ROCHESTER, Mich. -- The Oakland volleyball team begins Horizon League by traveling to Wright State on Friday, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. and IUPUI on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN3. 

The Golden Grizzlies are coming off the Colorado Classic, taking two out of three matches on the weekend as Jamie Walling and Katelyn Johnson earned all-tournament honors.

INSIDE THE SERIES

• Oakland is 13-7 all-time against Wright State.
• The Golden Grizzlies have won 13 of the past 14 matches against the Raiders
• The Raiders swept Oakland in three sets the last time the two teams met on Oct. 31, 2018 in Dayton. The loss snapped Oakland's 13-game winning streak in the series.
• The Golden Grizzlies are 11-25 all-time against IUPUI.
• Both teams have won two of the last four matchups.

NOTES

• Head coach Rob Beam was an assistant and associate head coach at Wright State from 2000-2004. Beam was a part of the staff when the 2001 Raiders posted a 21-7 record, which still remains the last time WSU has won 20-plus matches in a season. 
• Megan Hobler ranks 20th nationally in total blocks (61) and 46th in blocks per set (1.30).
• Oakland ranks inside the NCAA Top-50 in total blocks (36th) and blocks per set (48th).
•  Walling ranks second in the Horizon League in points and kills.
• Lindsay Wightman is nearing the 1,000 career dig milestone, coming into the weekend with 958.
• Walling already has a three 20-plus-kill performances this season. Coming into 2019, she had four in her career.
• On Sept. 7 against Belmont, Mackenzie Schneider recorded seven service aces which tied Melissa Deatsch (2013), Meghan Bray (2011) and Becca Moeller (2003) for the single match school record.
• Beam enters his 13th season as the head coach at Oakland compiling a 192-174 (.525) record.
• Oakland has finished fourth or higher in its league standings in eight of the last nine seasons.
• The Golden Grizzlies were picked fourth in the 2019 Horizon League Volleyball Preseason Poll announced by the league office on Aug. 28 and voted on by the league's nine head coaches. Oakland earned one first-place vote and 49 points overall.
• Oakland returns a first team all-league selection in Walling. She was the only player to appear in all 27 matches and play in all 108 sets last season and ranked second in the Horizon League in hitting percentage at .290.
• Walling also ranked third in the conference in points per set (3.87), fourth in kills per set (3.37) and recorded 20 kills or more in four matches.
• Wightman returns for her junior season as one of the league's top defensive specialists, ranking fourth in the conference last season in digs per set.
• Wightman also ranked inside the NCAA's top-50 in digs per set (45th) in 2018.
• Oakland added eight newcomers to the 2019 team, including three transfers in Taylor Dellinger (Western Kentucky), Kerra Cornist (Evansville) and Brittany Welch (New Mexico State).

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