SFA Preps For Important Home Weekend
10/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 25, 2007
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - With only six regular season matches remaining on the Ladyjacks schedule, no weekend has shaped up to be as big as this one as SFA will play host to the top two teams in the SLC East - McNeese State and Lamar.
SFA cut its magic number to four to clinch the SLC West with a win on Tuesday over Sam Houston, stretching its record conference win streak to 61 in the process; however, Lamar is right on the Ladyjacks' heels for the overall No. 1 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament and looks to be the only roadblock in the way of a fourth straight SLC title for SFA.
Coming into Tuesday it looked as though the Cardinals and the Ladyjacks were on a collision course as the two only undefeated teams in the Southland before McNeese pulled an upset in Lake Charles, defeating Lamar in five games.
After having their record fall to 8-11 through 19 matches, the Cowgirls have caught fire having won their last five with none being more impressive than their five-game win over Lamar on Tuesday. McNeese still trails the Cardinals by two games in the SLC East, but is finding its stride at the right time led by senior libero Jessica Strama. Strama had 26 digs on Tuesday and set the NCAA single-match digs record a year ago with 62 against UTA. Since then she has taken hold of the all-time digs mark at McNeese and currently sits second in the SLC with 5.63 digs per game. Alyson Jones and Sarah Cartie lead the offense, sitting in the top 10 in the SLC in kills [Jones] and assists [Cartie].
The Cardinals had their 14-match win streak snapped in a five-game loss at McNeese on Tuesday, but still have a two-game edge in the SLC East standings. Former SFA assistant coach Justin Gibert has already led his team to more wins - 18 - than any Lamar squad since 2002. Lamar currently leads the SLC in hitting percentage, assists and opponent's hitting percentage. Senior Adrianne Meengs has been named SLC Offensive Player of the Week twice in the past three weeks, and senior Molli Abel is pacing the league with a .377 hitting percentage for the season. She has been even better in conference matches, upping her mark to .413.
What to watch for:
· With two wins on the weekend, SFA will pick up its 21st consecutive win at home, tying the program record set from 1997-98. During the current streak, the Ladyjacks have swept 15 of the 19 opponents.
· If the Ladyjacks are able to pick up both wins, they will maintain at least a three-game lead over UTA in the SLC West and would have at least a two-game lead over Lamar for the outright SLC title.
· SFA has swept Lamar the last seven times they played.
· Traci Rohde needs four blocks to move into sole possession of fourth place on the SFA career list; JJ Jones needs 252 assists to take the all-time lead at SFA and 157 to move into sole possession of second place.
