Newman Jets (3-4, 1-2 Heartland) at Lubbock Christian (4-0, 3-0 Heartland)
Saturday, September 13 at 12 p.m. – Rip Griffin Center
Live Stats and Video: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/lcu/
 
LUBBOCK, Texas (September 13, 2014) – The Lubbock Christian volleyball team hosts Newman in a Heartland Conference contest today at noon in the Rip Griffin Center. This is the second and final home game for the Lady Chaps in September, as the next home contest is October 3 against Midwestern State at 6 p.m.
 
Coach Lawrence becomes program's winningest
With a 3-0 sweep over St. Mary's on September 4, Coach Jennifer Lawrence became LCU volleyball's all-time leader in wins. The victory brought her to number 251 to surpass Steven McRoberts, the Lady Chap coach from 1996-2003. Lawrence now has an overall record of 254-103 and has most recently led the team to an impressive 17-5 record in the Heartland Conference since 2013.
 
Johnson returns to action
Redshirt junior Maddie Johnson is back on the court for LCU after sitting out last season recovering from surgery. The Frenship High School product was a Second Team All-Sooner Athletic Conference pick as a sophomore after compiling 244 kills, 369 digs and a team-best 38 service aces. In her 2014 debut, the 5-10 outside hitter totaled a career and game-high 19 kills against St. Mary's on September 4 and followed it up with a game-high 13 kills versus Southern Nazarene the following day. While Johnson was seldom used in the sweep of TAMIU on September 6, she contributed 20 digs and four service aces on the weekend and also tallied eight kills while hitting .636 in the sweep of OPSU on Thursday.
 
Award number one goes to Fisher
WACO, Texas (September 8, 2014) – Volleyball player Erin Fisher claimed the first Heartland Conference Player of the Week award in 2014-15 for Lubbock Christian by being named Setter of the Week on Monday.
The Monahans, Texas, native led the Lady Chaps to a 3-0 season start by compiling a double-double in each of LCU's matches against St. Mary's, Southern Nazarene and Texas A&M International. The senior had game-highs in every match in assists (59, 38, and 28) and a team-high 19 digs against StMU. At TAMIU, Fisher recorded an all-around performance of 28 assists, 10 digs, a career-high six kills and an ace. She averaged an impressive 11.36 assists in addition to leading the team in digs with 3.73 per set.
Fisher claimed Setter of the Week accolades six times in 2013.
 
Lady Chaps dominate home opener
LUBBOCK, Texas (September 11, 2014) – Lubbock Christian made quick work of Oklahoma Panhandle, disposing of the Aggies in three sets by scores of 25-8, 25-15 and 25-6, led by Samantha Matthews' career and game-high 11 kills on a .529 hitting percentage Thursday night in the Rip Griffin Center.
The Lady Chaps (4-0, 3-0 Heartland) set season highs during their home opener in attack percentage (.386) and service aces (8) as well as a season low in attack errors (11). LCU held the Aggies (0-7, 0-3) to a -.083 attack percentage, allowing only 11 kills while forcing 18 OPSU attack errors.
Fittingly, the evening opened with a ceremony for head coach Jennifer Lawrence, who last week became the program's all-time leader in wins with 251, surpassing former LCU coach Steven McRoberts. Coach Lawrence's record now stands at 254-103 over her 11-year career.
The first point of the match was scored by the Aggies, but that would be OPSU's only lead of the night, as a kill by Christiana Tavo, a service ace from Channing Castleberry, and a kill apiece from Maddie Johnson and Matthews put the Lady Chaps back on the right track. Christa Daniel sailed a serve through an Aggie defender's hands to up the score to 13-7, and nicely placed back-to-back kills by Matthews pushed LCU in front 18-7, as the Lady Chaps closed the game on a 15-1 run, including 14 unanswered points.
LCU cruised to an 8-2 lead in the second set, which involved a pair of kills from each Tavo and Johnson. The Lady Chaps doubled up on the Aggies at 22-11 on a Matthews kill, and setter Erin Fisher contributed another for a 23-11 advantage. OPSU called a timeout and responded with four points, but LCU was able to close the game at 25-15.
The Lady Chaps jumped out to a 4-0 lead in set three that quickly ballooned to 10-2 after four consecutive Aggie errors. A trio of kills by Matthews, another from Bryce Shankle, an ace by Daniel and a block by Abby White and Matthews were the latter part of an 11-0 LCU run that boosted the Lady Chap lead to 16-2. The match closed on a 5-0 run by LCU that included a Shankle kill, a block by Fisher and Matthews, and was finished off by a powerful slam by Castleberry.
Fisher totaled a game-high 35 assists, while Daniel recorded game-highs with 15 digs and three aces. Johnson contributed eight kills at a .636 clip.
 
2013 weekly honors
Fisher and Deterding took the Heartland by storm last season, raking in a total of 11 Player of the Week Awards. Fisher's six Setter of the Week accolades was the most in the conference, and Deterding's five Hitter of the Week honors followed closely behind. No other athlete in the conference earned more than four awards. Collectively, the Lady Chaps accumulated a dozen Player of the Week awards, including Edwards' Hitter of the Week and Mallory Powell's Setter of the Week. The next highest team total within the conference is six awards, received by the Heartland Conference's first place team, UA-Fort Smith.
 
LCU predicted third in Heartland
Lubbock Christian volleyball has been picked to finish third out of nine teams in the Heartland Conference as revealed in the annual preseason poll. The Lady Chaps picked up two first place votes in the ballots, voted on by head coaches and sports information directors within the league, for a total of 120 points. Regular season champion Arkansas-Fort Smith took the top spot with 11 first place votes and 151 points, while Dallas Baptist secured second place with four first place votes and 137 points. St. Edward's had the final first place vote and landed in fourth place with 114 points. Head Coach Jennifer Lawrence returns a squad that went 17-12 overall and 13-5 in the Heartland last season to finish in second place. Three of the five conference losses came against UAFS and DBU, with the Lions taking two from the Lady Chaps and the Patriots winning one.