Old Rivalry To Be Renewed in Denton
9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 21, 2009
North Texas (3-10, 0-0 Sun Belt) - Sept. 22, 7:00 p.m.
Mean Green Volleyball Center (800) - Denton, Texas
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FOR STARTERS
Debbie Humphreys continues to inch closer and closer to 500 career wins and is now just five wins away from that mark after the Ladyjacks took four wins in claiming the tournament title at the 2009 Ladyjack Invitational last weekend.
SFA is currently riding a six-match win streak, its longest of the year, and will look to extend that streak to seven as it travels to Denton, Texas, for a match with former Southland Conference foe North Texas. The Ladyjacks lead the all-time series with the Mean Green 15-4 and have won eight straight versus UNT dating back to the Mean Green's last win back in 1995. SFA is 7-1 all-time when playing UNT in Denton.
SFA VS THE MEAN GREEN
vs North Texas, SFA leads 15-4
The last time: SFA 3, UNT 0 • Sept. 16, 2009 • Nacogdoches
FOLLOW THE LADYJACKS
SFA's match versus the Mean Green can be followed via Livestats at www.meangreensports.com with a full recap following the match at www.sfajacks.com
Also, keep up with other news and notes about the Ladyjacks with the Ladyjack Volleyball Blog at sfajacks.com, and at www.sfavolleyblog.net. The matches can also be followed via live video streaming at www.sfajacks.com
WHAT'S NEXT
The Ladyjacks open up Southland Conference play on Saturday when they host Northwestern State. The Demons dropped their first SLC match of the season last weekend against Central Arkansas in Natchitoches, La., in the finale of the Demon Classic and have never beaten the Ladyjacks in 34 tries.
SFA will then host one of the preseason favorites in the SLC on Monday - Central Arkansas. Last year the team's split the season series, including a 3-0 win for UCA at Johnson Coliseum.
Most In Texas: Since 2004, only one Division I school in the state of Texas has had a better wining percentage than the SFA Ladyjacks, but nobody has enjoyed more total wins. SFA has picked up 143 wins in the last five seasons up to this point, with six wins more than the University of Texas. Here is where the top six rank in Texas since 2004:
Team.........Record
SFA..........143-35
Texas........137-24
Texas St.....116-65
TCU..........110-70
Texas A&M.....92-66
UT-Arlington..85-81
Little Learning Curve: Freshman Madison Hanlan has wasted no time putting her name toward the forefront of the discussion of Southalnd Conference liberos. She won the league's Defensive Player of the Week honor in her first week on the job and currently sits third in the league with 4.12 digs per set, getting at least 15 in eight of her 16 matches this year, including a season-high 24 against Gonzaga at the Tulsa Invitational.
A Rivalry Renewed: The Ladyjacks have not let the North Texas Mean Green forget about the last win UNT had over SFA all the way back in 1995. SFA has won the last eight meetings between the teams since the Mean Green came into Shelton Gym and knocked off the Ladyjacks in the championship match of that year's Southland Conference Tournament. That win by the Mean Green over the regular-season champion Ladyjacks was enough to earn UNT its last berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Purple Sweep: Middle blockers MC Bottles and Ashley Bailey were named the Southland Conference's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week on Monday, marking the first time in 2009 that a single school has swept POTW honors in the league. It was the first weekly honor of the year for Bottles, but the second consecutive win for Bailey who was named Offensive POTW one week ago. Since 2006 there have been eight occasions in which one school has swept the SLC weekly awards, with six of those occasions being SFA. Through four weeks of the 2009 season there have been eight individual weekly honors handed out with half of them going to Ladyjacks.
Third Round K-O: Junior outside hitter Kelsey Owens had been out of the Ladyjack lineup since falling to injury in the first weekend of the season, but made her return in the third game of the Ladyjack Invitational against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Owens was then in the starting lineup just one match later against Miami (OH) and responded with 10 kills and a pair of blocks against the Redhawks. The only upperclassman on the outside for the Ladyjacks, Owens has made it into double-digit kills in four of the five complete matches she has played in this season.
Miksch-ing It Up: While Kelsey Owens was out, the Ladyjacks made up the difference with sophomore outside hitter Melissa Miksch. The Austin native got the starting nod in SFA's first match without Owens and has played all the way around the court for SFA in every match since. Miksch has picked up five double-doubles, averaging 2.23 kills and 3.77 digs per set. In 12 matches since Sept. 2 she has picked up at least 10 digs on 10 occasions, including setting a new career high of 23 in a four-set win over Mississippi State. She was also named to the all-tournament team at the Ladyjack Invitational, serving four aces in four matches and staying in double-digit digs in every match in the tournament.
Finding The Offense: Like any year there was significant player turnover for the Ladyjacks following the 2008 season, and like any other year the Ladyjacks will have to have newer faces step in and inherit the offensive load that has departed. However, this year is a little different in the amount of offense that was vacated. With outside hitters Lauren Railey and Shelly Swendig gone, they took over 42 percent of last season's kills with them, and the turnover in setters has left over 83 percent of last season's assist total not on this season's roster. Aside from outside hitters MC Bottles and Ashley Bailey, Kelsey Owens returns as the only outside hitter with over 100 kills from 2008. As for the setter position, the top returner from a year ago is Paloma Buckner who dished out 127 assists from a year ago, which is the least amount of returning assists the Ladyjacks had on the roster since 2003 after Sunni Williams took 1,560 with her in her final season. That year Julie Goodson returned with the top assist mark from the previous season of just 59.
-SFA-
