Ladyjack Volleyball to Face UTA, Texas State
9/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 29, 2006
NACOGDOCHES - This weekend marks the second homestand for the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks, and their first Southland Conference home matches when they face Texas-Arlington and Texas State Friday and Saturday, respectively. Friday's match against the Lady Mavs will begin at 7 p.m. while Saturday's match is scheduled for 4 p.m. Both matches will be played at the William R. Johnson Coliseum.
The Ladyjacks have put together a league-best 11-3 record and won their SLC opening matches against Texas-San Antonio and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to have a 2-0 conference record. The two wins were SFA's 36th and 37th consecutive regular season conference match wins, dating back to the 2004 season.
Junior Traci Rohde is leading SFA's offense with 3.86 kills per game and is one of the defensive leaders as well, posting a total of 71 blocks on the year and a 1.42 blocks per game average. Meanwhile, senior Stephanie Figgers and junior JJ Jones are both leading the league in their respective categories. Figgers is notching 6.28 digs per game and Jones is averaging 12.22 assists.
After a down year in 2005, Texas-Arlington is coming back strong with a league-best 12 wins, but has suffered five losses. In their lone conference match to date, the Lady Mavs took a 3-1 win over last season's SLC tournament champion, Texas State, who is currently struggling with a 3-11 season record. It was also the lone conference match for the Bobcats thus far.
In the match between UTA and Texas State, the Bobcats took a 32-30 win in Game 1 before falling 36-34, 30-17 and 30-27 to suffer the loss. UTA's Teena Sobczak had 23 kills in the win, and four Lady Mavs collected double-digit digs to go along with Emily Nedderman's 50 assists. Lawrencia Brown led Texas State with 18 kills and 19 digs. Kacey Wimpy and Jessica Weynand dished out 23 and 22 digs, respectively, for the Bobcats.
Against each other, SFA and UTA are currently 16-16 all-time, with SFA winning six of the last nine matches, including a 3-0 sweep in 2005, their last meeting on the court. After defeating the Bobcats in both regular season matches last year, the Bobcats took a 3-0 win from the Ladyjacks when it counted, in the SLC Championship Tournament.
After this weekend, SFA will head to Dallas to close out its non-conference schedule at SMU and North Texas on Tuesday and Wednesday.
-SFA-
