SFA Hits Road To Face Mean Green
9/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 17, 2007
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Debbie Humphreys will take her squad on the road one more time before starting Southland Conference play this week, as SFA travels to Denton to take on North Texas on Tuesday.
The Ladyjacks (8-5) will battle the Mean Green for the third time in four seasons on Tuesday after SFA knocked off North Texas in Denton last year, 3-0. SFA has not lost to the Mean Green since North Texas' last year in the Southland Conference - 1995 - when North Texas left Shelton Gym with the SLC Tournament title.
The Ladyjacks have done their part to reclaim the old conference rivalry, winning the last five matches over North Texas; incidentally, the Mean Green has not won an individual game off of SFA since the 1997 season.
SFA finished off the Houston Tournament with a pair of wins after losing a five-game heartbreaker to Houston on Friday. Saturday saw SFA sweep Wake Forest before going the full five games in the win over Rice.
"We are still improving," Humphreys said. "We feel like we should have went 3-0 over the weekend, but we still managed to fight back on Saturday and pick up a pair of wins. It is always good to see a team respond like that after a loss."
Sophomore Briana Taylor continues to have an impressive start to her season in helping lead the defensive charge. The Ladyjacks have won seven of their last eight matches, holding opponents to less than a .200 hitting percentage in five of those matches. Taylor has helped out at the net with 62 blocks in that time frame, averaging just under a pair of blocks a game.
The match versus Houston also saw freshman Laurel Kuepker become the first Ladyjack of the season to crack the 30-dig plateau when she put up 32 digs against the Cougars. Kuepker has steadily increased her digs per game average, leading the team with 4.10 per game.
Offensively SFA is staying consistent. The team is still looking for its first 20-kill performance of the year, but has yet to record a match in which less than seven players picked up a kill.
Lauren Railey and Shelly Swendig continue to barrage the opposition with attacks, with Swendig hitting at a team-best .264 clip. Add in JJ Jones' newfound offensive motives and the triumvirate accounts for 60 percent of the team's kills in its last eight matches.
North Texas (4-9) comes in having not gotten off to the start it envisioned. The reigning Sun Belt Western Division champion lost its first seven matches to start the year, but has since rebounded to take wins in four of its last seven matches.
The Mean Green is a senior-laden group that compiled a 23-13 record in 2006. Head coach Cassie Headrick is in her eighth year at the helm and became the program's all-time winningest coach in '06.
Senior outside hitters Brooke Engel and Katy Prokof will look to lead the offense inside the friendly confines of the North Texas Volleyball Center. Prokof missed the first three matches of the season due to injury, but has returned to put up just over three kills per game since then. She currently ranks in the top five in kills, attacks and digs at North Texas for her career.
Engel will provide a new challenge for the Ladyjacks as well, bringing a difficult left-handed serve to the court. Engel led the nation in service aces in '06 with .98 per game, and dished out five in three games against SFA last year. After a slow start she has recently found her groove, averaging .94 aces per game since August 31.
Senior libero Jessica Hulsebosch is North Texas' all-time leader in every digs category and recently was named the Sun Belt's Defensive Player of the Week. She posted three consecutive 20-kill matches at the Tulsa Invitational last weekend, averaging 7.33 digs per game.
After returning to Nacogdoches, SFA will open up Southland Conference play against Northwestern State and Central Arkansas on Friday and Saturday at William R. Johnson Coliseum.
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