Ladyjacks Head to Louisiana for Three SLC Matches
10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Stephen F. Austin (13-9, 5-1 Southland) at Northwestern State (3-17, 1-6 Southland)
Tuesday, Oct. 13 • 7:00 p.m.
Prather Coliseum • Natchitoches, La.
Live Stats • Live Video • Live Audio (SFAVolleyblog.net/Greg Miller)
Stephen F. Austin (13-9, 5-1 Southland) at Southeastern Louisiana State (8-11, 2-3 Southland)
Thursday, Oct. 15 • 7:00 p.m.
University Center • Hammond, La.
Live Stats • Live Video
Stephen F. Austin (13-9, 5-1 Southland) at New Orleans (11-9, 2-3 Southland)
Saturday, Oct. 17 • 2:00 p.m.
Human Performance Center • New Orleans, La.
Live Stats • Live Video
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – For the first time since the 2009 season, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team (13-9, 5-1 Southland) will be tested with a road trip which requires the Ladyjacks to play three Southland Conference matches over the course of five days.
Still sitting alone in second-place in the league standings heading into their lengthy three-match Louisiana excursion, SFA will not face a team that sits in a higher position than eighth place in the 13-team league during this stretch of matches.
“We have to go out and make sure we’re ready to play on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,” said 28th-year head coach Debbie Humphreys. “You’re going to have those weeks where you play three important conference matches in a short period of time, but one positive thing in this is by going to Northwestern first we’ve got some of the trip out of the way.”
SFA vs. Northwestern State: A decidedly one-sided all-time matchup is what kicks off the Ladyjacks’ five-match road swing. Since SFA and Northwestern State first engaged in volleyball-related warfare back in 1984, the Ladyjacks have piled up a 46-4 record against their northern Louisiana rivals. That record includes a stretch of 43 consecutive wins against the Lady Demons, but over the last eight meetings SFA is 4-4 against NSU. It was the Lady Demons, as a matter of fact, who ended SFA’s 2014 campaign with a 3-1 win in the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament.
Scouting Northwestern State: Under the direction of first-year head coach Sean Kiracofe, the Lady Demons ushered in their 2015 schedule with a 2-2 mark but since those opening matches NSU has amassed a record of just 1-15. The only victory for the Lady Demons during that stretch was a 3-0 home triumph over Southland Conference foe Nicholls State. In the midst of a five-match losing skid, NSU has yet to win a set at home in the month of October after finding itself on the wrong end of a pair of 3-0 decisions against Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last week. Having taken 664 of NSU’s 2,344 swings on offense, junior outside hitter Lauren Agan stars as the main kill-producing threat for the Lady Demons with an average of 2.64 per set. Not far behind Agan is senior middle blocker Glynna Johnson who has piled up 121 terminations. An efficient producer of offense, Johnson floors points with an attack percentage of .363 – the fourth-highest figure in the Southland Conference. The final-year player is the primary reason why the Lady Demons rank sixth in the 13-team league in blocks per set (1.92). A front-row stopper, she averages 1.01 rejections per set and that number works out to the fourth-highest in the SLC. The service game of Natalie Jaeger is yet another area where NSU has seen success, as only one other SLC student-athlete owns a high service aces per set mark than the Wisconsinite (0.51). Jaeger’s powerful serve has upped the Lady Demons’ service aces per set mark to 1.52 – the third-best total in the league.
Humphreys on Northwestern State: “We’re going to see a very aggressive team on Tuesday night. They’re going to come at us hard from the service line, they’re going to be taking big swings and overall they’re going to take some chances. Northwestern State is one of those teams that has the ability to make some extra errors because of that but it also has the ability to catch on fire and to do some good things.”
SFA vs. Southeastern Louisiana: Four of the five Southeastern Louisiana’s wins over SFA have occurred from 1997 or later as the Ladyjacks hold a 32-5 lead in the all-time series between the two institutions which began in 1984. Outside a pair of 3-2 losses to the Lions in the 2012 campaign, SFA hasn’t dropped a set to their rivals from the Pelican State since Oct. 10, 2009.
Scouting Southeastern Louisiana: Turning things around in Hammond, third-year head coach Fred Smoot is on a mission to lead the Lions back to the Southland Conference Tournament for the second year in a row and the sixth time in program history. In order to put a tic mark next to that goal, the Lady Lions have been reliant on a brigade of upperclassmen and a select few younger members of their squad. Junior Landry Bullock (2.80 kills/set), junior Tiffany Thomas (2.17 kills/set) and sophomore Sarah Friedman (2.09 kills/set) shoulder the vast majority of the Lady Lions offensive payload while junior Rachael Bunn (0.70 blocks/set) and senior Veronica Turk (0.63 blocks/set) are charged with rejecting attacks from the opposition. In her final year in a Southeastern Louisiana uniform, Brooke Baiser is the only Lady Lion to see her name appear in Southland Conference’s list of top statistical performers. Currently, the Ponchatoula, La., product ranks 10th in digs per set (3.30).
Humphreys on Southeastern Louisiana: “Southeastern is a team that bring back a lot of their returners from last season, so we’re pretty familiar with what they do. They’ve got quality players at every position that have had a chance to learn the system there for a few years so we are going to have to bring a high level of effort and execution if we want to get it done in Hammond.”
SFA vs. New Orleans: In contrast to their long-standing rivalries with the other pair of Louisiana institutions it will be facing, SFA has tangled with New Orleans just nine times in its history. In those matches, the Ladyjacks own a 6-3 edge including a 3-0 record since the Privateers joined up with the Southland Conference in 2013.
Scouting New Orleans: A youth movement has reigned for the Privateers so far in 2015 as five of UNO’s top six point-producers are either freshmen or sophomores. Leading the way among the Privateers youthful contingent is freshman outside hitter Blessing Dunn. The Jacksonville, Ala., product has lived up to her first name on the waterfront by coming in and providing a veteran-type presence, slamming down 2.56 kills per set. Dunn, however, is one of a quartet of New Orleans players who own a kills per set average of greater than 2.00. Sophomores Cara Sander (2.21/set) and Rondolyn Bryant (2.10/set) as well as freshman Kaitlyn Grice (2.04/set) have each played a big part the resurgence of the Privateers. Corralling just six wins a season ago, New Orleans has almost doubled that 2014 total this season as it owns an 11-9 mark as well as a 2-3 mark in league play. Those two wins represent the first two Southland Conference triumphs ever for UNO which is in its third season in the 13-team league.
Humphreys on New Orleans: “UNO has a whole new look from a year ago and they’re doing some great things right now. Another thing that they’re doing well is bringing that extremely aggressive mentality to each of their matches. We’re going to have to do that same thing, and do it consistently throughout the match, if we want to get out of there with a win.”
Last Time Out: Ladyjack backers would be hard-pressed to remember a more electric atmosphere in Shelton Gym than the one present in the venerable facility last Thursday evening. Over 600 SFA faithful – the vast majority wearing Greek letters – packed Shelton to witness a battle for first place in the league standings. Unfortunately, visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was able to exit the inhospitable environment with a 3-2 victory and sole possession of the SLC’s top spot. The Ladyjacks bounced back by scoring a 3-1 win over Houston Baptist on Saturday afternoon. In that match, senior Tori Bates led the charge by hitting .297 and totaling 13 kills.
2K for OJ: Just two Stephen F. Austin volleyball players have amassed 2,000 or more digs in a career, and senior OJ Olson is poised to become the third. Her career total currently stands at 1,917 digs, meaning the Cedar Park, Texas product needs 83 more to hit the 2K mark. In the national statistical rankings, very few NCAA Division I volleyball players have put up the kind of numbers the Ladyjacks’ back row leader has. Olson ranks 13th in the nation in digs per set (5.25) and third in total digs (441).
Something’s Brew(er)ing: Needing a spark and a quicker pace to their offense, the Ladyjacks turned to freshman setter McKenzie Brewer to provide it and the native of Grapevine, Texas didn’t disappoint. In Thursday’s five-set marathon against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the first-year player reset her career highs in assists (49), digs (12) and block assist (three). Brewer followed up her career day with a double-double performance in SFA’s 3-1 win over Houston Baptist on Saturday afternoon. She piled up 46 assists to go along with 11 digs. On the season, she is averaging 8.84 assists and 1.97 digs per set.
Jacq Among ‘Jacks: Determined to make her final season in a Stephen F. Austin uniform a memorable one, senior middle blocker Jacque Allen has been one of the premier players on the team and in the Southland Conference. Boasting the third-highest blocks per set average in the 13-team league (1.02), the Mansfield, Texas product has registered the second-most solo blocks on the Ladyjacks’ all-time charts (80) and has risen to sixth in SFA’s record book in total blocks (398). Her 318 block assists are the ninth-highest career total in program history and in the NCAA statistics Allen ranks 31st in NCAA Division I volleyball with 86 total blocks this season.
Back-to-Back?: The Southland Conference prognosticators – that is to say the coaches and sports information directors throughout the 13-team league – collectively envisioned a 2015 Southland Conference regular season title in the Ladyjacks’ future. In the preseason polls, which were released on Aug. 5, the defending conference champions received 11 of 12 first place votes and 143 total points.
The 600 Club: The architect of the Ladyjacks’ success, Debbie Humphreys is in the midst of her 28th season as SFA’s head coach and earlier in 2015 she reached a coaching benchmark which few in the NCAA can claim to have reached. With a 3-0 triumph over Columbia in Shelton Gym on Saturday, Sept. 5, Humphreys secured her 600th career coaching victory. Currently, Humphreys is the 19th-winningiest active coach at the NCAA Division I level with a record of 609-312 (.661).
Stacking Up in the Southland: Below is how the Ladyjacks rank statistically in various categories among the 13-team conference:
Hitting Percentage - .203 (3rd)
Opponent Hitting Percentage - .194 (6th)
Assists – 11.54 (4th)
Kills/Set – 12.14 (4th)
Blocks/Set – 2.07 (5th)
Service Aces/Set – 0.99 (13th)
Digs/Set – 16.63 (2nd)
Looking Ahead: Once they return from their almost week-long stay in Louisiana, the Ladyjacks will find another pair of Southland Conference road matches waiting for them. SFA rolls out to Huntsville, Texas, on Thursday, Oct. 22 to face off against longtime rival Sam Houston State at 6:30 p.m. From there, the Ladyjacks travel south to Beaumont, Texas for a 2 p.m. confrontation with Lamar on Saturday, Oct. 24.
-SFA-
