Stephen F. Austin
SMU
Ladyjacks Pick Up Comeback Win Over Mustangs
9/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 6, 2008
DALLAS, Texas - After dropping a tough match to Montana in the middle match of the SMU Radisson Classic, the Ladyjack volleyball team rebounded in comeback fashion to defeat the host SMU Mustangs 3-2 at Moody Coliseum.
It is the fourth consecutive time SFA (3-3) has beaten the Mustangs (4-3), including a five-set win in Nacogdoches last season. SFA earned the tournament title with the win due to Friday's head-to-head win over New Orleans.
The match was a coming-out party of sorts for freshman middle blocker MC Bottles, who responded to her first significant playing time of her career with 16 kills and three blocks and was placed on the all-tournament team after the match. Senior Lauren Railey also contributed 16 kills for SFA on 61 attacks, moving past former teammate Traci Rohde into sole possession of eighth place at SFA in kills with 1,311. She was named tournament MVP after registering 47 kills in the three matches.
The Ladyjacks came out of the gate slowly, only hitting .028 in the first set and only .163 in the second as the Ponies hit .277 as a team in the opening two frames to quickly grab a 2-0 lead.
But that is when SFA turned the table, getting five kills from Bottles and four from Railey as the team hitting .298 after coming out of the locker room to claim the third set and climb back in the match.
Debbie Humphreys watched on in the fourth set as SFA scored six of the final eight points, including a game-clinching block by Bottles to withstand a late SMU push and giving the Ladyjacks a wave of momentum heading into the final race to 15.
SFA scored the first point of the fifth set and never gave the lead up, never leading the Mustangs by more than two points at any point in the set. SMU did pull even at 12 apiece, but Kelsey Owens delivered a kill to give the lead back to SFA before Railey scored the final two kills of the match.
The Ladyjacks make a quick trip to Lafayette, La., on Tuesday to take on the Ragin' Cajuns before opening up the home slate of the season on Friday at the Ladyjack Invitational sponsored by The Grove.
-SFA-
