TULSA, Okla. – It's postseason time for the Oral Roberts volleyball team as it travels to Denver, Colorado, for the 2019 Summit League Championship presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare Nov. 22-24. The Golden Eagles enter the weekend as the No. 6 seed and take on No. 3 seed Purdue Fort Wayne in the second quarterfinal matchup Friday night at Hamilton Gymnasium starting at 7 p.m. (CT).

OPENING SERVE

•ORU used a road win at North Dakota Friday and outside help Sunday to clinch the No. 6 seed for The Summit League Championship presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare. The Golden Eagles entered the 2019 campaign picked fourth in the league's preseason poll returning 81 percent of total kills from eight letter winners.

•CeCe Madison and Sarah Thiessen swept The Summit League weekly awards Oct. 8 as the offensive and defensive player of the week winners, respectively, after leading the Golden Eagles to a perfect 2-0 week.

•Madison leads the ORU offense with a league-best 468 kills, ranking 16th in the nation, while averaging 3.93 kills per set. The senior has recorded a double-double 20 times and posted 20 or more kills eight times this season.

•Thiessen recently returned from an injury after missing nearly three weeks and picked up where she left off totaling double-digit digs in her last five outings, including 25 in the win at UND. She's helped ORU to the 17th-most digs in the NCAA and remains fourth in the league averaging 4.24 per set.

•Senior Bri Greenlee leads the Golden Eagles with 83 total blocks this year and moved into a tie for fifth in ORU block assists history Sunday matching Revis Ward (1983-87) with 284.

•A pair of freshmen continue to make an impact in the Golden Eagles lineup as setter Sylvia Lawson is third in the conference averaging 9.09 assists per set crossing the century mark at NDSU Sunday. Laura Shoopman has topped the team in kills five times, including a season-high 21 versus Louisiana Tech in her ORU debut posting 212 this season as she makes a return to the lineup.

•The Golden Eagles are 17-9 all-time in matches against the Mastodons after falling in both matches of the season series in 2019. ORU holds a 21-9 all-time record in The Summit League Championship winning its last title in 2006.

•Purdue Fort Wayne enters the postseason having won two of its final three matches to secure the third seed. Katie Crowe ranks fourth in the league totaling 387 kills reaching double-digit kills in 22 of 30 matches played to lead the offense. Freshman Rachael Crucis is the top performer in the conference recording 535 digs averaging 4.69 per set.

•Head Coach Sheera Sirola, ORU's all-time winningest coach broke The Summit League career wins record against SDSU Oct. 6. She added five newcomers to the roster for 2019, including four freshmen. Kalli Caddell is the lone junior college transfer, while Mackenzie Edwards, Sakira LaCour, Laura Shoopman and Jeslyn Spencer all are in their first collegiate season.

•ORU has three players to replace with libero Tori Roe, setter Bria Bergman and outside hitter Lara Picht graduating. Roe was the fourth player in ORU history to reach the 1,500-dig milestone, while Bergman totaled 9.65 assists per set and Picht added 2.30 kills per set.

•The Golden Eagles now have reached the conference tournament seven of the last eight seasons, but suffered just the 10th losing season in program history. It is one of the most challenging schedules to date as more than a third of ORU's slate is against a team that reached the postseason in 2018.

For the latest information on ORU Volleyball, follow the Golden Eagles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or go to www.ORUAthletics.com.  Fans can also receive updates on the team by downloading two mobile apps, ORU Golden Eagles Live and ORU Front Row, available on the App Store and Google Play.

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