Volleyball Set for Final Regular Season Road Trip

NORMAN – The regular season for the Oklahoma volleyball team comes to an end this weekend as the Sooners travel to No. 2 Kentucky and No. 19 Tennessee. OU will face the Wildcats on Friday at 6 p.m. CT before heading up to Knoxville, Tenn., to face the Volunteers on Sunday at noon CT.

Sunday's regular season finale will air on the SEC Network with John Roethlisberger (PxP) and Madison Fitzpatrick (analyst) on the call.

LOOK BACK AT IT
The Sooners extended their win streak to three matches with back-to-back sweeps over Mississippi State and Alabama last week. This is the first time since 2019 that OU has swept multiple opponents in conference action. Against Mississippi State, Kelli Jo Burgess hit a season best .706, her second match hitting at least .700 on the season. The redshirt junior notched 12 kills on 17 attempts with no errors to tie her season high in kills. She added five blocks to lead the team, along with one service ace. Alexis Shelton hit .303 as she recorded 15 kills on the night, including the game winner. The senior also added four digs and two blocks.

Against Alabama, Emoni Bush reached 1,000 career kills. Bush needed no time at all to reach her milestone as the graduate student rattled off four straight kills to start the match. On her sixth swing of the game, Bush reached the elusive mark and ended her night with 13 for a career total of 1,008.

MAGA NAMED SEC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
After helping the Sooners to a 2-0 week at home, freshman setter Avaya Maga was named the SEC Co-Freshman of the Week. This is the first weekly honor of Maga's career and the second weekly honor for a Sooner this season after Alexis Shelton was named offensive player of the week on Oct. 6. Maga shared the honor this week with Kentucky's Kassie O'Brien.

On the week, Maga tallied 45 assists and 10 digs, bringing her season total to 594 assists and 138 digs. In both matches, she tallied 20-plus assists, bringing her season total to 18 matches with at least 20 assists. Maga has notched at least 20 assists in each of her last 10 matches and in 11 of 13 SEC matches. Maga helped power the offense to a season-high team hitting percentage of .423 in Friday's match against Alabama. The freshman tallied 24 assists along with five digs and one ace against the Crimson Tide. Earlier in the week, she helped lead the Sooners to a sweep of Mississippi State with 21 assists and five digs.

EYES ON SAVANNAH
The SEC will relaunch the SEC Volleyball Championship this season, slated to take place November 21-25, 2025 at Enmarket Arena. The Sooners are currently tied for seventh in the league but have played one less match than teams immediately above and below them. Based on results from play this weekend, the Sooners could be anywhere from the No. 6 seed to the No. 9 seed. As the nine seed, OU would open play on Nov. 21 against Arkansas who they defeated 3-1 earlier this season in Norman. Teams seeded 1-4 receive a double-bye, while teams 5-8 receive a first-round bye.

ONE-TWO PUNCH
The one-two punch of Alexis Shelton and Emoni Bush has been a force for the Sooners this season. The duo has combined for 637 kills on the season, for an incredible 54 percent of the total offense. Shelton leads the way with 354 kills, while Bush has added 283. Bush is just 13 kills off her career season best of 396 set in 2024 and Shelton needs just 46 for her third straight season with at least 400 kills. The duo has also been a mainstay on the defensive side of the ball, totaling 134 blocks. Bush has added 146 digs on the season while Shelton has chipped in 129.

MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
Alexis Shelton is nearing the 1,500-kill mark as she has tallied 1,472 in her four years as a Sooner. The senior has tallied 354 kills this season and needs to average just over nine kills per match in the final three guaranteed matches of the season to achieve the feat. Shelton is averaging just over 15 per match to date. Emoni Bush recently reached a new milestone, hitting 1,000 career kills against Alabama on Nov. 7.

DOWN IN HISTORY
After becoming the 15^th Sooner to reach 1,000 kills, Shelton is now the all-time kills leader in the 25-point rally scoring era and is the first Sooner since Kierra Holst in 2015 to break into the top 10 all-time. Shelton currently sits in sixth with 1,472 and can become just the sixth Sooner to reach 1,500 kills in a career. Shelton needs just 12 kills to hold three spots in the top 10 for kills in a single season. If she records 46 in her next three guaranteed matches, she will be just the fourth person in OU history (all scoring eras) to record three seasons of 400-plus kills. Shelton will also finish in the top 10 in total attempts all-time. Currently, she has 3,502 which is good for 10^th. Shelton needs 73 attempts to move up to ninth. In the 25-point rally scoring era, her 3,502 attempts is good for third all-time.

SERIES HISTORY
NO. 2 KENTUCKY: OU leads the all-time series between the two teams, 2-1. Last season, the Sooners took a top 10 Kentucky team to the brink, narrowly falling in five sets in Lexington.

NO. 19 TENNESSEE: The series between Tennessee and Oklahoma is currently tied 2-2. Last season, OU handed the Volunteers a 3-1 loss in Norman for the first ranked win in 10 years. This will be the first meeting between the two squads in the state of Tennessee.

LOOKING AHEAD

Up next for the Sooners is the SEC Tournament in Savannah, Ga. OU will learn it's seeding and first round opponent following the conclusion of Sunday's matches.