Bailey Named First Team All-Southland
11/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2009
FRISCO, Texas - Senior Ashley Bailey and sophomore Mary Caitlin Bottles were named to the all-Southland Conference first and second teams on Wednesday in an announcement from league officials. Freshman libero Madison Hanlan also earned recognition, taking honorable mention honors in her first season as a Ladyjack.
Bailey's selection marks the 18th consecutive season that the Ladyjacks have placed at least one player on the league's first team and gives SFA 12 first-team selections since 2005, which is twice as many as the next closest team in that category.
The honor is a fitting way for Bailey to close out her career, one that has totaled three league championships and no less than 20 wins in any of her five seasons as a Ladyjack. Bailey earned honorable mention all-conference in 2008 and was a preseason second team all-conference pick before this season, and was one of the top players at the net throughout 2009 in the Southland.
Her .293 attack percentage put her finishing tied for sixth in the league this year, and she also helped the Ladyjack defense lead the conference in blocks with 1.17 blocks per set, which ranked second in the conference individually.
Not only did she stand out defensively, but her offense peaked as a senior as well as she averaged a career best 2.62 kills per set for the year. Those efforts aided a balanced Ladyjack offensive attack that finished as the only offense in the league that had four players average at least 2.25 kills per set.
Bailey is one of only three SLC players to have recorded at least 10 blocks in a match this season; however, it took her only three sets to tally 10 rejections against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Oct. 12, while the only two players in the league to total higher in a match each needed five sets to do so. Four times this year she finished with at least eight blocks in a match, which was the most in the Southland Conference.
"I am certainly excited for Ashley," head coach Debbie Humphreys said. "She has had a very solid career at SFA, and to cap it off with a first-team all-conference selection is great for her. It just shows how hard she has worked and how much she has improved over her career, and without question I think she is deserving of this honor."
A late push over the final three weeks of the season put Bottles' name back at the top of the discussion across the league for postseason honors after being named to the 2008 first team and 2009 preseason first team.
The sophomore averaged 2.61 kills per set and hit .347 over the season's final 10 matches in sprinting to a second-team selection. She finished second only to Bailey on the team with 2.52 kills per set and .279 hitting to make SFA the only program in the league to land two middle blockers on all-conference teams.
Bottles was named SLC Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 21 after being named MVP of the Ladyjack Invitational, hitting .447 and averaging 3.23 kills per set during that four-match span on her home court and finished the year at the top of the Ladyjack roster with 18 matches in which she hit double-figure kills.
"I'm also very happy to see MC and Madison be recognized for the seasons they had as well," Humphreys said. "There were a lot of good players around the league this season and for us to get two players on the first two all-conference teams and another honorable mention I feel is good representation from our team."
Hanlan's honorable mention nod is the first of what is likely to be a number of honors as her career progresses. She finished second in the league in digs as a true freshman with 4.28, and bookended the season with league Defensive Player of the Week awards in both the regular season's first and final weeks.
Her 539 total digs this season set a new SFA freshman record, eclipsing former all-American Stephanie Figgers' total mark of 504 in her freshman season of 2003.
The Arlington freshman picked up at least 10 digs in 25 of her final 26 matches, and went over 20 digs seven times including a season best of 26 digs in a four-set win over McNeese on Oct. 3.
She even provided some offense from her defensive position, leading the team in service aces, finishing fifth in the Southland Conference with 39 for a 0.31 per-set average.
"Certainly, we'd like to see more of our players be recognized," Humphreys said. "But it is logical to think that the higher you finish as a team, the more players that you have recognized at the end of the season."
The Ladyjacks wrapped up their season with three straight home wins last week, securing the No. 3 overall seed in the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament and putting up its sixth consecutive 20-win season.
SFA will take on the overall No. 6 seed and tournament host UTSA at 6:30 p.m. on Friday from the Convocation Center in San Antonio in the tournament's opening round.
Click HERE for complete Southland Conference release.
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