Ladyjack Volleyball Game Notes: vs Texas State, UT-Arlington
10/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 12, 2011
at Texas State (14-6, 5-1 SLC) - Oct. 13, 6:30 p.m.
at UT-Arlington (7-13, 3-3 SLC) - Oct. 15, 1:00 p.m.
Game Notes
FOR STARTERS
After earning a split in its third straight weekend of conference play, the Ladyjacks will return home for the first time since Sept. 25 this weekend when it hosts a pair of current Southland Conference members who will be heading to the WAC beginning in 2012 in Texas State and UT-Arlington.
SFA won two of its last three home matches before embarking on its latest four-match road trip, of which it picked up a pair of wins. With six of its next eight contests slated for Shelton Gym, five of which are against the SLC West, the upcoming stretch of matches looks to be crucial in SFA’s qualification and positioning of the 2011 Southland Conference Tournament in Conway, Ark.
The Ladyjack offense finally got on track in Saturday’s win at Southeastern Louisiana, hitting .277 after a 12-match stretch which saw it only swing over the .200 mark once in that span. SFA has gotten good offensive production from both MC Bottles and freshman Jill Ivy, with Bottles hitting for at least 10 kills in each of her last six matches and Ivy adding 25 kills in her last two matches combined as well.
SFA will be looking to snap a six-match losing streak to the Bobcats that dates back to 2007, while it will look to get back into the win column vs UTA, who broke a broke a 10-match losing streak to SFA with a five-set win in Nacogdoches last year.
Things don’t get much easier for the Ladyjacks as they host a quality Houston Baptist team in its final non-conference match next week, as well as Nicholls in a Saturday matinee. SFA will then get its second look at both Texas State and UT-Arlington in a two-week span, but this time on the road when it takes on both squads to close out the month of October.
SFA vs THE BOBCATS
vs TXST, TXST leads 26-22
The last time: TXST 3, SFA 0 • Oct. 30, 2010 • Nacogdoches
SFA vs THE MAVERICKS
vs UTA, SFA leads 26-18
The last time: UTA 3, SFA 2 • Oct. 27, 2011 • Nacogdoches
LIVE STATS: Each match can be followed via Live Stats at www.gobearkats.com and www.lionsports.net
EARLY MOMENTUM: It’s always important for a team to start quickly, but moreso for this year’s youthful group of Ladyjacks, as is evident in its record after set one. When SFA is able to secure a first-set victory, it is 8-2; however, the Ladyjacks have only come back to take a match twice in 11 tries after falling in the opening set.
HANDLING HANLAN: In Madison Hanlan’s first two seasons in Nacogdoches she never hit the 30-dig mark, despite starting every available match at libero in those years; however, this year she has already hit the 30-dig plateau twice, including a 36-dig effort in SFA’s last win over UAB. Most recently she picked up exactly 30 digs in SFA’s loss to Sam Houston State. It’s the first time since Laurel Kuepker in 2008 that a Ladyjack has had 30 digs in a match on multiple occasions in a season. She also needs to average 6.2 digs per match for the remaining 10 matches of the year to become just the fifth Ladyjack in program history to reach 1,500 digs for her career.
PREMIUM BOTTLES: Senior MC Bottles is looking to join Kristy Rhodes (1998-2001) and Wendy Walling (1990-93) as just the third player in SFA history to earn all-SLC honors in all four years of play. After earning all-conference second team honors last year, she was an automatic selection to this year’s preseason all-SLC first team as SFA’s only representative on the team. The middle blocker from Rowlett, Texas, surpassed 1,000 for her career at ULM and needs 73 more to move into the SFA all-time top 10. She’s already made her way into the top 10 in blocks and needs 18 more to become just the sixth Ladyjack with 400 career blocks. She still has a chance to join Brittany Burton, Aubrey Duncan and Traci Rohde as only the fourth Ladyjack to total 1,300 kills and 400 blocks for a career.
JUMPING JILL: Since being moved to the right side, freshman Jill Ivy has flourished offensively and brought a much-needed spark to the Ladyjack attack. In two matches last week, though, she looked to be at her best. The 5-11 freshman averaged 3.14 kills per set in seven sets, swinging at a team-best .400 clip with just four errors in 45 swings. For the season she is averaging 2.24 kills per set, which is third on the team behind only MC Bottles and Katzy Randall.
TRIO OF DOUBLES: In it’s win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, SFA had three players - Katzy Randall, Paige Holland and Sabrina Burns - finish the match with a double-double. Burns’ double-double was the first of her career and included 10 blocks, marking the first time an SFA player picked up a double-double with 10 blocks in a match since MC Bottles did so versus Portland last season. Overall, the match turned out to be the first timeSFA had three-players with double-doubles in the same match since Whitney Schott, Lauren Railey and Shelly Swendig had double-doubles in a 3-1 loss to Montana on Sept. 5, 2008 - a span of of 120 matches.
TURNING THE PAIGE: Freshman setter Paige Holland has quickly taken to the starting setter role for the Ladyjacks through two weeks of collegiate volleyball, and will enter this weekend second in the Southland Conference with 9.62 assists per set. It’s not as though SFA hasn’t had success with freshman setters before, but Holland will have work to do to take hold of the single-season freshman total-assists record at SFA. The 2004 mark from JJ Jones, albeit in 30-point sets, of 1,244 assists (11.96) stands as the all-time record. Holland would have to average 43.3 assists per match for the remaining 10 regular-season matches of the year to surpass Jones’ mark.
YOUTH TO BE SERVED: After suffering through a disappointing 2010 season, the Ladyjacks will send a revamped roster to the court in 2011 with 10 new faces joining just six returners from a year ago. Of those 10 newcomers, only three are transfers, leaving room for seven freshmen. The seven freshmen are makes up the second biggest freshman class in the SLC behind only Northwestern State’s nine. Texas State has seven freshmen listed on its roster as well; however, two of them are redshirts from a year ago.
-SFA-
