SFA Wins Final Three Sets, Staves Off ACU
10/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
SFA 3, Abilene Christian 2 (19-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 15-11)
Records: SFA (12-8, 4-0 SLC), Abilene Christian (1-15, 1-2 SLC)
Up Next: vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (16-4, 4-0 SLC) – Thursday, Oct. 6 – 6:30 p.m.
ABILENE, Texas – If opponents of the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team didn’t know who Abby McIntyre was prior to this week, there’s a strong likelihood they do now.
On the wrong end of a 2-0 score at Abilene Christian, SFA dug its heels in and reeled off three straight wins in sets three through five on the strength of a career-best 18 kills from McIntyre to take a 3-2 decision over the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon. It marked the third consecutive Southland Conference bout where SFA had to mount a comeback in order to emerge triumphant.
In extreme danger of being busted up was SFA’s 19-match regular season Southland Conference winning streak, but the latest SFA comeback allowed that streak to rise to 20 instead of reset to zero.
“Even when we were down, I knew our team had what it took to come back and win,” 28th-year head coach Debbie Humphreys said. “Everyone that came off the bench to play today knew what their roles were and just did their jobs. We never backed down or gave up.”
McIntyre, who hails from Richmond, Texas, connected on .455 percent of her swings to finish as the head of the line for an SFA attack which hit .192 on the day. One of the big reasons why the Ladyjacks weren’t able to swing as efficiently as they may have liked to was the defensive play of ACU’s Madison Hoover. The defensive specialist seemed to be everywhere on the court as she dug out a whopping 38 attacks.
The upset-minded Wildcats came to play as four ACU team members finished the match with 12 or more kills. Jennifer Loerch led the way with a team-best 15, but McIntyre’s punch on the offensive end coupled with 13 kills from Justice Walker and another 10 from Jacque Allen helped negate all the balance ACU boasted.
Control of the match belonged to SFA early on in the first set, but ACU – eager to post back-to-back wins for the first time this season – fought back from a 12-10 deficit by uncorking a 7-1 run which put the hosts ahead for good.
Although SFA battled back to within one, 18-17, the Wildcats closed the frame on a 7-2 run to take a 1-0 lead. Any plans the Ladyjacks possessed to knot matters at one after the second set went by the wayside in the late stages of the set. Directly after Tori Bates floored a winner to put SFA on top 21-20, ACU responded with a 5-1 surge to take the frame and set the stage for SFA’s dramatic comeback.
“We had a tough time getting around their blocking early on, so we put in McKenzie [Brewer] at setter to speed the game up,” Humphreys said.
That particular plan went off without a hitch beginning late in the middle frame. Down 21-20, Brewer set up Justice Walker for a pair of kills during a 5-1 set-ending run. Finding open areas of Moody Coliseum floor became much easier for SFA in the fourth set as put up an attack percentage of .351 in that frame.
With the squads knotted at 21, Walker hammered down another termination to spark a 4-1 winning run for SFA. Jacque Allen forced the fifth set by closing the book on that particular surge with a kill and a
The Wildcats refused to go down easy, winning two of the first three points in the fifth before a service error by the hosts keyed a 7-3 Ladyjack run. Jordan McArdle penned the last page of the spree with a kill from senior OJ Olson, forcing the Wildcats to call timeout trailing 8-5.
ACU never regained the lead, and SFA amassed three of its 15 total blocks in the clinching set, the last of which was a combo job by Allen and McIntyre to officially put the match in the win column.
Brewer finished the match with 42 assists and completed her double-double with 10 digs. Olson amassed 26 digs and Haley Coleman dove down to make 11 more, rounding out the main defensive threats for SFA.
Allen posted four block assists and a pair of solo rejections to lead the Ladyjacks’ efforts at the front of the net.
A loss by Sam Houston State means there are now just two Southland Conference squads who have not suffered a league setback in 2015. That number will go down to just one by the time Thursday night ends, however. SFA returns home to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi – who is also 4-0 in SLC play – in a premier early-season bout which begins at 6:30 p.m.
