Stephen F. Austin
Tennessee-Martin
SFA Splits On First Day Of Skyhawk Invitational
9/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2011
Illinois State Box Score | Tennessee-Martin Box Score
MARTIN, Tenn. - The Ladyjacks volleyball team split a pair of matches on Friday at the Skyhawk Invitational, moving to 5-2 on the year with a loss to Illinois State and a win over host Tennessee-Martin.
Freshman Katzy Randall continued her blistering start to her collegiate career, leading the Ladyjacks in kills in both matches. SFA's win over UTM in the nightcap put an end to a short two-match skid for the Ladyjacks.
SFA will close out the tournament a noon on Saturday with a match versus UAB before ending a six-day road swing with a Labor Day match at North Texas at 2:00 p.m. on Monday.
Illinois State 3, SFA 2
The Ladyjacks held a 2-0 lead at the break before dropping the final three sets of the match to allow Illinois State to sneak away with a 3-2 (20-25, 19-25, 25-16, 25-17, 15-12) win in the first match of the tournament.
It was the first time in almost exactly a calendar year since the Ladyjacks had surrendered a 2-0 lead, doing so on Sept. 3 of last season versus Portland. Freshmen Katzy Randall and Jill Ivy both scored in double figures with 12 and 10 kills apiece, respectively; however, senior MC Bottles was the only Ladyjack with at least five kills to hit above the .150 mark.
In all, SFA hit just .155 for the match after hitting a very solid .285 in the first two sets. Meanwhile, the Redbirds (2-2) caught fire after the break, hitting .325 after falling down 2-0.
Madison Hanlan finished with 25 digs for the match and Amanda Hall added a dozen along with two kills and an ace. Paige Holland dished out 42 assists and fell just one dig shy of her second double-double of the year.
SFA had no trouble racing out to its 2-0 advantage, never trailing at any point in either set. Randall and Ivy were nearly unstoppable in the first set, combining for nine kills while Ivy added another four in the second frame as well. But from there on out, it was all Redbirds with Shannon McGlaughlin and Brooklyn Hlafka combining for 40 of Illinois State's 62 kills for the match.
The Redbirds led for all but one point of the final three sets, including jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead in the deciding fifth set. SFA did manage to claw back to within a point in the finale at 13-12, but a Ladyjack service error and a Redbird service ace closed it out.
SFA3, UT-Martin 1
MC Bottles and Katzy Randall each downed 17 kills, with Sabrina Burns right behind them with 15 as the Ladyjacks knocked off Tennessee-Martin, 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 27-25, 25-19), in the second match of the Skyhawk Invitational.
Randall finished with her second double-double in three matches, adding 11 digs to her 17 kills. Bottles finished with five blocks and a .368 attack percentage with SFA ending the match with 16 more kills than the Skyhawks despite being outblocke 13-9.
SFA had to withstand efficient hitting from UTM throughout the first three sets as the Skyhawks hit no less than .250 in any of the first three frames before committing eight errors to eight kills in the fourth and final frame. The Ladyjacks took matters into their own hands throughout the evening, scoring no less than 14 points on kills in any of the four sets.
The Ladyjacks never trailed in the first set, getting eight kills from Bottles and 13 of Paige Holland's 56 assists in cruising to a quick 1-0 advantage. But it did not take long for the Skyhawks to tie it up, using six kills from Ashley Doherty to even things up heading into the half.
In the third, SFA jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead before eventually having to rally late in the set. The Ladyjacks led for the majority of the set before UTM used consecutive kills from Doherty to take a 20-19 lead; however, Bottles and Randall took over from there and led the Ladyjacks six of the next eight points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
SFA then took over midway through the fourth set, snapping a 10-10 tie with a 10-5 run that sparked the Ladyjacks to the verge of a set win. From there SFA traded points with the Skyhawks the rest of the way before Leslie Jackson was finally able to bury a pass from Holland to the floor for the deciding point.
-SFA-
