Ladyjacks To Waco For Clarion Invitational
8/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 30, 2007
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - After a season-opening weekend filled with tough competition, the SFA Ladyjack volleyball team will toe the line three more times this weekend versus three opponents from major conferences at the Baylor Clarion Invitational in Waco, Texas.
All matches will be able to be followed as they occur via Gametracker HERE.
Baylor, Oregon and Mississippi State will join SFA at the Ferrell Center for the round-robin format tournament. Each team is entering its second week of competition with each of SFA's opponents entering the weekend with a winning record.
The Ladyjacks pulled out a win over Montana State in the season's first match at the Bluejay Invitational on Friday, but then ran into a pair of road blocks in Middle Tennessee and Creighton as SFA fell via sweep against both the Blue Raiders and the Bluejays. It marked the first time since 2000 - a span of 226 matches - that SFA has been swept in back-to-back matches.
There were a number of bright spots for the Ladyjacks in Omaha, including Lauren Railey earning all-tournament honors for her performances. Railey posted a double-double in each of the first two matches of the year and finished in double-figures in digs in each match. Freshman Kelsey Owens made her debut against Montana State and just missed out on a double-double of her own with eight kills and a weekend-high 27 digs.
Through one weekend of play the Ladyjacks already stand at the top of the Southland Conference rankings in digs, kills and assists despite playing the toughest set of opponents of any SLC school last week. Senior JJ Jones dished out a league-high 123 assists in the three matches, and Traci Rohde's 39 kills is already the top total in the SLC.
SFA will open up the Clarion Invitational on Friday against the host, Baylor. This will present the prospect of revenge after Baylor dealt SFA one of its four losses last year in Nacogdoches early in the season. This will be the 11th time SFA and Baylor have squared off in the Debbie Humphreys era, the most SFA has faced off with any of the current Big 12 schools.
The Lady Bears are a youthful team in 2007, returning only three starters from a team that picked up only six Big 12 wins and amassed an 18-15 overall record in 2006; however, they came together in the season's first test to find a taste of early success. Baylor traveled north to the University of Buffalo Classic and was only one game away from opening the year with a 3-0 record. The Lady Bears knocked off Buffalo and North Carolina before holding a 2-0 lead over Stony Brook in the finale, only to drop the final three games and finish the weekend 2-1.
SFA will be the second consecutive SLC school Baylor has faced, having defeated Texas State 3-1 in Waco on Tuesday.
Junior Taylor Barnes is the offensive director and earned all-tournament honors in Buffalo after doling out 150 assists in three matches. She picked up Baylor's only two triple-doubles last season and holds the Baylor record after jump-serving 11 aces versus Missouri in `06. Her favorite target in Buffalo was Katie Sanders, who also earned an all-tournament nod by knocking down 59 kills for a 4.92 kpg average.
Oregon will provide the second test for SFA after opening up its season with a perfect 3-0 weekend and winning its third-straight Oregon Kickoff Classic. The Ducks also made the NCAA Tournament last year, but bowed out in the first round to national power Hawaii. The Ducks compiled a 17-11 overall record and picked up seven wins in the Pac 10, a conference that sent three teams to last year's Final Four.
This will be only the fourth time SFA has ever matched up with an opponent from the Pac 10, the other three times against Arizona State.
Head coach Jim Moore earned Pac 10 Coach of the Year honors last season and is back for his third year at the reigns. He returns four starters from last year's group, led by senior Karen Waddington and a trio of sophomores. One of those sophomores, Sonja Newcombe, was named tournament MVP at the Oregon Kickoff Classic after finishing with 3.89 kpg with a .378 hitting percentage in three matches.
Mississippi State will arrive in Waco after picking up a pair of wins in its season-opening tournament, the MSU/Microtel Classic. The Bulldogs registered victories over Murray State and Arkansas-Little Rock before falling to Clemson in the title match.
Fourth-year head coach Tina Seals has Mississippi State on somewhat of a roll in her tenure, having led the Bulldogs to back-to-back winning seasons - 2005 and 2006 - for only the second time in the program's 33-year history. The eight SEC wins they compiled in '06 are the program's best ever.
Four starters return from last year's team that piled up a 17-13 overall record with senior Jamie Joyner leading the charge. Joyner was one of two Bulldogs selected to the all-tournament squad, as she caught fire against UALR with a career-high 21 kills in the Bulldogs' win. That same match saw Eva Kriegel put up 11 kills, 38 assists and 10 digs for her first triple-double of the year and one of only seven posted in the entire country in the year's inaugural weekend.
This will be the third time that SFA has met up with Mississippi State, the first time since 1989 when SFA won a pair of matches both played on Sept. 23.
SFA's Schedule at the Baylor Clarion Invitational:
SFA vs Baylor - Fri., 7;00 pm CDT
SFA vs Oregon - Sat., 11:00 am CDT
SFA vs Mississippi State - Sat., 5:00 pm CDT
-SFA-
