Ladyjack Volleyball Game Notes: at TAMUCC, at UTSA
9/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 28, 2011
at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (8-9, 0-2 SLC) - Sept. 29, 6:30 p.m.
at UTSA (8-8, 2-0 SLC) - Oct. 1, 3:00 p.m.
Game Notes
FOR STARTERS
The Ladyjacks ended a six-match losing skid with a pair of wins in three tries last weekend, including their first conference win vs Northwestern State and an upset of Missouri Valley power Missouri State in matinee action on Sunday at Shelton Gym.
Now SFA will head to South Texas to settle into a normal routine of conference play, beginning Thursday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders had never beaten the Ladyjacks in seven tries entering last year, but swept the 2011 series from SFA, allowing the Ladyjacks to take just a single set over the course of two matches.
SFA will follow up its trip to the Island with its final visit to the Alamo City to take on UTSA as a member of the Southland Conference before the Roadrunners head to the WAC. The Ladjacks had owned the series with UTSA up until the 2008 season when UTSA snapped a 16-match losing streak to SFA that dated back to 2001. Since 2008, UTSA has won three of the last five in the series, including both matches in 2010.
SFA vs THE ISLANDERS
vs TAMUCC, SFA leads 7-2
The last time: TAMUCC 3, SFA 0 • Nov. 4, 2011 • Corpus Christi, Texas
SFA vs THE ROADRUNNERS
vs UTSA, SFA leads 30-9
The last time: UTSA 3, SFA 1 • Nov. 6, 2011 • San Antonio, Texas
LIVE STATS: Each match can be followed via Live Stats at www.goislanders.com and www.goutsa.com
FOLLOW SFA ATHLETICS: Fans are encouraged to follow along with SFA Volleyball and SFA Athletics as a whole via SFA’s social media sites on Facebook (SFA Athletics) and Twitter (@SFA_Athletics). Up-to-the minute match updates, as well as the latest news can be found via these outlets from all home matches and selected road matches.
BLOCK ME ALL NIGHT LONG: The Ladyjacks stepped up their game at the net in Sunday’s win over Missouri State, rejecting 13 Bears’ shots, just the second time in 17 matches this year in which SFA has reached double figures in blocks as a team. It was just the fifth time this season that SFA has outblocked its opponent with SFA having won three of those matches. Sabrina Burns led the SFA net attack with seven blocks, including six block assists.
JOLT FROM JILL: SFA inserted freshman outside hitter Jill Ivy into the starting lineup last week to try and boost offensive production, and the lineup change showed immediate dividends. Ivy averaged 2.64 kills per set in the three matches, swinging at a .282 clip on 71 tries. As a team, SFA hit .189 for the week after not hitting over .162 in any of its previous six matches.
BACK TO WHERE IT STARTED: SFA re-opened up Shelton Gym vs Texas A&M for the 2011 season after spending 12 seasons at William R. Johnson Coliseum. The Ladyacks won three SLC titles at Shelton Gym from 1988 to 1998.
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 9.8 digs per match for the remaining 14 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 141 more to move into the SFA all-time top 10. She’s already made her way into the top 10 in blocks and needs 27 more to become just the sixth Ladyjack with 400 career blocks after her 10-block night against Sam Houston in which she tied the single-match high for blocks in the Southland Conference this season.
OUT OF THE BLOCKS: The Ladyjacks got off to a 4-0 start, the best start for the program since the 1992 season when SFA opened up the year 6-0. It is just the 4th time under Debbie Humphreys that the team has opened up the year at least 3-0, joining the 2006, 2004 and 1992 in that category. In each of those seasons, SFA finished with no less than 26 wins and claimed SLC titles in two of the three years.
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.
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 9.86 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 40.8 assists per match for the remaining 14 regular-season matches of the year to surpass Jones’ mark.
-SFA-
