Stephen F. Austin
Tulsa
Tulsa Edges SFA In Five
9/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 11, 2009
TULSA, Okla. - The Ladyjack volleyball team took Tulsa to a full five sets on Friday, but just could not finish the deal as the Golden Hurricane took a 3-2 (25-9, 21-25, 22-25, 25-16, 15-12) win over SFA on the first day of the Tulsa Radisson Airport Invitational.
It was the first five-set match of the year for SFA (5-5) and served as a slight measure of payback for a five-set win for SFA over Tulsa (7-1) in 2007 in the finale of the Ladyjack Invitational.
The middle blockers for SFA certainly showed up, leading the offensive charge once again with 24 kills and 10 block assists combined between MC Bottles and Ashley Bailey. Overall the Ladyjacks outblocked the Golden Hurricane 10-4 as it was also the first loss of the year for SFA when it finished with more rejections than its opponent.
SFA did not have an answer for Tulsa freshman outside hitter Tyler Henderson either with Henderson finishing with a match-high 26 kills, including four in the deciding fifth set.
The first set of the night was one that SFA would like to forget. Tulsa came out of the gates on fire, only committing one error on 29 swings and still managing to land 17 kills on the floor - six of which came from Henderson.
But the Ladyjacks responded in grand fashion, getting six kills from Bottles and five from freshman Emily Franklin to knot the score at the half. Neither team could open up any sort of margin from the other before SFA finally managed to break a 20-20 tie by scoring five of the last six points. Junior Arielle Daron bookended the late-set run when Paloma Buckner found her for kills that not only started the surge, but also clinched the set.
Once again in the third set it was the middle blockers that carried the bulk of the load with Bottles, Bailey and Daron combining for 11 of the 16 Ladyjack kills in the frame. SFA could only manage to hit .189 in the third stanza, but the Golden Hurricane was worse with its .147 mark. This time the Ladyjacks had to put together a comeback to take a 2-1 lead, finding itself down three points as late as the 21-18 mark. But the Ladyjacks got back-to-back kills from Franklin and forced Tulsa's Julia Kenealy into a mistake to draw even at 21 apiece. From there SFA used a kill from Bottles and an ace from Melissa Miksch to take the final four points, the set and a 2-1 lead.
However, that third-set burst from SFA must have been the spark the Golden Hurricane needed as Tulsa dominated the fourth stanza to force a final set. SFA could only must a .048 hitting percentage in the fourth, while the Hurricane swung .345 in the fourth and even got an error-free performance from Henderson who had eight kills on nine swings.
SFA was forced to play catch-up for the majority of the final set, never leading but managing to draw even three separate times. The Ladyjacks pulled even for the final time at 12-12 on a kill from Bailey, but Hannah Stout and Henderson each had a hand in the final three points as the Golden Hurricane finally escaped with a hard-earned win.
SFA has two matches remaining in the weekend's tournament, beginning Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. against Texas Tech. The Ladyjacks will then close out the trip with a 7:00 p.m. tilt against Gonzaga. Each game can be followed via Gametracker.
-SFA-
