Walker's Career Night Helps SFA Thrash Lamar 3-1
11/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Box Score
Stephen F. Austin 3, Lamar 1 (25-14, 25-6, 19-25, 25-20)
Records: SFA (18-12, 9-4 Southland), Lamar (13-13, 3-9 Southland)
Up Next: vs. Northwestern State • Saturday, Nov. 7 • 2:00 p.m.
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - There truly was no place like home for the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team as the Ladyjacks, behind a monstrous 21-kill match from junior middle blocker Justice Walker, took down Lamar, 3-1, for the second time in 2015 on Tuesday evening in Shelton Gym.
Overwhelming the Cardinals from the opening serve, Walker’s new career-best performance came on the strength of a .559 hitting percentage. The junior also added four digs and four block assists, once again serving a major defensive force for the Ladyjacks who amassed 10 blocks while limiting the visitors to an attack percentage of .104 in the four-set showdown.
“Justice was seeing the ball very well, hitting right away and really doing all the things she needed to do in order to help us win tonight,” said SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys. “She is an excellent volleyball player and really showed that. We are going to continue to rely on her down the stretch.”
A rejuvenated offensive game plan by the Cardinals greeted SFA in the final two frames, necessitating a need for a ramped-up defensive effort by the hosts in order to secure the win. Senior OJ Olson obliged, generating 26 digs while Lexus Cain (14) and Makenzee Hanna (12) conjured up double-digit dig outings, too.
Hanna, a freshman from DeSoto, Texas, was the other pivotal piece in SFA’s dual-headed attack plan as she finished off a double-double effort with 12 kills while adding a service ace and a pair of block assists.
Up 10-8 in the opening set, the hosts embarked on a 10-3 surge to squash any ideas the Cardinals had of ever taking a lead in the Southland Conference skirmish. Shannon Connell and Sam Rodriguez each registered a service ace in that scoring surge – two of the four aces the Ladyjacks amassed in the match.
The hosts completed their set one victory when Jacque Allen and Jordan McArdle slapped down kills. Coupled with one of three Lamar attack errors in the frame, that was enough to put the hosts up 1-0.
Posing almost no threat whatsoever in the second frame, the Cardinals came completely unraveled and posted an attack percentage of -.143. Lamar only mustered up four kills and committed eight errors in the set. Showing no mercy, SFA hammered down 10 terminations on 20 swings and committed just one error for an attack percentage of .450.
Following the 25-6 set two win, Humphreys knew the Cardinlas, armed with one of the most effective attackers in the nation in Chelsea Grant, would bounce back and make matters interesting.
“When we went into the locker room at the end of set two, I told our team that there was no way the rest of the match was going to go the way the first two sets went,” Humphreys said. “Lamar is too good of a team to just roll over.”
Storming out to a 6-3 lead fueled by a pair of winners by Grant, the Cardinals managed to secure their only set win down the stretch in a frame where the hosts never obtained the lead. The visitors took over as the aggressors in that particular frame, totaling a match-high attack percentage of .297 in the frame. Autumn Taylor, who finished with a team-high 14 kills for Lamar, submitted five of those winners in the third frame.
Grant made her presence felt in the defensive game, too, as she took to the sky and produced back-to-back solo rejections to tie the deciding set at nine points apiece. It was then, though, that the Ladyjacks decided to put their own front row defense on display.
Through the 7-1 SFA run that followed Grant’s individual defensive clinic, Connell and Walker teamed up for one block while Allen and McArdle joined forces for one that closed out the run. The last stuff of the two handed the hosts a 16-10 edge, and despite a service ace from Amy Hollowell that trimmed SFA’s lead to 21-18, SFA managed to close things out against the resurgent Cardinals.
Directing SFA’s offense was Connell once again. The junior produced an excellent all-around match, dishing out a match-high 45 assists as well as five kills, six digs, three block assists and a pair of aces.
Senior Tori Bates chipped in a solo block and one-sixth of the Ladyjacks’ 18 block assists in the match, too.
Bridging together consecutive Southland Conference triumphs is the next task facing the Ladyjacks when Northwestern State shows up at Shelton Gym on Saturday afternoon. SFA will be geared up to exact revenge on the Lady Demons, who have emerged victorious in the last two matches between these two institutions, when the match commences at 2 p.m.
