Volleyball Announces 2007 Schedule
7/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
July 11, 2007
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin head volleyball coach Debbie Humphreys has announced the schedule for the upcoming 2007 volleyball season. The Ladyjacks will host 14 matches at William R. Johnson Coliseum, the most home matches Nacogdoches has seen since the 2003 campaign.
Included in the schedule are a pair of conference champions from 2006 and a host of other strong teams. SFA will open up the season on the road for its first six matches as the team will take part in the Creighton and Baylor tournaments. The Ladyjacks will face Montana State, reigning Sun Belt champion Middle Tennessee and the host Blue Jays at the Creighton Tournament. SFA will then travel to Waco, Tex., to participate in the Baylor Tournament against major conference teams in Oregon, Mississippi State and Baylor. It was the Bears that handed the Ladyjacks one of their four losses in 2006.
The home opener will take place September 4 when SFA plays host to SMU before opening up its own tournament, the Austin Bank Ladyjack Invitational. This year's field will consist of Northwestern State, Louisiana-Monroe and the 2006 Conference USA regular season champion Tulsa.
After the Houston Tournament on September 14-15, Humphreys will lead her squad to Denton, Tex., to take on the Mean Green in the final tuneup before Southland Conference play begins.
"It's a very tough preseason and is a situation where if we show up and play the kind of ball we are capable of, we will put ourselves in position to win," Humphreys said. "If we do not do that on any given night, we will not win the match. It's going to be that simple."
September 21 will mark not only the conference opener versus Northwestern State, but is the beginning of a five-match homestand for SFA. Overall, the Ladyjacks sport 32 matches on the regular season schedule before the Southland Conference Tournament is held in San Antonio November 16-18.
The Ladyjacks are the reigning Southland Conference champions and are coming off of the school's first ever NCAA Tournament victory. SFA will enter SLC play riding a 51-match winning streak in conference play.
"For us, we plan on just continuing with our same focus. We take our season one week at a time, and we take our opponents one at a time. We'll look week-by-week at whoever's on the schedule that week. That will be our focus," Humphreys said. "Nobody else is of any concern to us. We will have the benefit of the schedule this year. Last year we had nine away conference matches and seven at home, but this year, that will be flip-flopped."
