Stephen F. Austin
Mcneese State
SFA Clinches Tourney Berth With Win At McNeese
11/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 10, 2011
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Ladyjacks had five players with at least 10 kills, led by a career-high 23 kills from senior Melissa Miksch, and SFA went on the road to knock off McNeese State, 3-2 (25-17, 25-20, 26-28, 24-26, 17-15) on Thursday to clinch a spot in next week's Southland Conference Tournament.
SFA (14-16, 7-8 SLC) had only had one player all season record at least 20 kills in a match, but got not only 23 from Miksch on Thursday but also 20 from freshman outside hitter Jill Ivy. Each of those efforts came as part of a double-double for each player with Miksch picking up 16 digs and Ivy 11 while the Ladyjacks finished with a .229 attack percentage as a team for the night.
The win snapped a three-match win streak for the Cowgirls (10-19, 5-10 SLC ) and forces McNeese State to win its regular-season finale and get help to reach the league tournament next week.
The Ladyjacks dominated every statistical category of the match against McNeese, including outblocking the Cowgirls 13-8 and outdigging them 103-92. Paige Hollandhad her finest match as a Ladyjack, dishing out 74 assists, which ties for the eighth-most assists in a single match ever at SFA and is the most by any Ladyjack since the 2000 season. She also added 14 assists for SFA's fourth double-double of the match.
Sabrina Burns led the attack at the net with seven blocks to go along with 14 kills (.323), while MC Bottles totaled 10 kills, 10 digs and five blocks on the night. Freshman Taylor Gross had 12 kills on 45 swings with just two errors (.222) and two blocks, and Katzy Randall made her first start of the season in the libero jersey in place of injured Madison Hanlanand responded with a career-high 27 digs to lead six Ladyjacks in double figures.
The Ladyjacks scored 18 kills with just one error while hitting .515 in the first set, and added 19 more scoring swings in the second set to race out to a 2-0 lead before the Cowgirls were able to muster any success. McNeese was able to hold the Ladyjacks to just .130 hitting in the next two sets, enabling them the opportunity to cash in on a pair of extra-point victories to send the match into a deciding set.
SFA then had to stage a comeback in the final set, falling behind 10-5 to the Cowgirls before Gross got things going with three kills in a 4-0 spurt that got SFA back to within one at 10-9. The Ladyjacks then forced a pair of Cowgirl errors while mixing in kills from Ivy and Burns to knot things up at 13-13, and took the lead one point later when Miksch rejected a scoring try from setter Becky Bekelja.
The teams traded the next three points before Holland found Miksch to set up SFA's third match-point try, and Gross finished it off one point later to punch SFA's ticket to Conway, Ark., next week.
SFA will close out the regular season and try to improve its tournament seed on Saturday when it travels to Beaumont to take on Lamar at McDonald Gym. First serve is set for 1:00 p.m.
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