Stephen F. Austin
North Texas
SFA Sweeps Mean Green For Second Straight Year
9/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 15, 2007
Denton, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin volleyball team pulled off a road sweep on Tuesday, knocking off the North Texas Mean Green 3-0 (30-25, 30-28, 31-29) at the North Texas Volleyball Center on Tuesday.
The win is the third in four years, and the fifth overall. The Ladyjacks (9-5) have not lost a single game against the Mean Green (4-10) since 1997.
SFA saw itself down 15-13 in game one after Amy Huddleston served out three consecutive points for the Mean Green; however, after a back-and-forth exchange, JJ Jones was able knock home one of her two kills in the game to knot the score at 17 apiece. North Texas' Brooke Engel would put down a pair of aces to give the Mean Green a short-lived lead at 23-22. The Ladyjacks would take eight of the next 10 points, taking the game 30-25.
The Mean Green would find the momentum early in game two, as Engel found the mark for another pair of service aces to give North Texas an 8-4 lead. The lead would swell to as much as six before Traci Rohde would get the Ladyjacks back in the scoring column at 11-6; however, SFA would battle back, taking a 16-15 lead on a Briana Taylor kill. Taylor would also be on the prowl at the net, assisting with Shelly Swendig to reject Amy Huddleston to make to give the Ladyjacks the advantage 26-22.
North Texas would maintain its poise, however, pulling within a point at 28-27 on a block by Catherine Coffey and Heather Maddox, and tying the score a point later. But SFA would have a match point and took the game 30-28 when Coffey's attack went awry.
Game three would see an invigorated Mean Green squad take a 4-0 lead before SFA would get on the board. North Texas would get the lead up to 8-5, but Rohde and Arielle Daron would pick up a block, followed by a Daron kill to draw SFA back to within a point at 8-7. After knotting the game at 14 apiece, Maddox would serve five straight points for the Mean Green, giving it a lead at 20-14.
Taylor and Swendig would then provide a spark for SFA, with Taylor picking up her first solo block of the season and Swendig finding the mark for three straight kill to pull the Ladyjacks back to force a Mean Green timeout at 22-20. Daron would score the next two SFA points and Whitney Schott would tie it up at 23 with an ace off of the hand of Katy Prokof. The teams would exchange points to tie it up at 28 before Taylor and Swendig gave SFA a match point, but the Mean Green would tie it up again at 29 apiece on a Prokof kill. Lauren Railey would then score a kill before Engel missed the mark to give SFA a hard-fought 31-29 edge.
Swendig posted 10 kills to lead eight Ladyjacks in the kill column. Taylor picked up her ninth match of the season with five or more blocks as she and Rohde each picked up six. The Ladyjacks out blocked the Mean Green 12-4, out blocking their opponent for the ninth straight match.
North Texas was led by Katy Prokof with a match-high 15 kills, while senior libero Jessica Hulsebosch picked up her fourth-straight match with 20 or more digs.
SFA returns to the court on Friday to begin a weekend pair of matches against Souhland Conference foes. Northwestern State comes in on Friday for a 7:00 p.m. match, while Central Arkansas will be the guest on Saturday with a 3:00 p.m. first serve.
-SFA-
