Ladyjacks Final Week Begins Tuesday Versus McNeese
11/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 10, 2009
McNeese State (17-10, 5-8 Southland) - Nov. 10, 7:00 p.m.
Southeastern La. (8-17, 4-10 Southland) - Nov. 12, 7:00 p.m.
Nicholls (11-17, 5-9 Southland) - Nov. 14, 3:30 p.m.
William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,203) - Nacogdoches
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FOR STARTERS
SFA is in the Southland Conference Tournament, but with three matches remaining on the schedule it is has opportunity to secure as high as the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
Two wins this week would do just that and the Ladyjacks will get three shots to secure that seed at home as they wrap up the regular season, including Senior Day which is slated for Saturday vs Nicholls.
The Ladyjacks are coming off a split of two matches last weekend, picking up a win at Northwestern State before falling 3-0 to Central Arkansas in a match that clinched the Sugar Bears' first ever Southland Conference title.
SFA VS THE OPPONENTS
vs McNeese State, SFA leads 29-9
The last time: SFA 3, MCN 0 • Oct. 3 • Lake Charles, La.
vs SELA, SFA leads 26-2
The last time: SFA 3, SELA 1 • Oct. 10 • Hammond, La.
vs NICH, SFA leads 32-4
The last time: NICH 3, SFA 2 • Oct. 9 • Thibodaux, La.
FOLLOW THE LADYJACKS
Each of SFA's three matches this week can be followed online via Gametracker, or aso with live video at www.sfajacks.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.
WHAT'S NEXT
SFA next heads to the Southland Conference Tournament, Nov. 20-22, to be held on UTSA's campus at the Convocation Center for the third time in four seasons. SFA finished second at the tournament the last time it was in San Antonio, one year after claiming its last Southland Conference Tournament in 2006.
Humphreys Hits Milestone: Head coach Debbie Humphreys continues to become more and more cemented as not only one of the most successful coaches in the Southland, but also one of the most successful coaches in the nation. Humphreys became the first head coach in the history of the Southland Conference to pick up 500 wins as a member of the league with her win over UTSA. Only two other coaches in the league - Texas State's Karen Chisum and Sam Houston's Brenda Gray - have reached the 500 win mark. She entered the season ranked 30th in the country in wins among Division I active head coaches, and is the fifth 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.
Is Anybody Going To San Antone?: With the Southland Conference Tournament less than two weeks away in San Antonio, the field is slowly starting to take shape. With Central Arkansas in its final transition year and lacking eligibility for the tournament, Texas State currently holds the top seed in the tournament, while the Ladyjacks would be No. 3 if it started today. SFA can only be as high as the No. 3 seed as both Texas State and Sam Houston hold tiebreakers over the Ladyjacks, but its magic number is down to just two to clinch the third spot as SFA holds tiebreakers over Lamar, UTSA and UT-Arlington. Here is how the tournament field would look if it started today:
No. 1 Texas State (17-12, 11-3 SLC) vs No. 8 Nicholls (11-17, 5-9 SLC)
No. 2 Sam Houston (19-12, 11-3 SLC) vs No. 7 McNeese (17-10, 5-8 SLC)
No. 3 SFA (19-12, 8-5 SLC) vs No. 6 UTSA (11-17, 6-8 SLC)
No. 4 Lamar (13-12, 8-6 SLC) vs No. 5 UT-Arlington (11-15, 7-7 SLC)
20 x 6: That's 20 wins in six consecutive seasons for the Ladyjacks, pending one more win in its final three matches at home this weekend. If SFA picks up that one more victory it would make SFA only the fourth program since the Southland Conference adopted volleyball in 1982 to pick up 20 wins in six consecutive seasons. The Ladyjacks (1992-99) and UT-Arlington (1982-89) each hold the league record with eight straight 20-win campaigns, while the last league program other than SFA to do so was Sam Houston with six straight 20-win seasons from 1989-1994.
Closing Out In The Coliseum: SFA is set to close out the regular season this week with three matches under the Johnson Coliseum roof. It is the first time SFA has had three straight matches at home to close out the regular season since 1997, with SFA winning each of those three matches and the following two in the Southland Conference Tournament to take the tourney title and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Senior Swan Song: Saturday's match versus Nicholls will be the final match in the careers of three Ladyjack seniors - Ashley Bailey, Paloma Buckner and Sydney Milburn. Buckner and Milbrun have each been in Nacogdoches for two years after coming in last season as the first two junior college transfers in the Debbie Humphreys era. Bailey, however, is a redshirt senior that will leave with a three conference titles and currently leads the Southland in blocks and ranks in the top 10 all-time at SFA in the same category.
Avoiding A Repeat: All three of this week's games come against teams from Louisiana, but the one of the most interest for SFA may be Saturday's against Nicholls. The Colonels pulled off a five-set upset in Thibodaux in the team's first meeting, only the fourth time in the matchup's history that Nicholls had come out on top. SFA will try and avenge that loss on Saturday, but will have to push back the fact that the last time Nicholls had stolen a match from the Ladyjacks (11/22/03) they made it two in a row with a win the very next time (9/17/04).
She's Got A Handle On It: Freshman Madison Hanlan has wasted no time putting her name toward the forefront of the discussion among Southland Conference liberos. In her first season she has already totaled the second-highest dig mark (487) for a freshman Ladyjack with only future all-American Stephanie Figgers' 504 digs in 2003 having totaled more. Hanlan 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 4.20 digs per set, finally having her streak of 21 matches with 10+ digs snapped when she only had nine in Saturday's three-set loss at Central Arkansas. Six times this season she has gone ove 20 digs, and set a career best of 26 at McNeese. That mark currently stands tied as the fourth best in the SLC this season in a four-set match.
Finally In Five: It was a weight off the shoulders of the Ladyjacks on Oct. 17, in its win over UTSA as SFA won its first five-set match of the season in its sixth try. Still, each of SFA's last six losses have come in five sets; however, that win put an end to the Ladyjacks' longest five-set drought in the Humphreys era. Overall, SFA had lost eight consecutive five-set matches dating back to the end of the 2008 season.
-SFA-
