but was able to eek out a win in all of them. The Paladins are a stout 10-0 on their home court and have six players that average two plus kills per set.

Kelly Kirby anchors the Paladin offense, posting a team-best average of 2.62 kills per set. Also strong on the offensive front is Kelsey Salava, who averages 10.76 assists per set. Defensively, both Stephanie Smith and Natalie Braun have been strong, with Smith averaging 3.76 digs per set and Braun 3.20.

Furman captured the 2008 SoCon Championship.

The Series: ASU holds the 31-22 advantage in the series, but the Apps haven’t defeated the Paladins since October 23, 2007 when they won 3-2.
In the past three meetings between Appalachian and Furman, all of them have gone to five sets, with FU winning 2 of the 3 contests.

In the two team’s last meeting back on October 16, the Black and Gold fell behind 2-1 but pushed the match to five sets, with Furman winning 3-2. In the match, four Paladins tallied double-digit kills, with Kelly Kirby recording 16 and Alexis Shaffer notching 16 as well. For ASU, freshman Kelsey Kuehner had 13 kills while Maja Jechorek and Maggie Seeds chipped in 10 apiece.

The last time the two squads met in the SoCon tournament was in 2005, when ASU defeated FU 3-1 in the semifinals. Appalachian is 5-3 against FU at the conference tournament.

Live Web Streaming: There will be live web streaming of all three tournament contests this weekend, courtesy of SoCon TV. To purchase the weekend's web streaming package click here.

Looking Ahead: If ASU can capture a win, the Apps will advance to the SoCon tournament finals for the first time since 2005. The Mountaineers would play the winner of the Samford/College of Charleston game with the championship set for Sunday November 22 at 2 p.m.