Bottles And Bailey Sweep Weekly Awards
9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 21, 2009
FRISCO, Texas - Middle blockers Mary Caitlin Bottles and Ashley Bailey have been named the Southland Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week the conference office announced on Monday.
The announcement comes on the heels of SFA's title at the Ladyjack Invitational, with both players earning all-tournament honors and Bottles being named MVP of the event. Currently the Ladyjacks are riding a six-match win streak going into Tuesday's match at North Texas. It is the first weekly honor of the season for Bottles and the second for Bailey after she earned defensive honors one week ago.
It marks the first time this season that one school has taken both offensive and defensive honors and is the first time it has happened in the SLC since SFA's Lauren Railey and Laurel Kuepker pulled the feat on Sept. 8, 2008. Since 2006, the league has had eight occasions in which one school has taken both awards in the same week - six of those times it was by SFA.
Bottles and Bailey made SFA the only team in the league with two middle blockers on the preseason all-conference team and each has lived up to expectations in 2009, carrying the majority of the offensive load for the Ladyjacks in recent weeks.
Bottles only misfired four times on 85 swings to hit .447 in SFA's four weekend wins, netting 3.23 kills per set. She did not have a single error in two matches on Friday, landing seven kills on only 14 swings in a win over Alcorn before slamming in 11 kills only 23 swings (.478 hit %) with four blocks in SFA's first ever sweep of Houston. On Saturday she was the go-to hand for the Ladyjacks once again, picking up a dozen kills in wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Miami (OH) and even added four blocks in each of those matches as well, finishing with a four-match average of 1.00 blocks per set.
Bailey a standout both offensively and defensively as well, averaging 3.15 kills and 1.31 blocks per set and hitting .341 for the Ladyjacks wins over the weekend. She tallied eight and seven kills, respectively, in wins over Alcorn State and Houston on Friday and even rejected a pair of shots against the Lady Braves and six more against the Cougars. On Saturday, though, she was even better. The senior slammed home 11 kills on just 22 swings with five blocks - one solo - in a non-conference win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. She then followed that with a 15-kill, four-block performance against Miami (OH) in four sets to give SFA its first ever win over the Redhawks.
-SFA-
