Stephen F. Austin
New Orleans
SFA's South Louisiana Swing Starts Thursday in New Orleans
10/25/2017 3:23:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
In second place in the Southland standings, Ladyjacks take aim at eighth-straight victory
Match 27
Stephen F. Austin (21-5, 9-1 Southland) at New Orleans (9-13, 3-7 Southland)
Thursday, Oct. 26 | 6:30 p.m. | Human Performance Center (1,760) | New Orleans, La.
Live Stats | Watch ($) | SFA Match Notes
THE FIRST SERVE
• Embarking on their longest Southland Conference road trip of the season, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team heads to the Big Easy for a Thursday evening Southland Conference showdown with New Orleans inside the Human Performance Center at 6:30 p.m.
• As has been the case for the last two weeks, the Ladyjacks remain in second place in the Southland Conference standings. SFA trails league-leading Sam Houston State by only a half game as the Bearkats have yet to drop a league decision this season.
• Winners of seven-straight matches, the Ladyjacks own the nation's 26th-longest active winning streak and are one of only 14 NCAA Division I volleyball teams with 20 or more wins to their credit. SFA is also the only Southland Conference team that has reached the 20-win plateau so far in 2017.
• In the latest RPI rankings, which came out on Monday morning, SFA remained in the top 100. The Ladyjacks' RPI of 91 is the second-best among all Southland Conference squads with only Central Arkansas (86) holding a higher place.
• SFA heads to New Orleans with a team hitting percentage of .304 in Southland Conference matches - the best in the 13-team league. That makes the Ladyjacks one of only 13 NCAA Division I volleyball teams from around the nation are hitting .300 or better in conference play. Three of those teams are from the state of Texas as both Texas (.316) and North Texas (.306) are above the .300 mark in league action.
LAST TIME OUT
• It took all of 74 minutes for the Ladyjacks to roll to a 3-0 victory over Nicholls in Shelton Gym last Saturday afternoon.
• For just the third time in 2017, SFA registered a team attack percentage of .400 or higher. Junior Haley Coleman struck for a team-best 10 kills while hitting .500 to help SFA's team attack percentage settle at exactly .400 during the Southland Conference tilt.
• Directly SFA's offensive effort was sophomore setter Ann Hollas who tallied 23 of the Ladyjacks' 37 assists. The Longview, Texas, product also gave the Colonels fits from the service line by tying her career high with four aces which helped give SFA an 8-0 edge in that statistical category. Nicholls was the first SFA opponent this season to not record a single service ace.
• SFA held a commanding 9-1 lead in total blocks with freshman Anyia Williams and sophomore Danae Daron each accumulating five block assists. Williams also turned in an eight-kill performance and hit .500, giving her an attack percentage of .500 or better in five of her last seven matches.
• By striking for five kills on six swings, junior Makenzee Hanna elevated her Southland Conference-leading attack percentage to .349. That also pushed the DeSoto, Texas, product inside the top 100 nationally and she currently owns 91st-best attack percentage among all NCAA Division I players.
SCOUTING NEW ORLEANS | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Since enduring a three-set loss at the hands of the Ladyjacks in Nacogdoches on Wednesday, Oct. 4, the Privateers have won two of their last five matches - both by scores of 3-2 at Southeastern Louisiana (Oct. 14) and at Lamar (Oct. 17) - to climb up to ninth place in the Southland Conference standings. Their showdown with SFA is the third of four home matches in a row for New Orleans which has dropped decisions to Northwestern State (3-1, Oct. 19) and Central Arkansas (3-0, Oct. 21) to start its longest home stand of 2017.
• With six regular season matches remaining on their Southland Conference docket, the Privateers trail eighth-place Abilene Christian by just one match for the eighth and final spot in the Southland Conference Tournament.
• Three of the Privateers' wins have come on their home floor of the Human Performance Center, including a 3-2 Southland Conference triumph over Incarnate Word in New Orleans' first league tilt of the 2017 campaign on Thursday, Sept. 21.
• Paced on offense by a trio of players who put down over two kills per set, New Orleans attacks at a team clip of .188 which is boosted by the individual efforts of Kaitlyn Grice. One of the three leading point producers for New Orleans, Grice comes in averaging 2.07 kills and a team-best 1.20 blocks per set. Her attack percentage of .351 is the third-highest in the Southland Conference while her blocks per set average is lower than just one other Southland Conference player (Houston Baptist's Blair Gillard).
• Blessing Dunn (2.19 kills/set) and Lane Hindenburg (2.17 kills/set) are the top kills per set producers among the Privateers' ranks with the latter hitting at a clip of .298. That puts Hindenburg ninth in the Southland Conference in terms of hitting percentage and both she and Dunn average 0.21 service aces per set.
• In addition to leading the team in kills per set, Dunn is the Privateers' top dig producer, scooping them up at a rate of 3.00 per frame. Both she and Andrea Nava have accumulated over 200 digs throughout the 2017 season, but as a team the Privateers are last in the league in digs per set with an average of just 13.11.
• The Privateers have used a pair of setters throughout the season but it's Manela Grau who has established herself as the team's go-to option. Gran dishes out assists at a rate of 6.11 per set and with 16 service aces she is also among a group of six New Orleans players who have 10 or more to their credit.
THE DRIVE TO 25
• In the history of the program, SFA has reached or surpassed 25 wins in a season on nine occasions and with four more triumphs the Ladyjacks will make it 10.
• SFA has not enjoyed a season of 25 or more wins since 2007 and six of the nine times the Ladyjacks have accumulated 25 or more wins in a season they have won the Southland Conference regular season title.
CHART TOPPERS
• Thanks to another high-level offensive performance Saturday against Nicholls, SFA maintained its standing as the team with the best hitting percentage in the Southland Conference. SFA's league-leading mark of .264 is the 28th-best across NCAA Division I volleyball.
• Freshman Anyia Williams and junior Makenzee Hanna are the top two attack percentage leaders in Southland Conference matches, too. In league play, Williams is hitting a Southland-leading .504 while Hanna is second in that category with a mark of .377.
• In Southland Conference play, Williams has committed only six errors - the fewest among all players in the 13-team league.
THE COLE TRAIN
• Not only does she lead a balanced SFA offense with 2.92 kills per set, junior outside hitter Haley Coleman has proven her worth as an excellent defender as well by averaging 3.03 digs per frame.
• Although Coleman does not rank among the Southland Conference's top ten in terms of kills per set, points per set or digs per set, she is one of only 48 NCAA Division I volleyball players from around the nation and one of just three in the Southland who are averaging at least 2.75 kills and 3.00 digs per set.
• Coleman's nine double-doubles this season (all consisting of kills digs) are the second-most among SFA's ranks, just one fewer than Ann Hollas' team-best 10.
CAIN KEEPS CLIMBING
• Now up to eighth all-time in terms of career digs, senior Lexus Cain has a good chance to move up to seventh in the Ladyjacks' record book through the team's two-match stretch in Louisiana.
• The Amarillo, Texas, product currently has 1,477 digs for her career and needs eight more to move past Brooke Newbury for seventh all-time. Should she move past Newbury, Cain would be closing in rapidly on the 1,500 dig mark - a mark only six other SFA players have reached in the history of the program.
• Cain's 407 digs this season are the third-most among all Southland Conference players and the 53rd most in the nation.
COMING UP NEXT
• Before returning to Nacogdoches for their penultimate home match of the 2017 campaign, the Ladyjacks will make a stop in Hammond, La., for a Saturday afternoon showdown with Southeastern Louisiana. First serve inside the University Center has been set for 1:00 p.m.
-SFA-
