Stephen F. Austin
Butler
Bottles' Career Day Leads SFA To Five-Set Win
8/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 28, 2010
WACO, Texas - The Ladyjack volleyball team went just 1-6 in five-set matches in 2009, but showed that 2010 is a new season in taking a 3-2 (25-22, 25-23, 24-26, 19-25, 15-12) win over Butler on the second day of the Holiday Inn and Suites Baylor Classic behind a career-high 23 kills from junior MC Bottles at the Ferrell Center.
SFA (1-1) opened up a 2-0 lead going into halftime, but dropped the next two sets following the break before edging the Bulldogs (0-2) in the fifth set for the win.
"This was a great show of the heart that this team has," head coach Debbie Humphreys said. "We have already done a couple of things that we struggled with last season, and that is to win a close set - which we did last night against Baylor - and to win a five-set match - which we did today."
Bottles' career high was not the only one by a Ladyjack as Madison Hanlan also eclipsed a career best with 27 digs, but senior Kelsey Owens was not far behind with 25 of her own - just two shy of a career high. Owens added in 17 kills as well, giving her the first double-double for a Ladyjack this season.
Freshman setter Allison Gideon picked up 58 assists and eight kills while directing the offense to .256 hitting on the day, including four of five sets where SFA swung better than .230. Sabrina Burns chipped in nine kills and five blocks, including three kills in the final set.
In the fifth set the Ladyjacks only missed out on one side-out opportunity in the final stanza, allowing Butler to net consecutive points once. SFA took the lead for good midway through the frame on back-to-back kills from Burns and Lauren McDaniel for an 8-6 lead, and eventually forced a pair of Bulldog attack errors for the final two points.
Early on the Ladyjacks came out on fire, hitting .302 in the first set behind five kills apiece from Bottles and Owens. SFA scored the first four points of the first set, but after the Bulldogs battled back it was a back-and-forth frame the rest of the way until the Ladyjacks six out of seven points run to turn a two point deficit into a four point lead at 21-17 after a back-row kill from Bottles. Burns then got into the act late, slamming in two of her three kills in the set in the final surge to give the Ladyjacks the frame.
In the second set SFA once again had the offense clicking and looked as though it would cruise to a 2-0 lead, up 10-6 early on but Butler came back to keep things close until Owens found the mark with consecutive kills to push SFA's lead back to three at 19-16; however, four straight Butler points knotted it up at 20-20 before Bottles drove home three of the final five SFA points to give the Ladyjacks a comfortable lead at the break.
Butler held the lead for majority of the third set despite being outhit by SFA, .239 to .188, but had to withstand a late push from SFA where the Ladyjacks turned away four consecutive set points, punctuated by a kill from Owens. But the Bulldogs immediately got Jessica Wolfe's eleventh kill of the set to bring up another set-point opportunity and received a gift for a set win with a setting error called on Gideon.
The third set win seemed to energize the Bulldogs, who raced out to an 8-1 lead in the fourth frame and rode that lead the remainder of the way to push the match to a deciding fifth set. The Bulldogs finally found an answer for the Ladyjack offense, outhitting them for the first time on the afternoon. Bottles picked up four kills, and Owens and Burns added three for SFA, but the eight-point cushion was too much for the Ladyjacks to overcome and forced the final set.
SFA will wrap up the Baylor Classic at 5:00 p.m. with a match versus SMU.
-SFA-
