First-Place SFA To Host ORU and UCA
9/26/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2012
SFA (13-3, 4-0 SLC) vs Oral Roberts (6-9, 2-2 SLC)
Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012 • 7:00 p.m. (CST)
Shelton Gym (600) • Nacogdoches
Video: None • Live Stats: www.sfajacks.com
SFA (13-3, 4-0 SLC) vs Central Arkansas (14-1, 3-1 SLC)
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012 • 1:00 p.m. (CST)
Shelton Gym (600) • Nacogdoches
Video: None • Live Stats: www.sfajacks.com
No team in the Southland Conference is riding a high more than the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks, who have won 10 of their last 11 matches and seven in a row heading into this week’s pair of matches against two of the league’s preseason favorites - Oral Roberts and Central Arkansas.
The Ladyjacks picked up three conference wins last week, but this week face a pair of teams picked to finish in the top three in the league in the preseason polls. It will be SFA’s first-ever meeting with Oral Roberts, who is in its first year as a member of the Southland Conference. ORU put an end to a seven-match losing streak last weekend at home, taking a pair of matches from both Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana. They enter Thursday’s match with just a 3-7 record away from Tulsa.
Meanwhile the Sugar Bears will be looking to extend their win streak over the Ladyjacks, a five-match streak which dates back to 2008. SFA and UCA have a pair of common non-conference opponents with each having beaten Southern Mississippi and South Dakota. After starting the season 11-0, UCA dropped its conference opener in five sets to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before responding to knock off Sam Houston, Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana. They lead the league in attack percentage, opponent attack percentage, kills, assists and service aces.
SFA vs THE GOLDEN EAGLES
vs ORU, First Meeting
SFA vs THE SUGAR BEARS
vs UCA, UCA leads 3-5
The last time: UCA 3, SFA 1 • Sept. 24, 2012 • Nacogdoches
LIVE STATS: Each of SFA’s matches on Thursday and Saturday can be followed via Gametracker at www.sfajacks.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.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE JILL: Jill Ivy has been stellar in her sophomore year, averaging 3.11 kills per set and earning all-tournament honors twice. She’s put down at least 10 kills in 14 of 16 matches on the year, and recently was named the SLC Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. One of those nights was a 21-kill effort in a win over South Dakota, and she nearly equaled that on Satursay with 19 in a four-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 had a breakout week at the Chilly Fillmore’s Invitational and was rewarded with the honor of Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. Leslie averaged 3.55 kills in SFA’s three wins and hit a gaudy .455 for the week. She is the first Ladyjack freshman to win a league player of the week honor since 2008, and the first to win an offensive player of the week honor since Lauren Railey in 2005.
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 10.10 assists per set and is in line to become just the second Ladyjack setter since 2007 to average at least 10 assists per set. In her last 11 matches she has directed SFA to a 10-1 record with the Ladyjacks hitting .188 as a team, but at least .231 in four of their last five contests. Over the weekend she also passed Sunni Williams to move into sixth all-time at SFA in assists and needs 160 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 1,862 digs for her career. She needs 138 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.
STARTING STRONG: With its win at Lamar, SFA has now won 10 of its last 11 matches and is 13-3 to start the season. The Ladyjacks have won 13 of its first 16 now three times since 2006 and are just short of their best ever start through 14 matches, an 12-2 mark set in 2005, 1998, 1994 and 1993.
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-
