Stephen F. Austin
25-6, 13-2SLC
Sam Houston State University
14-13, 10-4SLC
SFA Shuts Down Sam Houston State's Offense in 3-0 Win to Stay Atop Southland Standings
11/4/2017 1:07:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Hanna finished with nine blocks, SFA holds Bearkats to .089 attack percentage
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Not only did the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team have the chance to take over sole possession of first place in the Southland Conference standings Saturday morning at Sam Houston State, it received an opportunity to dish out some payback to a Bearkat squad that knocked the Ladyjacks out of the Southland Conference Tournament a season ago.
With those memories still in the minds of many of the Ladyjacks, SFA constructed one of its best defensive matches of the season to shut down their rivals from the Piney Woods and move within striking distance of the program's ninth Southland Conference regular season crown.
A terror at the front of the net, junior Makenzee Hanna delivered a career-high nine block assists and in conjunction with 12 kills from sophomore Corin Evans SFA hammered Sam Houston State 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-15) inside Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
With the Ladyjacks' defense shutting down most of the opportunities the Bearkats had to generate kills, Sam Houston State hit just .089. In addition to SFA's 10.5-4 edge in blocks, the Ladyjacks' service game kept the Bearkats on their heels all day. SFA finished with six aces while the Bearkats finished with none.
"What our players remembered about them was our last performance against them," stated SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys. "In the conference tournament they just took it to us and we didn't block at all. We felt like if we could execute our offense and keep our tempo going they would struggle with that, but we had to be able to slow them down and that meant blocking."
At 13-2 in Southland Conference play, SFA is a half-game ahead of Central Arkansas (12-2 Southland) for sole possession of first place in the league. Central Arkansas hosts McNeese on Thursday and Nicholls on Saturday, meaning SFA will have to wait while resting up in preparation for their final regular season match of the season - one that could yield either a shared or outright Southland Conference title.
Haley Coleman and Peyton Redmond finished with eight and seven kills respectively and while neither hit above .250 an overpowering attack was hardly necessary thanks to the Ladyjacks' defensive efforts. Lexus Cain dove for 18 digs in the back row while Coleman added five block assists - teaming up mostly with Hanna in the front row.
Needing to start out strong in enemy territory in order to remain atop the Southland Conference standings the Ladyjacks did so when as Bearkat attack errors, a pair of aces from Evans and the visitors' first rejection of the night comprised a 5-0 run to begin the match.
Charging back after their sluggish start, the hard-hitting Bearkats used back-to-back kills from Taylor Cunningham and Jaclyn Ward to trim the Ladyjacks' edge to 8-7 before Cain stepped to the service line to trim the Bearkats' claws. SFA's lone senior served up an ace as part of a 7-0 run by the visitors which was helped along by three unforced errors by the home squad.
That service stretch handed SFA a 15-7 edge and the visitors maintained that eight-point cushion after Coleman and Daron teamed up for a rejection to make matters 20-12. Although the Bearkats managed to cut the Ladyajcks' lead to 20-16, the duo of Evans and Redmond closed things out. Evans punched in a pair of kills while Redmond added one termination and her lone service ace of the match to finish off the 'Kats.
In a reversal of what occurred in the first frame, Sam Houston State generated some early offense in order to jump out to a 3-0 lead. That lead by the home team stood until a 5-0 Ladyjack run turned the visitors' 7-5 advantage into a 10-7 lead. Evans found the back corner for two more kills in that surge while Cain added another service ace.
A sneaky touch kill from Hollas pushed the Ladyjacks' lead to 14-10, its largest of the set, before the Bearkats took off on a 9-2 run to go up 19-16. Eight of the Bearkats' 20 terminations in the middle frame came through the course of that run and after the home squad went up 21-17 things looked grim for the visitors.
Fortunately, Hanna stood strong in the front row and helped negate the Bearkats' improving offensive numbers. The junior drove down a kill and added a block assist as part of a 5-1 run that helped the Ladyjacks tie things at 22-22. Two Sam Houston State attack errors and one final block by the Ladyjacks helped SFA earn a 25-22 win in the middle frame.
In the final set, Sam Houston State jumped ahead of SFA with a 3-0 run that made things 7-6 before kills from Coleman, Hollas and Evans made up the large part of a 5-0 Ladyjack run that put the visitors up 11-7.
From there, SFA never trailed again and using three of Danae Daron's four kills in the set through the middle portion and a match-clinching 6-0 run consisting of two more blocks and kills from three individuals the Ladyajcks assured themselves either the first or second seed for the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament.
Brooke White put down a match-best 13 kills for the Bearkats while Taylor Cunningham added 11 more. White completed her double-double with 14 digs.
Following a grueling three-match week, SFA will get almost a full week to recover before it takes part in its final Southland Conference match of the regular season. On Saturday at noon inside Shelton Gym, SFA will take on Lamar with both Cain and Sam Rodriguez scheduled to be honored for their contributions to the program as part of a senior day ceremony.
"There are a lot of reasons a team could have laid down but I could not be more pleased with how focused we came out today," Humphreys finished. "If somebody had an ache or a pain they didn't show it, they just came out and played hard. I'm proud of the effort and execution from our team today."
-SFA-
