This weekend, the Georgia Southern Eagles will have one of the toughest weekends they’ve had all season. In less than 48 hours, the Eagles will play teams ranked number one and two in the Sun Belt Conference. UALR has yet to lose a match in conference play, while Arkansas State has only lost four.

UALR (Fri. Nov. 14, 8 p.m.):

Despite such an impressive record, the Eagles still managed to hang with the Trojans when they visited the Eagles at Statesboro High. In fact, GSU won the first set 25-21 with an attacking percentage of 21.9. However, if the Eagles are expected to defeat UALR in the rematch in Little Rock, they’ll have to keep that momentum going. In fact, if the Eagles manage to keep the momentum their way, then there is no reason why the Eagles can’t win. Even though UALR is undefeated in conference play, the Eagles harshest loss set to the Trojans was only by a difference of 6 points. If they can stop UALR from immediately scoring after they do, then the Eagles could easily win this matchup. Another component the Eagles will definitely have to look for is Edina Begic. Begic had 22 kills in the last match up with an attacking percentage of 24.6. If the Eagles can shut down Begic, it’ll definitely take a key feature of the UALR attack.

Arkansas State (Sun. Nov. 16, 1 p.m.):

The Arkansas State is another rematch that the Eagles will definitely want to change the outcome that happened the last time these two teams played. The Red Wolves went up against the Eagles before the Eagles recorded their first win of the season and managed to defeat the Eagles 3-1. Something to notice in that 3-1 loss the Eagles had earlier in the season is the one winning set the Eagles pulled off with a score of 25-18. This was by far the most defining set of the series yet it was the only set of the series Ga. Southern won. If the Eagles can erase the close scores and have more defining sets, then there’s no reason they can’t record a win this time around. However, to do this, they’ll need repeat performances from Megan Chevalier, Kym Coley, and Jamie Deratt who all had had a hitting percentage of over 20. Chevalier and Coley’s actually pushed towards 40. If Cathrine Murray can bring back the performance she usually brings in week and week out along with the performance of the other three, then this honestly has the potential to be a 3-0 victory for the Eagles.

Rematches always bring a bit of hostility and competitiveness, and this weekend will be no different. The Eagles will look to end their final road trip of the season with some wins. The Eagles only have four matches left this season and they begin in Arkansas.