Stephen F. Austin
13-4, 1-0Southland
University of Central Arkansas
11-2, 0-1Southland
Overpowering Offense, Stifling Defense Push SFA Past Central Arkansas in Three
9/21/2017 9:39:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SFA powers past Sugar Bears with season-best .406 attack percentage
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The two most efficient offenses in the 13-team Southland Conference locked horns Thursday evening inside Shelton Gym when Stephen F. Austin battled Central Arkansas. When the dust settled, one of those offense - the one belonging to the home team - showed just what it can do when firing on all cylinders.
Propelled by its best single-match hitting match of 2017 thus far, a balanced Ladyjack squad overpowered Central Arkansas in a 3-0 triumph in the first Southland Conference action of the 2017 campaign for both sides.
Corin Evans (11) and Danae Daron (10) were the only SFA players to rack up double-digit kills, but SFA watched three other players generate eight or more terminations to power an offense that finished the match with a .406 attack percentage.
"Central Arkansas is a very potent offensive team with a great player in Samantha Anderson," commented SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys following the conclusion of the bout. "We don't really have an answer for her, so we just tried to contain her as much as possible.
"Since both teams were executing well on offense tonight, we couldn't stop each other. What it boiled down to at times was who committed an error here or there or who figured out how to slow the other down first."
Haley Coleman and Shayla Eagleton each generated nine kills with the latter doing so on just 12 swings for a sterling attack percentage of .750. A force on offense and defense, junior Makenzee Hanna turned in one of the best single matches of her career, too, going for eight kills on 12 tries (.667 attack percentage) as well as two solo blocks and four block assists.
Hanna's efforts at the front of the net were the driving force of an overwhelming display of front-row defensive power as SFA finished with a 10-1 advantage in blocks over their league adversaries from the Natural State.
Outside of Abbie Harry's match-opening termination, the Sugar Bears were at a disadvantage throughout the entirety of the first frame. Evans punched down a pair of kills and Eagleton added one of hers as part of a 4-1 SFA run following Harry's kill that handed the Ladyjacks a 4-2 lead.
On six occasions Central Arkansas managed to close within one point of SFA, but every time the Ladyjacks put up the next point to retake a multi-point edge. The Sugar Bears' third service error of the frame followed a combo block from Morgan Anderson and Megan Nash and helped SFA's lead move to 21-19.
Hanna punctuated the Ladyajcks' final push to take the first set by rising for a pair of solo rejections in SFA's 5-2 run to end the frame.
It was the Sugar Bears' turn to strike back during the middle frame as the visitors made use of an 8-3 scoring spree after SFA's 4-2 surge to begin the set to open up a 10-7 lead. Out of the Ladyjacks' timeout, SFA received a termination from Coleman followed up with a combo block from Coleman and Eagleton to close within one before a 7-4 UCA run culminating with a Tippett termination put the hosts at a 17-13 disadvantage.
Elizabeth Armstrong's first and only service ace of the night moved the Sugar Bears in front 22-19 and at least four sets appeared to be in the cards before SFA made plans to keep the match to three. Kills from Daron and Hanna bookended a pair of long hits from Harry and put the Ladyjacks up 23-22, forcing a UCA timeout.
From there, the teams swapped points and saw the score get knotted four times before SFA managed to pull free. With 26-26 shimmering on the scoreboard, Tippett's attack went long and Coleman followed with a well-place kill to the Sugar Bears' back corner to give the Ladyjacks the set in extra points.
Offense and defense finally came together in a big way for SFA in the third and final frame. Six of the Ladyjacks' 10 blocks were amassed through the last set as the hosts never fell behind. Unable to break the Ladyjacks' block, the Sugar Bears' problems were compounded by an SFA offense that churned along at a hitting clip of .565 in the frame.
Pounding down 15 kills on only 23 swings while committing a scant two errors, SFA limited Central Arkansas to a hitting percentage of just .250 during that final frame.
Switching over to a 5-1 offense, SFA turned to Hollas to direct its attack plan. The sophomore did so magnificently, dishing out a season-high 41 assists to go along with three kills, two of SFA's three service aces, four digs and a block assist.
Anderson led a trio of UCA attackers who finished with double-digit termination totals. She put down a match-high 13 kills while Harry and Tippett added 11 apiece. No Central Arkansas player exceeded eight digs as the Sugar Bears were handed just their second loss of 2017. For SFA, Lexus Cain scooped up a match-best 15 digs.
There will be no need for the Ladyjacks to depart from Nacogdoches in order to continue their Southland Conference schedule. Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m., Northwestern State pays a visit to Shelton Gym in search of consecutive league victories to start the 2017 conference schedule. The Lady Demons downed Lamar 3-0 in Beaumont, Texas, Thursday night.
-SFA-
