Ladyjacks Begin Defense of 2014 SLC Title
9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Stephen F. Austin (7-8, 0-0 Southland) vs. Nicholls (5-7, 0-0 Southland)
Thursday, Sept. 24 – 6:30 p.m.
Shelton Gym (Nacogdoches, Texas)
Watch Live (ESPN3) – Live Stats
Stephen F. Austin (7-8, 0-0 Southland) vs. McNeese State (3-10, 0-0 Southland)
Saturday, Sept. 26 – 1 p.m.
Shelton Gym (Nacogdoches, Texas)
Watch Live (ESPN3) – Live Stats
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Armed with a 16-match Southland Conference winning streak – as well as the league’s 2014 regular season crown - the Stephen F. Austin women’s volleyball team will hunker down in Shelton Gym this week to begin its 16-match slate of league bouts. First up for the reigning champs is a 6:30 p.m. matchup against Nicholls State on Thursday evening before the Ladyjacks cross paths with McNeese State at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Entering the conference portion of their schedule, the Ladyjacks have compiled a record of 7-8 and are coming off a 1-2 weekend at the Baylor Classic where 28th-year head coach Debbie Humphreys believes her squad took a major step forward following a 3-0 victory over UNC Greensboro.
“I do think we turned the corner on Saturday in our last non-conference match against UNC Greensboro,” said Humphreys. “We played at a very high level from start to finish and if we can do that for the long haul we can have some very, very good results.
“We have two quality teams coming in this week and what’s important for our team to understand right now is that every night in Southland Conference play is going to be a battle. Nothing matters other than what you go out and do that given night, so we have to gear up every match to play at a high level.”
SFA vs. Nicholls: The Ladyjacks’ first league bout of 2015 will be against an opponent which hasn’t had much success against SFA. In the all-time series between the Ladyjacks and the Colonels, SFA owns a 38-5 edge and hasn’t found itself on the wrong end of the scoreboard in this particular series since 2010. Additionally, the Colonels haven’t exited Shelton Gym with a triumph in tow since Sept. 17, 2004.
Scouting Nicholls: In the midst of a stretch of 16 games played at either a neutral site or on the road to begin its 2015 campaign, Nicholls rolls into Nacogdoches with a 5-7 mark and has yet to emerge as the victor in a true road confrontation (0-4). The Colonels halted a three-match losing streak by submitting a 2-1 mark at the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup which was held at the Cougar Den in the Alumni/Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Houston last Friday and Saturday (Sept. 18-19). Nicholls toppled both Prairie View A&M and Alabama A&M in straight sets and fell to the host Cougars 3-0. No individual in the Southland Conference has posted better kills/set numbers than junior outside hitter Kayla Mashburn whose average of 3.77 leads the 13-team league and ranks 83rd in the nation. A native of Bern, Switzerland, Anna Niederhauser makes up the remaining half of the Colonels’ potent one-two punch on offense, hammering down 2.82 terminations per frame – the ninth-best average in the Southland.
Humphreys on Nicholls: “Nicholls is a team that pushed us to the very limit at the conference tournament last year. We played three very close sets against them and they have a good, solid defense. They have some hitters that can do some damage and they are going to come in and play extremely hard.”
SFA vs. McNeese State: Since the Ladyjacks and Cowgirls first started doing battle in 1984, SFA has managed to rack up a 35-10 record against its in-state rival. Currently, SFA is riding a five-match winning streak against the Cowgirls and haven’t dropped a match to them since a 3-1 decision on Nov. 11, 2010.
Scouting McNeese State: Still in search of their first road win of 2015, the Cowgirls head into Shelton Gym sporting a mark of 3-10. In their final non-conference tune-up before engaging in Southland Conference combat, McNeese downed Jackson State 3-0 on Tuesday night to keep its unblemished home record (2-0) intact. Senior setter Kelly Graham has been scaling the Cowgirls’ all-time career assist leader chart since the season began and sits in fifth place with 2,600 helpers. Her average of 8.57 per set is the sixth-highest in the Southland. Sophomore outside hitter Rae Myers (2.50 kills/set) and Wyoming Invite all-tournament team selection Malina Sanchez (2.08 kills/set) are the primary offensive instigators for McNeese.
Humphreys on McNeese: “We saw McNeese a couple of times in the spring and they’re a very similar team to Nicholls. They’re rebuilding from what they did a year ago and they have some nice pieces in their lineup. They’re playing very disciplined and they pushed Wyoming – who’s receiving votes in our latest national poll – to five sets last weekend.”
Last Time Out: At no point did the Ladyjacks venture beyond of the Texas state line to take part in a match last week. During that four-match week, SFA posted a record of 1-3, beginning the stretch with a 3-0 setback at North Texas on Wednesday before falling 3-0 at Baylor in the first of three matches at the Baylor Classic on Friday night. Saturday saw the Ladyjacks lose 3-0 to Rice before wrapping up the week with a 3-0 triumph over UNC Greensboro at the Ferrell Center. Leading the way on offense during those four matches were the usual suspects of Jacque Allen (24 kills, eight blocks), Abby McIntyre (23 kills, 14 digs, three blocks), Justice Walker (22 kills, seven blocks, two service aces) and Tori Bates (19 kills, 14 digs, two blocks). Junior Shannon Connell, amassed some 76 assists and 18 digs in that span while senior defensive specialist OJ Olson tacked on another 55 digs (4.58/set) to her career total which now stands at 1,763 – the third-highest sum in program history.
Shelton Success: Obtaining wins was all but impossible for Southland Conference teams when they took on the Ladyjacks last season, and that task was substantially more daunting when SFA’s foes entered Shelton Gym. In 2014, SFA posted an 8-0 mark against league foes in the facility and only two of those opponents – Northwestern State and Sam Houston State – succeeded in pushing a match beyond three sets. So far in 2015, the Ladyjacks have gone 4-0 at home and have not dropped a set in any of those matches. Going back to last season, SFA has won 19 consecutive sets in its home digs. The last time the Ladyjacks fell to a league opponent in the venerable facility came on November 16, 2013, when SFA was on the wrong end of a 3-1 decision against Northwestern State.
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.
Elite Company: 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 603-311 (.660).
Oh Yeah, OJ!: Already in the process of making some big-time edits to the Ladyjacks' record books, senior defensive specialist OJ Olson has distinguished herself as one of the premier defensive players in all of NCAA Division I volleyball. The product of Cedar Park, Texas, ranks second in the Southland Conference and 14th among all Division I student-athletes in terms of digs per set (5.31).
Chasing Records: A trio of Ladyjacks have been busy rewriting the SFA record books this season. Entering the trip to Baylor, junior middle blocker Justice Walker ranks fifth all-time in program history with a career hitting percentage of .293. Senior libero OJ Olson is third at SFA in digs per set (4.36) and total digs (1,763) while senior middle blocker Jacque Allen sits third all-time in solo blocks (71).
Preseason All-SLC: The Ladyjacks placed four student-athletes on the 2015 Preseason All-Southland Conference Teams, with senior middle blocker Jacque Allen, junior middle blocker Justice Walker and senior libero OJ Olson being selected to the first team and senior outside hitter Tori Bates landing a spot on the second team. The four picks were the most by any team in the league.
Looking Ahead: SFA will break up its 2015 Southland Conference slate by welcoming SWAC rival Prairie View A&M to Shelton Gym on Tuesday, Sept. 29. From there, the Ladyjacks will hit the road to re-engage in league action with their first two conference assignments of 2015 outside the barriers of Shelton Gym coming at Incarnate Word (Thursday, Oct. 1, 6:30 p.m.) and at Abeline Christian (Saturday, Oct. 3, 1 p.m.).
-SFA-
