Stephen F. Austin
Lamar University
Ladyjacks Look to Lock Down Outright SLC Title in Saturday's Senior Day Match against Lamar
11/10/2017 1:48:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
SFA can clinch outright Southland Conference title with senior day win over Cardinals
Match 32
Stephen F. Austin (25-6, 13-2 Southland) vs. Lamar (4-21, 2-13 Southland)
Saturday, Nov. 11 | Noon | Shelton Gym (600) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Watch (Facebook Live) | Live Stats | SFA Match Notes
THE FULL ROTATION
• Already assured at least a share of the program's ninth Southland Conference regular season title, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team closes out its regular season with intentions of claiming an outright league championship when it hosts Lamar inside Shelton Gym at noon on Saturday. The match will be streamed via Facebook Live on the SFA Athletics Facebook page.
• Idle on Thursday, SFA had the chance to do a little scoreboard watching and saw McNeese take down Central Arkansas 3-2 in Conway, Ark. Heading into Thursday night's match, Central Arkansas boasted a 12-2 Southland Conference record and trailed the first-place Ladyjacks by just a half-game. Now, headed into the final match of the regular season, SFA is a full game ahead of the Sugar Bears meaning the only way Central Arkansas could claim at least a share of a league title would be if SFA lost to Lamar and the Sugar Bears defeated Nicholls on Saturday.
• SFA's Southland Conference regular season title is the program's first since 2014 - a year in which SFA ran the table in league play and finished with a 16-0 record. Other years in which SFA claimed the league crown include 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
• For the first time in a decade, SFA has reached the 25-win plateau in a season. Joining VCU (27), Western Kentucky (27), Austin Peay (26) and North Dakota (25) as the only five NCAA Division I volleyball teams that have 25 or more wins to their credit in 2017, the Ladyjacks' 25-win season in 2017 marks the 10th time in program history in which SFA has won 25 or more matches.
• Entering Saturday's regular season finale, SFA remains the league's leader in team attack percentage (.260) and opponent blocks per set (1.48). Individually, junior Makenzee Hanna is the league's top attacker, swinging at a clip of .349. With Danae Daron attacking at a clip of .329 - the fourth-highest in the league - SFA is the only team in the Southland with two of the league's top five players in terms of attack percentage.
• Saturday's match against Lamar will also serve as senior day for a pair of Ladyjacks - Lexus Cain and Sam Rodriguez. The two have been instrumental parts of SFA's success over the last four years with Cain amassing 89 wins so far and Rodriguez having 65 victories to her credit through three seasons in Ladyjack colors.
LAST TIME OUT
• By shutting down all phases of Sam Houston State's offense, the Ladyjacks collected a 3-0 Southland Conference victory over their longtime rivals from the Piney Woods inside Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum last Saturday morning.
• With a front-row defensive effort keyed by a match and career-best nine block assists from junior Makenzee Hanna, the Ladyjacks held the Bearkats to an attack percentage of just .089.
Sam Houston State's inability to keep the Ladyjacks' service game in check played a part in SFA's win as well. Lexus Cain and Corin Evans finished with two service aces each, helping the Ladyjacks claim a 6-0 advantage in aces over the Bearkats.
• Not only did she help the Ladyjacks keep the Bearkats off-balance at the service line, Evans submitted a team-high 12 terminations for SFA. She was the lone Ladyjack with double-digit kills and it was just the second time in the last nine matches in which she amassed 10 or more terminations.
• Junior Haley Coleman turned in eight kills of her own and tied a career high by adding five block assists. In all, SFA owned a 10.5-4 blocking advantage over Sam Houston State.
SCOUTING LAMAR | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Shelton Gym is the site of the Cardinals' final match of the 2017 campaign and once they arrive at SFA's home facility they will try and stop the Ladyjacks from claiming an outright Southland Conference regular season title. Lamar comes to Nacogdoches having lost four-straight matches and nine of its last 10 tilts. In all, the Cardinals' four wins are the fewest in a single season in the history of Lamar volleyball.
• Armed with one of the Southland Conference's top offensive threats in Tomas Thomas, the Cardinals are hitting .169 in league play and .163 overall. Thomas leads Lamar in kills per set and is putting down 3.68 per set overall and an impressive 4.00 per frame in Southland Conference action. Her overall kills per set figure is the second-best in the 13-team league and she is one of only four players in the conference who are averaging greater than four points per set.
• A multi-dimensional threat both on offense and in terms of her front-row defensive abilities, Ivette Dim plays second fiddle to Thomas by slamming home 2.45 kills per set on offense. The junior's blocks per set average of 1.08 both leads the team and and ranks seventh among all Southland Conference players. Dim's team-high attack percentage of .278 stands as the 10th-best in the 13-team league, too.
• One of the Cardinals' two seniors, Haley Morton operates Lamar's offense by dishing out 8.97 assists per set - the seventh-best average among all Southland Conference setters. She is also one of five Lamar players who are averaging at least 2.06 digs per set with her mark of 2.15 per frame. Murielle Hlavac (2.88 digs/set) and Zahria Scott (2.58 digs/set) are the Cardinals' top two threats in that department and the latter's 26 service aces represent a team high.
• Saturday's Southland Conference showdown will mark the end of the line for a pair of Lamar seniors - Amy Hollowell and Morton.
COMING UP NEXT
• Regardless of whether the Ladyjacks' result against Lamar Saturday afternoon in Shelton Gym is a win or a loss, SFA will be the number-one overall seed for the 2017 Southland Conference Tournament which begins Friday inside the Dugan Wellness Center on the campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. SFA will face the eighth seed in the annual conference tournament at 4:00 p.m. The Ladyjacks' first-round foe will be either Abilene Christian or Incarnate Word - both of which are in search of their first-ever Southland Conference Tournament appearance.
-SFA-
