Southland Conference Weekly Volleyball Update
9/18/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 18, 2000
Southland Weekly Volleyball - Sept. 18, 2000
McNeese State and Southwest Texas Start Out 3-0 With the opening week of conference play in the books, two leaders have emerged. McNeese State and Southwest Texas each rolled to 3-0 starts to sit atop the Southland Conference volleyball standings. McNeese dropped only one game to Lamar while SWT dropped one each to Texas-San Antonio and Texas-Arlington. Both teams played one home match and two on the road. Their first head-to-head meeting is Sept. 29 in Lake Charles, La.
McNeese's Anissa Parker became a member of this season's 30-kill club when she hit 36 against Lamar, a new school single-match record. The senior outside hitter is this week's offensive player of the week. Teammate Lisa Dupont moved into fifth place on McNeese's all-time dig list with her week's performance. She now has 987 digs in her career.
Natalie Spann led the SWT offense with 168 assists for an average of 15.27 assists per game. Shauna Stahl, the Southland's defensive player of the week, earned 4.82 digs per game and added two block solos and seven block assists. Southwest Texas recorded its fifth-largest volleyball crowd in Strahan Coliseum history with 1,057 in attendance against UTA on Sept. 12.
After the loss to McNeese, Lamar picked up two victories on the road at Northwestern State and Louisiana-Monroe. Felicia Taylor just missed a triple-double at McN with 18 kills, 16 digs and eight block assists. She had a 1.09 blocks per game average in 11 games. Natalie Sarver notched two double-doubles last week (kills and digs) to help her team to a 2-1 start.
UTA was 1-2 for the week with a win over UTSA and losses to TCU and SWT. Kisha Tucker led the Mavericks with 153 assists in 12 games for an average of 12.75, moving her into second place on UTA's list of career assists leaders with 4,649. Trisha Walker was steady on the UTA defense, recording 47 digs and 3.9 digs per game. She is now eighth on the Mavs' all-time career digs list with 1,173.
Three teams sit at 1-2 in SLC play. Northwestern State posted a 3-2 win at Southeastern Louisiana to open its Conference schedule. April George, who hit a match-high .515 attack percentage, had crucial kills in the fifth game with the score knotted at 13 to help the Demons close out the victory. Christina Stone, Elizabeth Perez and DyAnna DuBois each had double-doubles (kills-digs) in the contest. SLU's Mandy Withrow added her own double-double with a match-high 27 kills and 25 digs. Stone went on to post double-doubles in the next two matches as well.
Also at 1-2 in Conference, Stephen F. Austin swept Sam Houston State, then fell to SWT and UTSA, all at home. Jenny Orndorff set an individual match record for digs with 33 against UTSA. Marissa Dorcheus showed why she's the league's assists leader by setting 132 in 10 games for an average of 13.20, that included 65 assists in the UTSA match alone.
Defending regular season champion Texas-San Antonio is off to a slow start. With a tough non-conference slate, the Roadrunners are 4-6 overall and 1-2 in the Southland. Charlsie Heifrin continues to lead the league in blocks after she added six block solos and 19 block assists for a 2.08 blocks per game average. She also tallied double-digit kills in all three matches. Stacy Schmidt, who is first in the Conference in digs, averaged 5.08 digs per game.
SLU, Sam Houston State and Louisiana-Monroe are still searching for a Conference win. SLU lost to Northwestern State, then went 0-3 in the LSU tournament to start the season 0-7. The Lady Lions returned home to sweep Southern in a Sunday match. SHSU was winless at the South Carolina Classic and Nicholls State, which got a win against ULM earlier in the week, was 0-4 at the University of Memphis/Graphic Systems Classic. Jennifer Wismann was named to the all-tournament team.
Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week Anissa Parker ? senior ? outside hitter ? McNeese State Leading McNeese State to a 3-0 Southland start, Anissa Parker slammed home a career-high 36 kills against Lamar, pacing herself to a .369 hitting percentage and 6.90 kills per game last week. The senior from Bakersfield, Calif., set a new school single-match kill record with her performance versus LU, and she became the school's career attempt leader (with 4,292) by adding 149 attempts in three matches. She recorded double-digit kills in each match and a total of seven service aces.
Also nominated: Natalie Sarver, LU, Natalie Spann, SWT, Marissa Dorcheus, SFA, Kisha Tucker, UTA, Stacy Schmidt, UTSA Previous winners: Brigette Birdwell, LU, Kristy Rhodes, SFA
Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week Shauna Stahl ? senior ? outside hitter ? Southwest Texas Helping her team to a 3-0 start in Southland play, Shauna Stahl recorded 4.82 digs per game in three matches and added two block solos and seven block assists. This senior from Austin, Texas, along with three senior teammates, had previously been winless at Stephen F. Austin in four years until the road victory last Friday.
Also nominated: Felicia Taylor, LU, Lisa Dupont, McN, Jenny Orndorff, SFA, Trisha Walker, UTA, Charlsie Heifrin, UTSA Previous winners: Natalie Sarver, LU, Jennifer Dallao, SWT
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