Stephen F. Austin
Northern Illinois
SFA Leaves Illinois With Second Straight Split
8/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 29, 2009
SFA vs WIU Box Score
NIU vs SFA Box Score
DeKalb, Ill. - For the second straight day the Ladyjack volleyball team earned a split of two matches at the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational hosted by Northern Illinois, defeating Western Illinois 3-1 in the opener before being swept 3-0 by Northern Illinois in the second match of the day.
SFA (2-2) now heads home to open up the home portion of its season on Wednesday at Johnson Coliseum against Louisiana-Lafayette at 7:00 p.m.
In the day's first match Amber Williams-Roberts and Arielle Daron each pumped in career highs in kills as the Ladyjacks earned a 3-1 (18-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-12) comeback win over Western Illinois (0-3).
The Ladyajcks started slowly for the second consecutive day, falling behind the Westerwinds 8-1 early in the first set as WIU hit .471 in jumping out to a 1-0 lead. SFA never got within less than five points of WIU in the first set; however, SFA got on track after the opening frame and swung at a .370 clip the remainder of the way as they cruised through the final three sets.
In the second set SFA rode the hot hands of Owens and Williams-Roberts who combined for nine kills and only one error in the set. SFA opened finally created some breathing room at 18-12 behind the serves of Hanlan and Buckner and did not need much help down the stretch, using kills from four different players to score five of its final seven points on its own.
Owens delivered five more kills without a single misfire in the third set, but WIU was able to keep things within striking distance even until the final stretch of points. SFA never could widen the margin above six points, but still never trailed after taking the lead at 12-11 on a kill from Bailey. The Ladyjacks pushed the lead to 20-14 before WIU drew back to 21-19, but kills from Melissa Miksch, Sabrina Burns and Williams-Roberts were included in SFA's final surge that put them just a set away from victory.
And that set came and went very quickly as SFA outscored WIU 15-6 down the stretch with Williams-Roberts leading the way with seven of her 15 kills, including a four-kill stretch in the midst of the set that helped the Ladyjacks balloon its lead from two to seven points very quickly. SFA hit .452 in the final stanza and held WIU to just .029 hitting in picking up its second win of the young season.
Williams-Roberts led all players with a match-high and career-high 15 kills, while Kelsey Owens added 11 more and Daron chipped in with a career-high 10 as well - including five in the first set.
SFA finished with 10 blocks on the day with Mary Caitlin Bottles, Ashley Bailey and Owens each leading the way with four apiece. Madison Hanlan had another solid match at libero with 19 digs, and the setting duo of Laurel Kuepker and Paloma Buckner combined for 40 assists between them.
In the matinee, SFA had its most consistent offensive match of the tournament but a fresh Northern Illinois (2-1) team was hot the entire afternoon and rode a .420 team attack percentage to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-23) win. Megan Schoenrock led the way for the Huskies with a match-high 16 kills, while Williams-Roberts led SFA again with 13 of her own.
The first set was all NIU, but the second two each had the chance to go SFA's way with just a few points separating the two teams. The second set saw SFA pull to within a single point on eight separate occasions before finally drawing even at 23 apiece on an ace from Williams-Roberts, but a kill from Schoenrock was followed by a Ladyjack misfire and gave the Huskies a commanding 2-0 lead.
Once again SFA came out energized in the third set and rode five kills apiece from both Bottle and Williams-Roberts to jump out to an early five-point lead and held onto a lead until once again Schoenrock landed a kill to draw NIU even at 20-20. SFA then scored three of the next four points to get within two points of forcing a fourth set. But after a NIU timeout the Huskies landed two kills of their own and the Ladyjacks committed two of just four errors in the third set to take the win.
-SFA-
