Stephen F. Austin
Nicholls State
SFA Blast Colonels On Senior Day
11/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 14, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Three Ladyjacks played their final match at Johnson Coliseum on Saturday and they likely could not have asked for much more as SFA hit .402 and avenged a loss earlier in the season with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-15) rout of Nicholls.
Ashley Bailey, Sydney Milburn and Paloma Buckner were each honored before the match in front of the home fans on Senior Day and SFA (22-12, 11-5 Southland) used that momentum to even the season series with the Colonels (12-18, 6-10 Southland) who had defeated the Ladyjacks earlier this year in Thibodaux.
The Ladyjacks were already locked in the No. 3 slot for the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament, but with UTSA's sweep of UT-Arlington the Ladyjacks will be matched up with the host Roadrunners in the tournament's opening round.
The .402 hitting was the second highest of the season for the Ladyjacks with only its .500 percentage against Alcorn State having been better, and of the three sets SFA hit now lower than .379.
Arielle Daron was nearly unstoppable the entire afternoon, finding the floor for 16 kills without a single error on 24 tries for a career-best .667 attack percentage. Kelsey Owens also swung well, hitting .478 for her 14 kills and Bailey hit .467 in her final home match of her career with nine kills, two blocks and even a pair of assists for good measure.
Buckner also picked up her fourth double-double of the season, dishing out 39 assists and even picking up a career-best 12 digs. Madison Hanlan led all players with 13 digs and Mary Caitlin Bottles also added four blocks and four kills.
Jennifer Brandt and Rachel Yezak led the way for Nicholls with seven and six kills, respectively.
The rout started early with the Ladyjacks seven kills from Daron in the first set alone and hit .400 to just .065 for Nicholls in the first set, riding a 12-1 start to an easy 25-12 win. Four of Daron's seven kills came in that opening run, and even though the Colonels cut the deficit to seven at 18-11, it got no closer with SFA scoring seven of the final eight points, including one of Madison Hanlan's four service aces on the day.
Set two was slightly different with SFA waiting until the 9-9 mark to go on a 6-0 run to get some breathing room. SFA was even more accurate in the second set, hitting .419 with 20 of its 25 points coming via kill.
SFA once again came out of halftime strong in the third, racing out to an 11-4 advantage behind three kills from Owens and two from Daron. From there it only took three multi-point spurts before the Ladyjacks put the Colonels away on its third opportunity when Bailey found Owens for a shot to the middle of the court.
The Ladyjacks will take on UTSA in the first round of the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament on Friday at 6:30 p.m. from the Convocation Center. The game can be watched on SLC NOW at southland.org.
-SFA-
