Ladyjacks' Final Homestand of 2016 Begins Thursday against New Orleans
11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Stephen F. Austin (16-9, 9-3 Southland) vs. New Orleans (4-22, 1-12 Southland)
Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 | 6:30 p.m. | Shelton Gym | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3) | Stephen F. Austin Match Notes
THE FIRST SERVE
• With only two more chances to play in front of a Shelton Gym crowd in 2016, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team (16-9, 9-3 Southland) returns to Nacogdoches on Thursday evening in an attempt to start a new winning streak when New Orleans (4-22, 1-12 Southland) makes the journey across state lines for a 6:30 p.m. showdown.
• Since Debbie Humphreys began her appointment as the Ladyjacks’ head coach in 1988, she has frequently figured out how to get SFA playing its best volleyball late in the season. In the month of November, the Ladyjacks have gone .500 or better in all but four of Humphreys’ 28-plus seasons as head coach. The last time SFA lost more games than it won in November was in 2011 when the Ladyjacks went 2-3 and there have been just seven seasons in recorded program history in which SFA has suffered back-to-back regular season losses in November.
• In seven of her last nine matches played, sophomore Haley Coleman has totaled 12 or more digs, pushing her into second place on the team with a digs per set average of 3.05. Additionally, Coleman ranks 10th in the Southland Conference with 0.29 service aces per set. In league matches, her 3.68 digs per set is the ninth-best average among all SLC players.
• Adding four more block assists to her career total on Tuesday night, Justice Walker has 364 and needs three more to move into sixth-place all-time in the history of SFA volleyball.
• By totaling another 16 digs in Huntsville on Tuesday night, junior and reigning Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week Lexus Cain increased her career total to 982. The Amarillo, Texas, product now needs only 18 more scoops to reach 1,000 for her career.
• The Ladyjacks’ attempt to earn a seventh-straight victory over New Orleans will be shown nationwide on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app as part of a partnership between ESPN and Stephen F. Austin athletics. On the call will be the Ladyjacks’ ubiquitous on-air personality Greg Miller who will provide play-by-play and color commentary for the match. A live statistical feed of the match will also be available and links to both services can be found at SFAJacks.com.
SCOUTING NEW ORLEANS | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Record vs. New Orleans | 7-3
• In Nacogdoches, Texas | 3-0
• In New Orleans, La. | 2-2
• At neutral sites | 2-1
• Humphreys vs. New Orleans | 7-3
• After enjoying their first season of 15 or more wins since 2009 a season ago, the Privateers have struggled through the entirety of the 2016 campaign. Two of their four wins on the season have come against SWAC institutions and they have dropped eight consecutive matches. UNO’s only win in its last 15 tries was a 3-2 Southland Conference victory in Hammond, La., over in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana.
• The Privateers’ attack starts at the service line - an area where UNO has excelled this season. As a team, their 1.58 service aces per set represent NCAA Division I volleyball’s 27th-best per-set average and their 152 total aces are the 19th-most among all teams of that classification. Jordan Yauch leads a group of four Privateers who have racked up 20 or more aces with a team-best 29 of them.
• In addition to her dangerous serving game, Yauch is equally proficient while attacking. The freshman out of Carrollton, Texas, leads the Privateers in both total kills (242) and kills per set (2.69). Rounding out UNO’s trio of top attackers are Blessing Dunn and Brianna Vega who average 2.17 and 2.08 kills per frame respectively.
• While she does figure into the Privateers’ attack by contributing 1.72 kills per set to the cause, Kaitlyn Grice represents UNO’s top blocking threat. When UNO matched up against SFA last season, the then-freshman posted five solo blocks and one block assist. This season, she leads UNO with a team-best 0.81 rejections per set. Her attack percentage of .292 is the best on the team and ranks fifth among all Southland Conference players.
• Freshman setter Sarah Thomas has quickly elevated herself to the position of one of the Southland Conference’s best at that position. Possessing an assists per set average of 9.62 that is second-best among all league players and 107th in the nation, her 934 total helpers represent the third-highest total in the Southland Conference.
THE LAST TIME OUT
• The defensive acumen that helped the Ladyjacks reel off four-straight Southland Conference sweeps was simply not present on Tuesday night in Huntsville, Texas, as Sam Houston State’s offense exploded for 70 kills - the most allowed in a single match by SFA this season - in the Ladyjacks’ 3-1 loss.
• Justice Walker finished with 14 kills - one shy of her season high - and hit .522, but that singular performance was not enough to overcome the Bearkats’ team execution on offense. Tuesday night marked the fifth time in 2016 that Walker registered a hitting percentage of .500 or better in a single match.
• Sophomore Haley Coleman continued her superb play on defense, putting forth her second double-double effort of 2016 with 10 kills and 20 digs which represented both a match and career-high. It was Coleman’s second outing with 10 or more kills this season.
• In her first match since October 13, freshman KK Payne came in for two sets and totaled five kills on 13 attack attempts for a hitting percentage of .385.
• As a team, SFA hit at a clip of .300 in set one and set two, but finished the match with an attack percentage of .229 thanks to a .149 effort in the third set and a mark of .167 in the final frame.
• Both Coleman and fellow sophmore Peyton Redmond fired in a pair of services aces. It was Coleman’s eighth multi-ace match of the season and Redmond’s seventh. Both have 23 aces in the 2016 campaign.
WHAT’S NEXT?
• Justice Walker and Shannon Connell - the two seniors on SFA’s team - will play the final home match of their careers on Saturday when Southeastern Louisiana comes to Shelton Gym for a Southland Conference match at noon. The Ladyjacks’ two seniors have helped SFA win 76 matches over the past three-plus seasons and capture the 2014 Southland Conference regular season title.
-SFA-
