Stephen F. Austin
Nicholls State
SFA Snaps Losing Streak With Win Over Nicholls
10/11/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 11, 2012
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Sabrina Burns had a career-high 20 kills and led a steady offensive attack for Stephen F. Austin as the Ladyjacks put an end to a three-match losing streak with a 3-1 (25-16, 25-17, 22-25, 25-16) win over Nicholls on Thursday at Shelton Gym.
The Ladyjacks (15-6, 6-3 SLC) hit .250 on the night and scored 24 more kills than the Colonels, led by Burns' match-high 20. She misfired just four times on 38 swings to hit .421 for the match and had a hand in two of SFA's eight blocks. Jill Ivy had 11 kills and three blocks, and Tori Bates had 10 kills of her own.
Paige Holland finished with 35 assists on the night, going over the 2,000-asist mark for her career and splitting time at setter early in the match with Amanda Rister who had 14 and five digs. Cara Leslie had six blocks and Madison Hanlan and Katzy Randall each registered at least 10 digs, Hanlan totaling 21 and Randall 14.
Sarah Terry led Nicholls with 10 kills and Nancy Taylor had 28 assists.
SFA came out of the gates on fire, hitting .516 in the first set, scoring 18 times with just two misfires on 31 swings as a team to take a 1-0 lead. Bates had five of her kills in the set, helping out in a late run that spaced the score out enough for the Ladyjacks to score an 8-2 run to close out the set.
Things did not come as easily in the second set, but still a 9-1 run in the middle of the set broke open what was a 10-8 lead and inflated it to a comfortable margin at 19-9. That included eight consecutive points behind Hanlan's serve and from there the Ladyjacks cruised to the finish line, needing just 12 kills in the set to do so.
SFA was not able to close out the match in the minimum three sets, though, as the Colonels pieced together its lone set victory behind .206 hitting in the set. Nicholls used a 4-0 run to snap a 16-16 tie and then withstood a late Ladyjack charge after SFA had narrowed the gap to just one point at 23-22.
The Ladyjacks then wrapped it up in the fourth set, using an 11-1 run to open it up, holding the Colonels to just .061 hitting in the process. In that run SFA got nine straight points behind Randall's serve and eventually closed out the match on consecutive kills from Burns.
SFA will try and move to 7-3 in conference play on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. when it hosts Southeastern Louisiana at Shelton Gym.
-SFA-
