Stephen F. Austin
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Ladyjacks Rally To Wipe Out Islanders In Five
9/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 29, 2011
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Ladyjack volleyball team rallied from being down 2-0 to force a deciding fifth set, and erased a quick 4-0 deficit in the final frame to take a 3-2 (23-25, 20-25, 28-26, 25-20, 15-11) win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at the Dugan Wellness Center.
It was the first time SFA (9-9, 2-2 SLC) had managed to take a five-set match after dropping the first two sets since last year's season finale against Lamar in Nacogdoches. It also snaps a two-match losing streak against the Islanders (8-10, 0-3 SLC) after TAMUCC had swept the season series last year for their first two wins ever over SFA.
MC Bottles led the Ladyjack offense with a match-high 18 kills as one of four hitters with at least 10 kills on the night. Sabrina Burns also picked up her first double-double of her career, hitting .367 on the night with 13 kills and had a hand in 10 of SFA's 11 blocks. Katzy Randall and Paige Holland also totaled double-doubles with Randall totaling both a dozen kills and digs, and Holland digging 11 balls and dishing out 47 assists on her way to directing the offense to .189 hitting for the night.
Madison Hanlan paced four Ladyjacks with at least 11 digs on the night, finishing with 20. Melissa Miksch added 12 along with five kills.
The Ladyjacks outhit the Islanders .226 to .161 in the first set and got four kills from Jill Ivy, but could not hold on to a 23-19 lead and surrendered the final six points of the set to TAMUCC , three of which came via kill from Brooke Alverson.
One set later SFA was its own worst enemy once again, hitting just .045 and helping the Islanders out with nine attack errors to quickly fall behind 2-0 after a 25-20 loss in the second frame.
But the Ladyjacks found their offense in the third and fourth sets, hitting .261 in those two sets to square the match. SFA raced out to a 12-6 lead in the third set and used kills from Burns and Leslie Jackson to score six of the next 10 points to push the lead to as big as 18-10 before the Islanders begana comeback of their own. TAMUCC fought off three set points to knot the match at 24-24 and send it into extra points; but, SFA was able to withstand the rally and used a kill from Bottles to set up a set-point try that it cashed in on thanks to an Islander misfire.
SFA used a quick start to even things up in the fourth set, jumping out to an early 7-2 lead after a kill from Jackson and a service ace from Hanlan. TAMUCC cut it back to within two points before a 5-1 run from SFA bumped the lead back to a comfortable five-point cushion at 17-12. From there SFA's offense was able to handle the rest, scoring kills on five of the next eight points, including a pair of kills from freshman Taylor Gross to force the fifth set.
In the fifth, SFA got three kills from Randall and a pair from both Burns and Gross, and despite hitting just .194 itself, forced the Islanders into five errors of their own in the race to 15. Three straight kills from Isabella Arcidiacono pushed TAMUCC to a quick 4-0 lead before Gross put an end to that with a kill of her own, and from there the Ladyjacks continued to chip away at the narrow lead until they finally breaking through with an 8-7 lead on an Islander error. SFA managed to push the lead to as much as three at 13-10 when Holland found Burns for a score, and after a kill from Jill Ivy set up a match-point try, the Islanders gave it to SFA with a bad set by Logen Borque for the final Ladyjack point of the match.
Things will not get any easier for the Ladyjacks, who next take on league-leading, and reigning SLC Tournament champion UTSA on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in San Antonio.
-SFA-
