Stephen F. Austin
Texas State University
Old Southland Rivals Clash Tuesday Evening when SFA Meets Texas State
9/11/2017 5:40:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Ladyjacks put nation's longest active winning streak on the line against Bobcats
Stephen F. Austin (11-1) vs. Texas State (7-3)
Tuesday, September 12 | 6:30 p.m. | Shelton Gym (600) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3/ESPN app) | SFA Match Notes | Texas State Match Notes
THE FIRST SERVE
• In possession of the nation's longest active winning streak, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team closes out a five-match home stand by welcoming a former Southland Conference adversary to Shelton Gym for a 6:30 p.m. showdown Tuesday night. The Ladyajcks are set to tangle with Texas State inside their home facility for the first time in almost six years and the match will be streamed nationwide on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Greg Miller providing play-by-play and analysis.
• So far it has been a memorable three-week stretch for the Ladyjacks who managed to continue their best start in program history by running the table in the Holiday Inn Express SFA Invitational. SFA bested Texas Southern, Tulsa, Colgate and Little Rock to run its winning streak to 11 matches - the longest in the nation and SFA's lengthiest run of consecutive victories since 2014.
• In addition to SFA, three other NCAA Division I volleyball teams are in the midst of winning streaks that have reached double digits. Towson has also earned 11 consecutive triumphs while Maryland and Providence and reeled off 10 straight wins.
• Tuesday evening's tilt pits two of the most successful NCAA Division I volleyball coaches against one another. SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys and Texas State head coach Karen Chisum have a grand total of 68 years of head coaching experience and 1,497 victories between the two of them.
• SFA's 11-1 start is the team's best over the first 12 matches in the history of the program. Prior to 2017, the program's best record through its first 12 matches of the season was 10-2 which happened in 2008, 2005, 1998, 1994 and 1993.
• The 11-match winning streak the Ladyjacks are currently riding is the eighth-longest in the history of the program. SFA has posted four winning streaks of 20 or more matches with its longest coming in 2006 when the team strung together 26 consecutive triumphs.
SCOUTING TEXAS STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Record vs. Texas State | 26-51-1
• In Nacogdoches, Texas | 9-15
• In San Marcos, Texas | 12-14-1
• At neutral sites | 5-18
• Humphreys vs. Texas State | 21-25
• Like SFA in the Southland Conference, Texas State was picked for a runner-up finish in the Sun Belt's west division when the league's preseason poll was unveiled in early August. The Bobcats secured one first-place vote while west division frontrunner Arkansas State - who SFA will face on Saturday in Houston - secured the other 11.
• Against Southland Conference opposition, Texas State has gone 9-2 since 2014 and has won three in a row against adversaries from that league following a five-set defeat to two-time defending Southland Conference champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on the road in September of 2016. Texas State posted a 3-0 triumph over Houston Baptist last weekend in San Marcos and secured wins of 3-0 and 3-2 against Sam Houston State earlier in 2017.
• Junior middle blocker Madison Daigle claimed the title of Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Week Monday afternoon following a five-match week in which she amassed 34 blocks (1.62 per set) while helping the Bobcats post a 4-1 record. Offensively she added 2.81 kills per set and hit .312.
• Daigle is one of the big pieces on a Texas State squad that leads the Sun Belt in six statistical categories including kills per set (13.44), opponent hitting percentage (.147), and attacks per set (38.46). Her 1.32 blocks per set average is tops among the Bobcats' ranks while her 2.81 kills per set ranks second on the team.
• Megan Porter serves as Texas State's top offensive threat having amassed 121 kills (3.18 per set), but Jaliyah Bolden (101 kills, 2.59 per set) and Amy Pflughaupt (72 kills, 2.32 per set) play big parts in the Bobcats' attack plan as well.
• Porter is the Bobcats' dig leader, too, with an average of 3.63 per set and Texas State's back line is supplemented by Micah Dinwiddie who averages 3.44 scoops per frame.
• Preseason Sun Belt Conference Setter of the Year Erin Hoppe is dishing out a team-best 5.51 assists per set, but she is splitting time with Brooke Johnson who passes out 5.47 helpers in each frame for the Bobcats.
LAST TIME OUT
• Buoyed by strong all-around play, the Ladyjacks claimed the title of Holiday Inn Express SFA Invitational champions in their first home matches of 2017 last Friday and Saturday.
• Senior libero Lexus Cain was named the tournament MVP after averaging 3.93 digs per set and helping SFA limit its opponents to an attack percentage of .125 through the four-match stretch.
• In all, Cain has racked up 185 digs through SFA's first 12 matches. That brings her career total to 1,255 and moves the Amarillo, Texas, product into 10th place all-time in SFA's record books in terms of career digs.
• Sophomore Corin Evans jumped into the team lead in terms of kills per set following a quartet of strong outings inside Shelton Gym last weekend. The Katy, Texas, product produced double-doubles in each of the Ladyajcks' final three matches of the weekend beginning with a 19-kill, 14-dig outing in SFA's five-set triumph over Tulsa Friday evening.
• Evans posted 12 kills and 10 digs in a four-set victory over Colgate before totaling 10 kills and an equal number of digs against Little Rock. Her performances earned her a spot on the Holiday Inn Express SFA Invitational all-tournament team.
• Spliting time with sophomore Ann Hollas at setter, junior McKenzie Brewer enjoyed a strong four-match stretch last week as well. Brewer totaled 12 or more assists in three of SFA's four matches and kept opponents on their heels with her service game. Brewer totaled five aces and averaged 1.27 digs per set to carve out a spot for herself on the all-tournament team.
ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN
• If there's one thing that SFA opponents have learned while scouting the Ladyjacks in 2017, it's that the team has a multitude of different weapons it can go to to generate kills.
• Although sophomore Corin Evans is the only person on SFA's roster who resides among the top ten kill per set generators in the Southland Conference (10th, 2.89 kills per set), junior Haley Coleman (2.88 kills per set) and sophomore Danae Daron (2.44 kills per set) both average 2.00 kills per set or more to round out the top three offensive threats for the Ladyjacks.
• Of the 12 matches the Ladyjacks have taken part in, they have had six different players lead the team in kills. Tops among that group is Coleman who has produced team-highs in kills during five of SFA's matches.
• On the list of the top ten players in terms of hitting percentage in the Southland Conference, SFA is one of three teams in the league to boast two players on that list. Sophomore Danae Daron ranks fifth in the conference with a .350 attack percentage while junior Makenzee Hanna (.331) ranks sixth on the list.
EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE
• A strong and tight defense - both in the front row and in the back line - has been another component of the Ladyjacks' successes to begin the 2017 season.
• Sophomore Shayla Eagleton and leads SFA in terms of blocks per set by averaging 1.05 rejections per set. That makes her one of six Southland Conference players who are averaging at least 1.00 block per set so far this season. Makenzee Hanna isn't far behind Eagleton as she averages 0.93 blocks per set.
• Lexus Cain leads SFA in terms of digs per set with 4.30, but three other players who have been in SFA's regular rotation - Haley Coleman (3.10), Corin Evans (2.65) and Ann Hollas (2.42) - are all averaging at least 2.40 digs per set as well.
• Added all together, that SFA defense has held opponents to a hitting percentage of just .138 - the second-best opponent hitting percentage figure in the Southland and the 18th-best nationally.
ACE IN THE HOLE
• Bringing a great deal of pressure from the service line is always a goal of the Ladyjacks, but they have been especially successful in that department through the first 12 matches of the season.
• Five players - Ann Hollas (17), Makenzee Hanna (14), Corin Evans (13), Haley Coleman (11) and McKenzie Brewer (10) - have each racked up 10 or more aces so far this season. Hollas' 17 aces lead the team and work out to an average of 0.40 per set which is the ninth-highest average among all Southland Conference players.
• As a team, SFA has racked up 75 service aces compared to only 35 by their opponents. That total is the highest in the Southland Conference and the fifth highest in the nation. The Ladyjacks' aces per set average of 1.74 also stands as the third-best in the Southland Conference and the 21st-best nationally.
• Tulane bore the brunt of a massive service attack by the Ladyjacks on Saturday, Sept. 2. SFA racked up 11 aces in that four-set victory - the most by the team in a match this season. Evans swung for four of those aces and in all four Ladyjacks racked up multiple aces in the victory.
COMING UP NEXT
• In order to finish out their non-conference regular season schedule, the Ladyjacks must head south to Houston, Texas, where they will be one of four teams taking part in the Rice Invitational on the campus of Rice University on Friday and Saturday. SFA's first of three matches in Houston is set to take place at 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon when the Ladyajcks take on Georgetown.
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