Stephen F. Austin
Southeastern Louisiana
SFA Gets Back In Win Column Against Lions
11/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 13, 2008
HAMMOND, La. - After falling on Wednesday night against McNeese State, the Ladyjack volleyball team rebounded well by picking up its 10th conference win of the season with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-17) win over Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday.
The loss keeps SFA's (19-8, 10-5) hopes alive of claiming the No. 3 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament to be held at Johnson Coliseum, and would need a win over Nicholls on Saturday coupled with a loss by UTSA at UT-Arlington on Saturday to claim that seed due to the Roadrunners holding the series tiebreaker over the Ladyjacks.
Southeastern Louisiana (10-17, 3-12) was eliminated from contention for a spot in the tournament with Thursday's loss.
The Ladyjacks jumped out to an early 12-6 lead in the first set before the Lions rallied to pull within two points at 15-13, but Kelsey Owens had three kills in the final 10 SFA points to lead SFA to an eight-point win.
In set two the Ladyjacks were at their best of the night offensively, hitting .452 in the frame to withstand .281 hitting from SE Louisiana. Railey was perfect in the frame, landing six kills with no errors on nine tries as setter Whitney Schott dished out 16 of her match-high 34 assists.
SFA got six players in the kill column in the final set, using a kill from MC Bottles to take the lead at 8-7, a lead it would hold onto the remainder of the way. Scores from Railey, Owens and Shelly Swendig pushed the lead to five at 16-11. The Lions forced a Ladyjack timeout at 18-15 after scoring five straight points of their own, but helped SFA out with three attack errors in the next six points to push the Ladyjacks to the brink of a win. A ball handling error from Katie Collins gave SFA a match-point opportunity that Owens took advantage of with her only service ace of the night for the win.
Railey and Owens led SFA offensively, scoring a match-high 12 kills apiece Bottles and Swendig next in line with eight and seven kills apiece, respectively. Laurel Kuepker paced the defense with 12 digs and Whitney Schott picked up her second double-double of the year with 11 digs to go along with her 34 assists.
SFA wraps up the regular season on Saturday in Thibodaux, La., against Nicholls State. The Ladyjacks swept the Colonels earlier in the year in Nacogdoches, however, Nicholls won both of its matches last week including a four-set win over UTSA in San Antonio.
The match is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. first serve and can be followed via Gametracker at www.sfajacks.com.
-SFA-
