Four Ladyjacks Named All-Southland, Humphreys Selected as Coach of the Year
11/14/2017 2:32:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Coleman and Daron named to First Team, Cain and Hanna picked for Second Team
Complete Southland Conference Release | 2017 Southland Conference Tournament Central
FRISCO, Texas - Already the owners of the 2017 Southland Conference regular season title - and the trophy that comes along with it - the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team saw some of its members make off with some more impressive accolades as the 2017 All-Southland Conference Teams and major awards were announced Tuesday afternoon.
Junior Haley Coleman and sophomore Danae Daron were each named to the All-Southland Conference First Team while junior Makenzee Hanna and senior Lexus Cain secured spots on the All-Southland Conference Second Team. Coleman, Daron and Hanna each locked up the first All-Southland Conference honors of their respective careers while Cain's All-Southland Conference Second Team choice was the second of her collegiate career.
By leading the Ladyjacks to their ninth Southland Conference regular season title in the history of the program, SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys laid claim to the title of Katrinka Jo Crawford Coach of the Year for the sixth time in her career. Humphreys' latest coach of the year citation comes after the 30th-year head coach directed the Ladyjacks to a 26-6 regular season record while included a 14-2 showing in Southland Conference action.
SFA's 26 wins are the highest number of victories in a single season since the Ladyjacks amassed 27 in the 2007 campaign. For her career, Humphreys has totaled 662 wins which makes her one of only 15 active NCAA Division I volleyball bench bosses who have racked up 650 or more victories.
In order to earn the first All-Southland Conference honor of her career, Coleman had to step to the forefront of the Ladyjacks' offense while maintaining her role as a reliable six-rotation player for the current league titleholders. The junior out of Rockwall, Texas, leads the team and ranks 10th among all Southland Conference players by punching down 2.83 kills per set.
Her offense came by way of a .286 attack percentage during the regular season, but Coleman's effectiveness was hardly limited to the offensive categories. A threat at the service line, her 23 total aces (0.22 per set) stands as the third-highest total on the squad heading into the Southland Conference Tournament. Defensively, Coleman is averaging 2.88 digs per set - second on the team only to Cain - and has established herself as a threat at the front of the net by totaling 51 blocks (0.50 per set).
The only sophomore on the All-Southland Conference First Team, Daron's hitting percentage of .327 stands as the second-best among SFA's ranks as well as the fourth-highest when stacked up against all other Southland Conference players. Daron, who hails from Crosby, Texas, posted 11 double-digit kill outings throughout the regular season, totaled the second-highest number of kills on the team (272) and averaged 2.39 kills per set - the third-highest average on the squad.
At the front of the net, Daron played a big part of an SFA defense that averaged 2.26 blocks per set - the fourth-highest mark in the Southland Conference. Daron's nine solo rejections are the most on the team and her 98 total rejections trail only Hanna on the SFA leaderboard. Throughout the regular season, Daron averaged 0.86 blocks per set.
No player in the Southland Conference possesses a better hitting percentage than the .349 mark Hanna submitted through the regular season. From 2016 to 2017, Hanna's attack percentage increased almost by a factor of three - from .093 as a sophomore to the current figure of .349 - and defensively her 104 total blocks lead SFA as does her blocks per set average of 0.99 which ranks as the ninth-best in the Southland.
Although Hanna delivered 10 more more kills only four times throughout the regular season, it was her efficiency on offense which helped the Ladyjacks most. Through the regular season, Hanna hit .500 or higher in eight matches with five of those coming against Southland Conference adversaries. She owns two of the top ten best single match attack percentages in the Southland this season and her nine total blocks in a 3-0 win at Sam Houston State were both a career high and the third-most in a single match in the Southland this season.
Having arrived at the final leg of her collegiate career, Cain stands at the forefront of an SFA back row that heavily limits the effectiveness of opposing offenses. Through 114 sets in the regular season, Cain amassed 520 digs - the third-most in the Southland Conference - and ranked fifth in the league with 4.56 digs per set. In league play, Cain averaged 4.98 scoops per frame which helped limit league opponent to a hitting percentage of just .168.
Against all opponents, Cain's defense held the Ladyjacks' foes to a collective hitting percentage of .164 - the 30th-best opponent hitting percentage in the nation. Currently, Cain's 1,570 digs are the fifth-most in the history of the program.
As the number-one seed in the 2017 Southland Conference Tournament, the Ladyjacks will head to Corpus Christi, Texas, to try and secure the program's first NCAA Tournament berth since 2006. SFA begins the league tournament by facing off with number-eight seed Abilene Christian at 11:00 a.m. Friday morning inside the Dugan Wellness Center.
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