Stephen F. Austin
Mcneese State
SFA Picks Up Road Win Over Cowgirls
10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 3, 2009
LAKE CHARLES, La. - Kelsey Owens picked up a doubled-double and became the first Ladyjack this season to pick up 20 kills as SFA went on the road and walked away with a 3-1 (25-15, 26-24, 23-25, 25-19) win over McNeese State at Memorial Gym.
SFA (13-8, 2-1 Southland) avenged a road loss against McNeese (13-4, 1-2 Southland) in Lake Charles a year ago as it began a road swing that will see it play seven of its next eight matches on the road.
Owens finished with 20 kills and 13 digs on the night, the highest kill total of any Ladyjack this season and the most since Lauren Railey and Traci Rohde each hit 20 once in 2007. However, she was not the only go-to Ladyjack as Ashley Bailey and Arielle Daron continued their offensive torrent with a dozen kills apiece.
Madison Hanlan and Sydney Milburn did their part in manning the back line with Hanlan with hitting a career best with 26 digs and Milburn's season-high 17. Only all-conference player Chanel Tyler and Priscilla Massengale were really able to get anything going offensively against the Ladyjacks as Tyler went for 15 kills and 22 digs and Massengale had 18 kills, but no other Cowgirl had more than Nicole Bowden's seven kills as McNeese only managed to hit .133 for the night.
Bailey was able to add six blocks to her 12 kills and setters Paloma Buckner and Laurel Kuepker each went for 24 assists in leading the offense to .198 hitting.
Owens got SFA out to a quick start with six of her 20 kills in the first set and SFA did not have much of an issue with the Cowgirls early on. SFA jumped out to an early 9-2 lead behind serves from Buckner and Daron, and two Owens kills pushed the lead out to 13-6 not long after. The Ladyjacks continued to add to their lead and used a 5-1 lead late in the set to walk away with a 1-0 lead.
SFA then took a stranglehold on the match with a win in the second set, using five more kills from Owens and going to extra points to take a firm 2-0 lead. She then added five more kills in the third set, but the Cowgirls were able to take advantage of eight Tyler kills and just .191 hitting by SFA to creep back into the match.
But that was just the spark SFA needed as the Ladyjacks raced out to a 10-3 lead in the final set and never gave up the lead. SFA led by as much as 10 points at 19-9 before McNeese tried to put forth a rally and got to within four points at 23-19 before a kill from Emily Franklin and an attack misfire from Tyler closed it out.
The Ladyjacks now have three more on the road beginning Friday at Nicholls and then Saturday at Southeastern Louisana. If the Ladyjacks take those two matches then Debbie Humphreys will shoot for her 500th career victory on Monday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
-SFA-
