Ladyjacks Smack New Orleans 3-1 Behind Balanced Effort
10/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Stephen F. Austin 3, New Orleans 1 (25-20, 25-19, 25-27, 25-19)
Records: SFA (14-11, 6-3 Southland), New Orleans (11-11, 2-5 Southland)
Up Next: at Sam Houston State • Thursday, Oct. 22 • 6:30 p.m.
NEW ORLEANS – By locating the balance it was lacking earlier in the week, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team let the good times roll on the offensive side of the net as three players registered 13 or more kills in the Ladyjacks’ 3-1 Southland Conference victory over New Orleans at the Human Performance Center on Saturday afternoon.
No player on either squad amassed a high number of kills than senior Jacque Allen. Her 15-termination outing came on a hitting percentage of .548 and the middle blocker also added a trio of block assists as part of SFA’s nine-block outing.
Tori Bates and Lauren Taft provided further weapons for SFA on offense as the pair tacked on seven kills each in the visitors’ 59-kill assault.
Two of Makenzee Hanna’s 13 kills came on the first two SFA points of the league battle. The freshman out of DeSoto, Texas chipped in her sole block assist of the match during the Ladyjacks’ 4-2 match-opening surge.
In control of a match early on for the first time in a week, SFA didn’t squander its opportunity to leap ahead on the scoreboard. A 5-1 run featuring a two of Justice Walker’s 13 kills, a strike from Bates and a combination block by Walker and Lauren Taft pushed the SFA advantage to 17-10 – its largest of the set.
The Privateers attempted to make things interesting when Rondolyn Bryant swatted a kill and Walker committed an attack error to trim SFA’s edge to 21-19, but a pair of UNO errors coupled with solo rejections from Hanna and Walker put set one in the books in favor of the visitors.
Heading into Saturday’s skirmish, SFA had to conjure up a game plan to negate the strong service game of the Privateers, who rank tops in the 13-team Southland Conference in service aces. The defensive plan installed by the visitors worked almost perfectly as the Ladyjacks surrendered just one ace by UNO.
As a matter of fact, it was SFA who dealt the vast majority of damage from the service line. Consecutive aces by McKenzie Brewer in the second set upped the Ladyjacks’ leading margin to 5-3 and another from OJ Olson following a rare kill from the senior libero served as the middle part of a 4-0 SFA run to put the visitors ahead 13-9.
Taft punctuated a 4-1 SFA run with another pair of kills as the visitors rendered the Privateers set two attack percentage of .303 a non-factor. Walker made matters 2-0 in favor of the Ladyjacks with her set-ending kill.
An act of extreme resiliency was the only thing that prevented the match from ending in three sets. Brewer knocked down a kill to put SFA ahead 24-20, but Bryant and Blessing Dunn each struck for three terminations during a 7-1 run to end the third frame and give UNO its first set win of the match.
Unwilling to give any more momentum away, the Ladyjacks ushered in the deciding set with a 10-6 surge. Four unforced errors committed by the Privateers helped SFA construct its early lead.
Keke Irby slapped down a kill which brought UNO within one, 14-13, but SFA’s final push came in the form of a 9-2 run that saw Lexus Cain strike for two service aces and Hanna hammer down three kills.
UNO won three straight points, but SFA finished things off with a pair of Walker kills.
Splitting time at setter, Shannon Connell passed out 35 assists while Brewer collected 17 helpers. Cain submitted a strong defensive effort, gathering up a match-best 22 digs while Olson added 12.
Now in third place in the conference standings, SFA will finish off its stretch of five straight road games next week. First up is a 6:30 p.m. Thursday night date with longtime adversary Sam Houston State. The Bearkats are one of four teams tied for sixth place in the league standings.
