Stephen F. Austin
Louisiana-Lafayette
SFA Surges Past Cajuns In Home Opener
9/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - In a win reminiscent of SFA's wins over the weekend, the Ladyjacks put away Louisiana-Lafayette 3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 25-20) in the season's home opener on Wednesday at Johnson Coliseum.
SFA (3-2) is now 12-0 all-time against Louisiana-Lafayette (3-2) after sweeping the Cajuns twice last season. The Ladyjacks are now 18-4 in home openers under head coach Debbie Humphreys, who is now just 13 wins shy of 500 for her career.
Mary Caitlin Bottles led the Ladyjack offense with a dozen kills on 31 tries with five other Ladyjacks nabbing at least five of their own to balance the attack. The two-headed setting tandem of Paloma Buckner and Laurel Kuepker combined for 35 assists, while Melissa Miksch and Madison Hanlan held down the back row with 18 digs apiece..
SFA held its own at the net with seven rejections, including a match-high five blocks from Ashley Bailey who also slammed in five kills of her own.
Once again the Ladyjacks started off slow out of the gate, falling down 17-10 in the first set before outscoring the Cajuns 8-3 to draw even on kills from Bottles and Miksch. However, ULL scored four of the next five to get a pair of set-point opportunities before Bottles stepped to the service line and served out the remaining five points to help SFA grab the set. SFA finished with just an .089 attack percentage for the set, but its stubborn defense held the Cajuns to just an .067 clip in keeping things close.
The second set saw SFA increase its hitting percentage to .200, but still had to dig itself out of an early 8-3 hole. It was Miksch that provided the spark midway through the set, getting a kill at 14-11 to get the serve back on the Ladyjacks' side and then serving four consecutive points, punctuated by one of only two SFA service aces of the night, to push SFA ahead for the first time in the set at 15-14. Kuepker then found Ashley Bailey for a pair of kills to give the Ladyjacks some breathing room at 19-16 before Arielle Daron came in an picked up three of her six kills on the night in the set's final surge.
In set three it was finally the SFA offense taking the lead out of the gate, forcing four straight ULL attack errors and getting a kill from Daron for an early 8-5 advantage. Kills from Miksch, Bailey and Amber Williams-Roberts later on kept SFA in front late at 19-17, while Williams-Roberts and freshman Sabrina Burns had a hand in three of the final five SFA points. The Ladyjacks hit .263 in the final set compared to just .068 for the Cajuns, who finished the night hitting just .084.
SFA now heads to Springfield, Mo., to take part in the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational hosted by Missouri State. The Ladyjacks are scheduled to battle Mississippi State and Memphis on Friday before taking on UC-Davis and Missouri State on Saturday.
-SFA-
