Stephen F. Austin
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Islanders Pull Upset Of SFA
10/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 2, 2010
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Ladyjacks hit .203 for the match, but Texas A&M-Corpus Chrsti's Emma Ridley had 26 kills and led an Islander attack that pulled out a 3-1 (28-26, 25-18, 18-25, 25-17) win over SFA on Saturday at William R. Johnson Coliseum, the first ever victory for TAMUCC over SFA.
The Islanders (7-10, 1-3) had never claimed a single set in seven matches dating back to 2006 in the series, but controlled the majority of the match and despite having just one attacker register more than eight kills, were able to pull the upset. Ridley's 26 kills were the most by any individual player against SFA (8-11, 1-3) this season, and helped TAMUCC to a .243 attack percentage for the afternoon.
SFA had just one less kill than TAMUCC, but once again was haunted by a slew of unforced errors, only hitting over .180 in one of the afternoon's four sets. MC Bottles once again led SFA with 12 kills and a pair of blocks, and Arielle Daron also put up a season high with 11 kills of her own. Allison Gideon finished with a match-high 47 assists and Madison Hanlan had a match-high 24 digs, but it wasn't enough as SFA tied a season high with its third consecutive defeat.
Ridley drove home eight kills in the first set, but it was a late push by the Islanders that got them off and running in stealing the match's first frame. SFA led by as much as five points at 22-17 before Corpus Christi was able to fight back two set-point tries and knot things up at 24 apiece. A kill from Bottles set up another set-point opportunity for SFA, but the Islanders scored three of the final four points, including the final two points on kills from Ridley to take a 1-0 lead.
The second set was dominated by the Islanders, who took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after hitting .294 to just .122 for SFA. The Ladyjacks then tinkered with the lineup and found a spark with Sabrina Burns after the half, who delivered four kills and four blocks in the third set alone in helping SFA to a 10-3 run to close the third stanza and cut the lead to just 2-1.
But SFA could only hit at a .133 clip in the final set and the Islanders got 16 kills compared to just nine for SFA in cruising to the win and scratching the victory column in league play for the first time this season.
The Ladyjacks have a pair of matches on the league slate for next week, beginning Wednesday at Sam Houston, followed by a home match on Saturday versus Southeastern Louisiana.
-SFA-
