Stephen F. Austin
Rice
SFA Drops Two In Chilly Fillmore's Finale
9/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 17, 2011
North Dakota Box Score | Rice Box Score
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Ladyjacks dropped a pair of matches on Saturday at the Chilly Fillmore's SFA Invitational to eventual tournament champion North Dakota, 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-16, 25-19) and Rice, 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-18) at Shelton Gym.
SFA (6-8) has now dropped six matches in a row and struggled throughout the day against the bigger front lines of both the Fighting Sioux (10-3) and the Owls (5-6), getting outblocked by a combined 22.5-13 on the day. Melissa Miksch picked up her second double-double of the tournament with 10 kills and 14 digs in the opener against North Dakota and was named to the all-tournament team at the end of the event.
MC Bottles joined Miksch with 10 kills versus UND, but no other Ladyjack in two matches was able to find their way into double figures as SFA hit just .103 against the Fighting Sioux and .080 against Rice. Madison Hanlan had 29 digs in all seven sets on the day, including 18 against UND. Paige Holland also added 58 assists to her season total, including 38 in the opener.
SFA was able to hit .258 in the second set against North Dakota to even the match after the Sioux controlled and took the opening set in SFA's matinee match; however, the Ladyjacks only managed one of their next five sets on the day over .100 hitting.
Bottles led SFA in the nightcap with eight of the Ladyjacks' 29 kills for the match. Sabrina Burns also had five blocks against the Owls, but it wasn't nearly enough as Rice swung .372 over the final two sets of the match to move to 2-1 for the tournament and take the event's runner-up trophy.
SFA has three more matches next week, continuing SLC play on Thursday when it hosts Northwestern State at 6:30 p.m. at Shelton Gym. They will then host defending league champion Central Arkansas on Saturday before hosting a non-conference tilt with Missouri State on Sunday afternoon.
-SFA-
