Stephen F. Austin
Sam Houston State
Ladyjacks Serve Up A Win Over Bearkats
10/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 22, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Ladyjack volleyball team had five players with at least 10 kills, led by Ashley Bailey's career-best 18 as SFA moved to 7-1 in conference play with a comeback 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-23) win over Sam Houston on Wednesday at Johnson Coliseum.
SFA (16-4, 7-1) had to withstand an early barrage from the Bearkats (9-15, 4-4) as Sam Houston hit at a .378 clip in the first set, but the Ladyjacks hit at least .250 in the first three sets on their way to a .253 night as a team in picking up the hard-fought win.
Lauren Railey and Amber Williams-Roberts each had double-doubles with kills and digs, but it was the middle duo of MC Bottles and Bailey that did the majority of the offensive damage, knocking down a combined 33 kills on 65 tries between them.
SFA led in set one as late as 19-18 before the Kats followed kills from Carli Kolbe and Haley Thomas to the two-point win; however, the second set was a completely different story as the Ladyjacks stormed out to a 6-0 lead behind three straight service aces by Lauren Railey to start things off. Railey would finish with a career-best six aces on the night and now has 135 for her career, just four shy of moving in to SFA's all-time top 10.
The Ladyjacks did not let up, though, as they hit .275 in the frame and got six kills from Bailey and four more from Bottles in holding Sam Houston to a match-low .176 hitting percentage.
Bailey was the go-to hitter once again in the third set, landing seven kills in the five-point win, accounting for half of Whitney Schott's 14 assists in the set as well.
In the final set, things were the epitome of a see-saw battle with neither team holding more than a two-point advantage until Schott found Railey for a kills that gave SFA a 21-18 lead late in the set. But the Bearkats were not quite done, and they were able to follow the serve of Shamira Washington to pull within a point at 23-22. But Schott caught the Kats napping when she snuck in a kill in the midst of the Sam Houston defense to give SFA a match-point opportunity that it took advantage of two points later on a kill from Bottles.
Schott finished with a career-best 62 assists in four sets, the fourth-highest overall assist total in the Southland Conference this season and the most of in any four-set match.
Laurel Kuepker led three Ladyjacks in digs with 23, while Railey added 14 and Williams-Roberts had 13.
SFA takes on Lamar at home at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday with the Ladyjacks looking to avenge last season's five-set loss to the Cardinals last season that snapped SFA's 62-match conference win streak.
-SFA-
