Ladyjacks Battle Louisiana Rival Northwestern State in Shelton
11/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Stephen F. Austin (18-12, 9-4 Southland) vs. Northwestern State (6-20, 4-9 Southland)
Saturday, Nov. 7 • 2:00 p.m. • Shelton Gym • Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats (Gametracker) • Live Video (ESPN3)
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – In the foreseeable future, there's just one more trip on the docket for the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team. That particular journey will be to Conway, Ark., for the Southland Conference Tournament where the top eight squads in the league gather to determine who will punch a ticket to the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament.
Before that road trip comes about, however, SFA is more concerned with stringing together wins in an attempt to cement itself as the number-three seed in the conference tournament. The next step in that process comes when Northwestern State visits Nacogdoches.
When they hit the floor of Shelton Gym on Saturday afternoon, the Ladyjacks will be attempting to reverse their recent fortunes against the Lady Demons. In the previous two encounters between the two combatants, Northwestern State has rattled off consecutive triumphs over SFA – one of which was en route to the Lady Demons’ 2014 Southland Conference Tournament tile and subsequent NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament appearance.
Firmly entrenched in the third-place slot in the 13-team Southland Conference, SFA seeks a continuance of its momentum-building win with the final week of the regular season approaching at a rapid pace.
SFA vs. Northwestern State: Prior to the past three seasons, the all-time series between these two longtime rivals separated by the Texas/Louisiana state line was one which featured wins exclusively from the Ladyjacks. At no point over the first 43 engagements between SFA and Northwestern State did the Lady Demons secure a win, but over the last nine meetings NSU is the owner of a 5-4 record. Since the teams began doing battle on the volleyball court in 1986, SFA owns a mark of 46-5.
Scouting Northwestern State: Beginning with a convincing 3-0 sweep of Stephen F. Austin in Prather Coliseum on Oct. 13, the Lady Demons enjoyed their most successful stretch of the season by posting a 3-1 mark against league opposition. Following a 3-0 win over Lamar on Oct. 22 in Beaumont, Texas, however, NSU has not captured a set, having fallen 3-0 to both Sam Houston State and Central Arkansas. Their Saturday afternoon scuffle with the Ladyjacks marks the conclusion of a six-match road swing for NSU, which is 2-9 in enemy territory and without back-to-back road wins this season. A powerful weapon for the Lady Demons in all of their bouts has been their service game. Led by Natalie Jaeger, an individual who boasts an aces per set mark in conference play that no other student-athlete has bettered (0.42), NSU leads the league with a figure of 1.87 aces per league tilt. NSU’s offense is funneled primarily through Lauren Agan and her 2.74 kills per set average. The second-most accurate attacker in the Southland Conference, Glynna Johnson chips in 1.82 terminations per frame and swings at a rate of .373. Not only a threat on offense, Johnson’s blocks per set average of 0.94 is tops among the Lady Demons’ ranks.
Northwestern State in the Southland: Below is how the Lady Demons rank statistically in various categories among the 13-team conference:
All Matches
Hitting Percentage - .168 (11th)
Opponent Hitting Percentage - .209 (8th)
Assists – 9.92 (13th)
Kills/Set – 10.68 (13th)
Blocks/Set – 1.90 (7th)
Service Aces/Set – 1.68 (2nd)
Digs/Set – 12.89 (11th)
Conference Matches Only
Hitting Percentage – .168 (11th)
Opponent Hitting Percentage – .188 (4th)
Assists – 10.29 (13th)
Kills/Set – 11.04 (13th)
Blocks/Set – 1.99 (6th)
Service Aces/Set – 1.87 (1st)
Digs/Set – 13.13 (13th)
Humphreys on Northwestern State: “The last time we played this team we were out at their play in Natchitoches and we just did not play well. We couldn’t pass the ball or do anything we needed to do to try and win. It was very much like last week when we were at Central Arkansas, so I feel very confident that our team is going to be ready to play after what happened over there. I really expect us to step up and have a good match because we’re in a position where we’re trying to secure this number-three seed and be playing very good volleyball heading into the tournament.”
Last Time Out: Junior middle blocker Justice Walker punished Lamar by slamming down a career-best 21 kills on a hitting percentage of .559, helping the Ladyjacks begin their final four matches of the regular season on a triumphant note with a 3-1 win over the Cardinals. Aside from Walker’s effort on offense, the Ladyjacks also turned in one of their finest defensive performances of the season as a team. OJ Olson dove for a match-high 26 digs – one of three SFA players who hit double-digit territory in digs. As a team, SFA notched 10 blocks including four block assists each by Walker and senior Jacque Allen.
Stacking Up in the Southland: Below is how the Ladyjacks rank statistically in various categories among the 13-team conference:
All Matches
Hitting Percentage - .209 (4th)
Opponent Hitting Percentage - .193 (4th)
Assists – 11.47 (5th)
Kills/Set – 12.13 (8th)
Blocks/Set – 2.08 (4th)
Service Aces/Set – 1.08 (12th)
Digs/Set – 16.14 (2nd)
Conference Matches Only
Hitting Percentage – .214 (3rd)
Opponent Hitting Percentage – .202 (8th)
Assists – 11.62 (9th)
Kills/Set – 12.27 (9th)
Blocks/Set – 2.46 (2nd)
Service Aces/Set – 0.87 (12th)
Digs/Set – 16.13 (4th)
OJ2K: Having the services of one of the best defensive players in the nation is something the Ladyjacks have relied on heavily this season, and senior libero OJ Olson has established herself as one of the best players to ever don an SFA uniform through the course of this particular campaign. With her first dig in SFA’s 3-0 non-conference win over Grambling State on Oct. 28, the Cedar Park, Texas, joined an exclusive club as the third SFA player to amass 2,000 digs in a career. On SFA’s all-time digs list, Olson has dove for the third-most digs ever (2,056) and needs 137 more to surge past Madison Hanlan into second place on the list. Just one other NCAA Division I volleyball player has bettered Olson’s dig total of 580 this season, and the senior’s digs per set average of 5.18 is the second-highest in the 13-team SLC and 19th in the nation.
Shelton Success: As of late, there haven’t been an abundance of squads that have experienced winning a match in SFA’s home digs of Shelton Gym. In 2014 and 2015, the Ladyjacks have racked up an enviable record of 19-2 in the venerable facility. That breaks down to a 9-1 mark in 2014 and a 10-1 showing this time around and against SLC institutions, SFA’s record of 12-1 over the past two seasons for a winning percentage of .923.
Middle Ground: It’s no secret that the Ladyjacks will work the ball to their middles, but despite that piece of public knowledge, senior Jacque Allen and junior Justice Walker haven’t seen many opponents who can slow them down. Between the two of them, one-fifth of the top 10 hitters in the Southland Conference are represented as Allen ranks seventh in the league with an attack percentage of .314. Walker isn’t far behind as she sits in eighth with a hitting percentage of .311. In SLC matches, Walker’s striking mark of .314 is the ninth-highest figure in the league.
Both have eclipsed 260 kills and Walker leads SFA with an average of 2.74 per set while Allen’s per-set average of 2.47 is second only to Walker. In terms of blocking, Allen owns the fourth-best blocks per set average (1.02) in the 13-team league and her 111 total rejections are the 36th-most among all NCAA Division I volleyball players. On SFA’s all-time career blocks charts, Allen ranks second in solo rejections (86), ninth in block assists (337) and sixth in total blocks (421).
Can I Help You?: With a multitude of weapons on the Ladyjacks’ offense to choose from, junior setter Shannon Connell has amassed some 835 assists. That’s the 105th-highest total in all of NCAA Division I volleyball and her 9.49 assists per frame have her ranked sixth in the 13-team Southland Conference.
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 that few in the NCAA can claim to have laid claim to. 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 16th-winningest active coach at the NCAA Division I level with a record of 613-315 (.661).
Preseason All-SLC: A grand total of four SFA volleyball players – seniors Tori Bates, OJ Olson and Jacque Allan as well as junior Justice Walker – were slotted into the Preseason All-Southland Conference teams prior to the beginning of the 2015 campaign. Allen, Olson and Walker earned first team recognition while Bates took up one of the six spots on the second team. No league squad boasted more All-SLC preseason picks than SFA.
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.
Looking Ahead: In their penultimate match of the regular season, the Ladyjacks go gunning for a season sweep of Abilene Christian when the Wildcats make their return to Shelton Gymnasium at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. SFA trailed ACU 2-0 in their first matchup of the season and won the final three frames en route to a 3-2 victory.
