Ladyjacks Hit Road To Battle Bearkats, Islanders
10/3/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 3, 2012
SFA (14-4, 5-1 SLC) at Sam Houston State (6-9, 2-2 SLC)
Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012 • 7:00 p.m. (CST)
Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum (6,100) • Huntsville
Video: None • Live Stats: www.gobearkats.com
SFA (14-4, 5-1 SLC) at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (14-1, 3-1 SLC)
Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012 • 1:00 p.m. (CST)
Dugan Gym (1,500) • Corpus Christi
Video: None • Live Stats: www.goislanders.com
After seeing its seven-match win streak come to a halt on Saturday at the hands of Central Arkansas, the Ladyjacks have a great opportunity to jump back on their feet this weekend with a pair of difficult road matches at Sam Houston State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
SFA still sits in a tie for first place in the Southland Conference, but will open up the week by facing Sam Houston State for the second time in just over two weeks and will be looking for its first win in Huntsville since the 2007 season. They will then travel to Corpus Christi for a date with the Islanders, a team which took the Ladyjacks to five sets on their home floor last season and are the only squad to have handed Central Arkansas a conference loss to this point.
SFA vs THE BEARKATS
vs SHSU, SFA leads 31-15
The last time: SFA 3, SHSU 2 • Sept. 18, 2012 • Nacogdoches
SFA vs THE ISLANDERS
vs TAMUCC, SFA leads 9-2
The last time: SFA 3, TAMUCC 1 • Nov. 3, 2012 • Nacogdoches
LIVE STATS: Thursday’s match can be followed via live stats at www.gobearkats.com, while Saturday’s match can be followed at www.goislanders.com
LIVE CHAT: Thursday’s match at Sam Houston State can also be followed live chat with Greg Miller of www.sfavolleyblog.net with in game commentary and real-time score updates.
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.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: The Ladyjacks certainly have a home-court advantage when it sets foot on the Shelton Gym floor, but has been equally good away from Shelton. SFA is 9-2 away from home, but more impressively, is 5-0 when playing in true road games. That is a stark contrast from the last three seasons when the Ladyjacks struggled on the road, going just 13-23 in true road contests.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE JILL: Jill Ivy has been stellar in her sophomore year, averaging 3.20 kills per set and earning all-tournament honors twice. She’s put down at least 10 kills in 16 of 18 matches on the year, right where she left off last season when she closed out the year with at least 10 in five of her last six matches of the season. One of those nights was a 21-kill effort in a win over South Dakota, and she nearly equaled that on Tuesdsay with 18 in a five-set win over Sam Houston. Should she finish the season with a kills average above 3.00 per set, she would join MC Bottles as just the second Ladyjack to average at least 3.00 kills per setsince 2008.
LESLIE NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: True freshman Cara Leslie is beginning to make a case for the league’s freshman of the year honor after taking her second Southland Conference player of the week award on Monday. She had already won an offensive weekly honor for her performance at the Chilly Fillmore’s Invitational, but most recently was awarded a defensive honor after averaging 1.88 blocks per set last week. The bulk of that came from a 12-block performance in a five-set loss to Central Arkansas, the most blocks any player in the SLC has had this year. The dozen rejections also ranks as the fifth most blocks in a single match in SFA history.
A NEW PAIGE: Sophomore setter Paige Holland has made tremendous strides this season and the numbers reflect just that. The sophomore from Magnolia is currently averaging 10.07 assists per set and is in line to become just the second Ladyjack setter since 2007 to average at least 10 assists per set. Recently she passed Sunni Williams to move into sixth all-time at SFA in assists and needs just 81 more to reach 2,000 for her career.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS: Senior libero Madison Hanlan is off to a great start to her final season, earning all-tournament honors at both the UTA Invitational and UND Classic, as well as capturing the Southland’s initial Defensive Player of the Week honor, the fourth of her career. In the midst of that, she has moved into second place all-time at SFA in digs and has now totaled 1,899 digs for her career. She needs 101 to join Stephanie Figgers as just the second Ladyjack to total 2,000 digs for her career. Hanlan has averaged no less than 4.24 digs per set each season to date and if she does that again, she will also join Figgers with four seasons that rank in SFA’s top 10.
B1G WIN: The Ladyjacks found themselves against a wall in the Butler Classic in Indianapolis, down 2-1 to the Indiana Hoosiers of the Big 10. But SFA rallied to knot the match 2-2 and then clawed back from a 10-3 deficit in the fifth set to take the match. The win was SFA’s first ever volleyball win in three tries vs a Big 10 opponent, as well as SFA’s first-ever win over a Big 10 school in any sport.
20/20 VISION: At the UND Classic the Ladyjacks had a pair of hitters go over the 20-kill mark in a match, beginning with Jill Ivy’s 21 scores vs South Dakota and followed one match later by Katzy Randall’s 21 in a win over North Dakota. Each of them did that once as freshmen last season while the Ladyjacks had just three 20-kill performances as a team for the year. That gives SFA five 20-kill outings in the past two years after not having a single 20-kill match from an individual since 2007.
DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: SFA had to dig deep to pick up its win over South Dakota, falling behind 2-0 before ralling to knock off the Coyotes 3-2. It was the first time since the final match of 2010 vs Lamar in which the Ladyjacks dropped the first two sets before coming back to pick up the win. SFA has five such wins in five seasons since 2008.
-SFA-
