Stephen F. Austin
3-1
University of South Florida
1-3
Ladyjacks Hammer South Florida, 3-1, in Starkville for Fourth-Straight Win
9/1/2017 1:11:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Daron puts down a career-high 14 kills, Evans adds 13 in SFA's fourth-straight win
STARKVILLE, Miss. - During the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team's first confrontation with an opponent from the state of Florida this season, it suffered its only loss of 2017 thus far. With Friday morning's result in the books, the squad can officially say that the next two Sunshine State adversaries to challenge it did not fare quite as well.
Carried by a season-best .377 attack percentage as well as a career-high 14 kills from sophomore Danae Daron and 13 more Corin Evans the Ladyjacks started their four-match Starkville swing off with a bang, racing past South Florida 3-1 at the Newell-Grissom Building in the team's opening match of the Mississippi State Bulldog Invitational.
For the match, Daron hit .571 and added three block assists to help lead an SFA defensive game plan that held USF to a hitting clip of .195. Shayla Eagleton tied a career high by racking up a match-high four block assists of her own to go along with seven kills.
Once again, SFA kept the pressure on from the service line as both Haley Coleman and Makenzee Hanna swung down on a pair of aces. Coleman's effectiveness was not limited to the service line, however, as she totaled eight kills and 11 digs.
Showing zero signs of early-morning fatigue, SFA jumped out to a 6-1 lead to start the match. That early surge stunned the Bulls who were only able to cut the Ladyjacks' lead down to four before succumbing to SFA's might down the stretch.
An attack error by Ann Hollas cut SFA's lead to 12-8 before the Ladyjacks' response in the form of an 8-1 run pushed the Texans ahead by a 20-9 score. Six unforced USF errors aided SFA's efforts in the 25-14 set one win as did a Ladyjacks defense that held the Bulls to an attacking clip of just .037 through the frame.
Back-and-forth play proved to be the early storyline of the second frame before the Bulls bucked back by way of a strong service run by Reagan Davey. Directly after Shayla Eagleton knotted the score at 13 with a kill, Davey answered with a termination of her own to start a 7-0 South Florida scoring spree which also included an ace from the aforementioned Bull.
SFA found itself trailing 20-13 after that surge and was down 24-17 before making things interesting. Thanks to a pair of kills from Ann Hollas as well as an ace and a kill by Haley Coleman the Ladyjacks trimmed USF's lead to 24-21 before a kill by the Bulls knotted the match at one set apiece.
After conceding the first point of the third set to the Bulls, SFA never trailed for the remainder of the match. A South Florida service error followed by back-to-back kills from Peyton Redmond and Daron represented the large part of a 4-0 SFA run that put the Ladyjacks ahead 4-1.
That three-point cushion was enough for the Ladyjacks to work with the rest of the way as SFA's lead never exceeded five in the frame. Staked to a 21-17 lead following another USF service miscue, the Ladyjacks' edge shrank to just one after a kill by the Bulls coupled with consecutive attack errors made matters 21-20.
Out of SFA's timeout, Hanna righted the ship by beginning a set-sealing 4-1 run with a kill and her second service ace of the contest.
With only 25 points separating them from victory, the Ladyjacks did not squander their opportunity to put the Bulls down in the fourth and final frame. Staring with a kill off the mitts of Evans, SFA embarked on an 11-2 scoring surge that broke a 2-2 tie in the infancy of the frame and pushed the Ladyjacks ahead by double-digits.
USF closed to within eight points when a termination from Doris Carter made matters 15-7, but any thoughts the Bulls had of making things interesting were quickly erased by Evans. Four of the next six Ladyjack scores were kills by the sophomore and a pair of emphatic combo blocks from the duo of Daron and Shayla Eagleton preceded a match-clinching service ace from McKenzie Brewer.
In terms of accuracy on the attack, it would have been difficult to ask for more from the Ladyjacks who amassed 15 kills on 21 error-free swings to finish the frame with an attack percentage of .714.
Priscilla Ehieze (13) and Doris Carter (10) produced 23 of the Bulls' 41 kills and Alex Mendoza dished out a match-best 33 assists in South Florida's third loss in its first four matches of the 2017 campaign.
Standing between the Ladyjacks and a fifth-straight triumph is Grambling State and those two squads are set to mix it up early Friday evening at 5:00 p.m.
-SFA-
