Stephen F. Austin
UTSA
`Runners End SFA's Season In Conference Tournament
11/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2011
CONWAY, Ark. - Jill Ivy closed out her freshman season with a match-high 12 kills, but the No. 2 seed UTSA hit .392 and the Roadrunners put an end to the SFA Ladyjack's season with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-14) win in the first round of the Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament at the Farris Center.
The Roadrunners (21-10) will move on to face the winner of No. 3 Sam Houston State and No. 6 UT-Arlington in tomorrow's tournament semifinals after picking up its third victory in as many tries over SFA (14-18) this season.
SFA had its offense working, hitting .243 in the first two sets before going flat and swinging just .121 in the third set as the `Runners led by as much as 13 points late in the frame.
Ivy scored her 12 kills on just 24 swings with three errors, hitting .375 and tying her season high kill total for a three-set match. Senior Melissa Miksch joined her in double figures with 10 kills and SFA's other senior, MC Bottles, finished with seven scores with just one error on 14 swings in her final match as a Ladyjack.
SFA, playing without injured libero Madison Hanlan, was forced to change things up and operated with a pair of setters throughout the match with Paige Holland dishing out 19 assists and Janet Hill adding a dozen. Bottles and junior Sabrina Burns had a pair of blocks apiece, and Amanda Hall led SFA with nine digs.
Overall, eight Roadrunners found the kill column, led by Elise Husky, Whitney Walls and McKenzie Adams with nine apiece.
The Ladyjacks were right there with the `Runners throughout the first two sets, and hit .257 in the opening frame behind five kills from Ivy and four from Bottles; however, SFA had no answer for the Roadrunner offense as they misfired just three times on 32 swings on their way to hitting .375 themselves with five kills coming from Brittney Malloy.
UTSA tried to pull away midway through the set, leading by as much as five points at the 12-7 mark of the first set. But SFA continued to fight back, and drew to within just two points as late as the 22-20 mark of the set after a service ace from Bottles. Unfortunately, that was as close as it got as UTSA scored three of the next four points to take an early 1-0 lead in the match.
SFA then made a hard push to square the match at 1-1 in the second set, leading by three at 18-15 after one of Katzy Randall's four kills in the set forced a UTSA timeout. But from there it was all Roadrunners as UTSA closed out the set on a 10-2 run behind four kills from Walls and five from freshman Dempsey Thornton to put a stranglehold on the match with a 2-0 lead despite SFA hitting a respectable .231 for the set.
The third set turned out to be all UTSA with the Roadrunners racing out to a 15-5 lead and never looking back. The `Runners led by as much as 13 at the 20-7 point before Ivy put an end to the run; however, by the time the Ladyjacks were able muster any sustained offense late in the set, UTSA had put it out of reach behind a .500 hitting percentage for the stanza.
SFA will return the bulk of its roster in 2012, losing only seniors Bottles and Miksch.
-SFA-
