Humphreys Nearing Milestone As Ladyjacks Hit Road
10/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 8, 2009
Nicholls (5-10, 1-2 Southland) - Oct. 9, 7:00 p.m.
Stopher Gymnasium (3,800) - Thibodaux, La.
Southeastern Louisiana (6-8, 2-1 Southland) - Oct. 10, 2:00 p.m.
University Center (7,500) - Hammond, La.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi - Oct. 12, 7:00 p.m.
Moody Fieldhouse (500) - Corpus Christi, Texas
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FOR STARTERS
The Ladyjacks are at the start of their longest road stretch of the season with Saturday's win over McNeese opening a stretch of seven out of eight on the road.
SFA picked up a much-needed win on Saturday over the Cowgirls after dropping consecutive five-set matches on its home court to Central Arkansas and Tulane last week. Now the Ladyjacks finish off their swing on the Louisiana I-10 corridor with matches at Nicholls and Southeastern - teams they are a combined 57-5 against - and then pick up another road match at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday. SFA has already swept the Islanders at the Ladyjack Invitational.
SFA VS THE OPPONENTS
vs Nicholls, SFA leads 32-3
The last time: SFA 3, NICH 0 • Nov. 15, 2008 • Thibodaux, La.
vs Southeastern La., SFA leads 25-2
The last time: SFA 3, SELA 1 • Nov. 13, 2008 • Hammond, La.
vs TAMUCC, SFA leads 6-0
The last time: SFA 3, TAMUCC 0 • Sept. 19, 2009 • Nacogdoches
FOLLOW THE LADYJACKS
SFA's matches versus the Colonels can be followed via Gametracker at www.sfajacks.com with a full recap following the match, while the Ladyjacks' mach at Southeastern can be followed via Live Stats at www.lionports.net. Also, you can follow SFA's match with the Islanders via Live Stats at www.goislanders.com
Also, keep up with other news and notes about the Ladyjacks with the Ladyjack Volleyball Blog at sfajacks.com, and at www.sfavolleyblog.net. The matches can also be followed via live video streaming at www.sfajacks.com
WHAT'S NEXT
The Ladyjacks close out a four-game road stretch at Texas A&M-Coprus Chrisi on Monday before hosting a struggling UTSA squad at Johnson Coliseum on Oct. 17. SFA then gets a pair of regional rivals on the road in Sam Houston and Lamar before hosting five of its final seven matches at home, starting with Texas State on Oct. 29.
Humphreys Nearing Milestone: Head coach Debbie Humphreys is inching closer and closer to another career milestone: 500 career wins. Only two other coaches in the Southland Conference - Texas State's Karen Chisum and Sam Houston's Brenda Gray - have reached the 500 win mark; however, Humphreys will be the first to hit that milestone as an exclusive member of the league. She entered the season ranked 30th in the country in wins among Division I active head coaches, and depending on how quickly she reaches the mark she would be anywhere from the fourth to the sixth Division I coach in the nation this season alone to reach 500 career wins, with only American's Barry Goldberg reaching 500 in less seasons among that group.
MOVE, GET OUT THE BAY!: Ashley Bailey is closing out her Ladyjack career just how Debbie Humphreys had envisioned it - with a career season that could result in conference Player of the Year honors if she is able to keep up the pace. Bailey is averaging career highs in kills and hitting percentage and has helped SFA become the top statistical defense in the Southland. Coming into her senior year Bailey was not always a consistent go-to force offensively with only 11 career double-digit kill outings in her previous three seasons, but this year she has already picked up at least 10 kills on 11 occasions - all in her last 13 overall outings. During this latest 10-match stretch she is hitting at robust .366 clip and averaging 3.21 kills and 1.18 blocks per set.
Third Round K-O: Since returning from an early-season injury on Sept. 19 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi junior outside hitter Kelsey Owens has been the main target for SFA setters, and she enters matches this weekend riding her best three-match stretch of her career. Owens has picked up three straight double-doubles, putting her in company with JJ Jones and Laruen Railey as the only Ladyjacks in the last four years to do that. It is even more impressive considering that Owens did not have a single double-double in either of her first two seasons. She has taken advantage of playing all rotations this year too as a she has gone over 10 digs four times this year, including each of her last three matches, but had not had more than nine since she put up a career high 27 digs in the very first match of her career in August of 2007 against Montana State.
Early Bird Special: It's no surprise that jumping out to an early lead has aided in the Ladyjacks' 12 victories this season, but last week's loss to Cental Arkansas and Tulane may be highlighting a trend that SFA will want to reverse very quickly. Thursday's loss to Tulane was the fourth time this season that SFA has gone the full five sets in a match, and each time it has come out on the wrong end of the stick in losses to Tulsa, North Texas, Central Arkansas and the Green Wave. The Ladyjacks are 11-3 this season when taking a 1-0 lead, closing seven of them out early with sweeps. SFA was 8-1 in five-set matches in 2006 and 2005, but since 2007 is just 3-9 with going the distance.
Back To Basics: Debbie Humphreys made a point in the off season to emphasize a return to what won SFA four SLC titles from 2004-2007: Defense. So far it looks as though the emphasis has worked, especially as of late. In their last 11 matches only two teams - Miami and Tulane - have been able to hit over .140 against SFA, including Central Arkansas who came into Monday's match as the top statistical offense in the Southland. Humphreys message is obivously getting through as SFA is second in the entire SLC in opponent's hitting percentage, while first in both digs and blocks.
Little Learning Curve: Freshman Madison Hanlan has wasted no time putting her name toward the forefront of the discussion of Southalnd Conference liberos. She won the league's Defensive Player of the Week honor in her first week on the job and currently sits fourth in the league with 4.14 digs per set, getting at least 10 in each of her last 13 matches dating back to a 21-dig outing at Missouri State. Four times this season she has gone over 20 digs, and set another career-best of 26 at McNeese which currently stands as the third best in the SLC this season in a four-set match.
Purple Sweep: Middle blockers MC Bottles and Ashley Bailey were named the Southland Conference's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week on Sept. 21, marking the first time in 2009 until this week that a single school had swept POTW honors in the league. It was the first weekly honor of the year for Bottles, but the second consecutive win for Bailey who was named Offensive POTW one week prior. Since 2006 there have now been nine occasions in which one school has swept the SLC weekly awards, with six of those occasions being SFA. Through five weeks of the 2009 season there have been 10 individual weekly honors handed out with four of them going to Ladyjacks.
-SFA-
