Stephen F. Austin
9-1
University of Tulsa
4-4
Evans, Ladyjacks Tire Out Tulsa, 3-2, as SFA's Win Streak Reaches Nine
9/8/2017 10:15:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Sophomore outside hitter pounds down career-high 19 kills for SFA
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - After easing to a three-set win in their home debut earlier in the day, the Stephen F. Austin volleyball team faced a much stiffer test in its nightcap when it cross paths with a Tulsa squad that threatened to put an end to SFA's longest winning streak in almost three years.
Fortunately, Corin Evans was present to make sure the Ladyjacks had the power they needed to knock the wind out of the Golden Hurricane.
Putting on the best performance of her collegiate career thus far, the sophomore pounded down a team and career-high 19 kills and aided by a late defensive stand in the fifth and final frame, Evans and the Ladyjacks turned back Tulsa, 3-2, inside Shelton Gym Friday night.
SFA leaped out to a strong start, but had to rely on a pair of double-double performances from Evans (19 kills, 14 digs), Haley Coleman (12 kills, 19 digs) as well as a massive front-row defensive effort to offset a combined 44 terminations from the Tulsa duo of Emily Thorson and Emily Hubbard.
"We had our hands full tonight, that's for sure, but we're going to be in those moments throughout the season," said SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys. "Our blocking had been up and down and at the end it was up, fortunately. It didn't feel like we had momentum but we were able to execute well enough down the stretch to finish them off. Corin had a great match and she's just one of those players who finds a way to score no matter who we're playing."
That blocking effort - and some well-timed kills - served as the Ladyjacks' trump cards down the stretch. Danae Daron put down 11 kills and added a match-high six block assists while both Makenzee Hanna and Shayla Eagleton contributed five block assists apiece to the cause. In all, SFA out-blocked Tulsa by a 10-9 margin and used a 7-2 advantage in service aces to secure the win as well.
Eager to put an end to the Ladyjacks' winning streak and to take SFA's home crowd out of the equation, the Golden Hurricane collected six of the first eight points of the match before the Ladyjacks responded with a 13-1 run to take the lead for good. Evans turned in three kills and an ace in that scoring spree while Brewer added one of her aces.
SFA continued to throttle Tulsa for the rest of the frame, ending it on a 7-2 surge which featured five kills by four different Ladyjacks.
With SFA ahead 13-11 in set two, Tulsa used a 6-1 run which featured three kills from Thorson and a pair of blocks to jump ahead for good.
Aiming for its first lead of the match, Tulsa started set three with a 7-1 run before SFA responded with a similar 7-1 surge to knot things at eight points apiece. A 4-2 surge in which Coleman and Xariah Williams struck for kills helped push SFA ahead by a 12-10 tally.
The Ladyjacks never trailed again in set three, but Tulsa did manage to tie things up at 18 after scoring four consecutive points. SFA, however, ended the frame emphatically. Xariah Williams and Coleman each pounded down a pair of kills during a set-clinching 7-0 run to put SFA up 2-1.
Trying to force a fifth and final set, Tulsa came out as the aggressor in the fourth. Four unforced SFA errors coupled with five kills and a service ace by the Golden Hurricane handed the visitors a 10-4 lead before it looked like SFA would put things in the books in four sets.
Led by four kills from Evans, the Ladyjacks erased a 14-8 Tulsa lead with a 7-0 run that put them up 15-14. As the teams battled back and forth, Tulsa finally took the upper hand by breaking a 22-22 deadlock with kills from Thorson and Rachel Moore as well as a service ace from Lindsey Ledyard to take the frame by a 25-23 tally.
SFA raced out to leads of 8-3 and 11-5 in the last frame, but Tulsa used five kills from three players during a 7-1 surge that brought the teams even at 12. Coleman broke that tie for good with her final kill before turning things over to her teammates in the front row.
Hanna made sure the momentum remained squarely in SFA's corner by winning a one-on-one battle at the net with a Tulsa defender which resulted in the junior's fifth and final kill of the night and pushed the host's advantage to 14-12.
Thorson gave the Golden Hurricane a brief breath of life with a kill that cut SFA's lead to one, but Hanna and Daron shut Tulsa down for good with a match-clinching combo block.
Lexus Cain and Tulsa's Taylor Horsfall tied for match-high honors by racking up 23 digs and SFA limited Tulsa to a hitting percentage of .149 in the five-set marathon.
There will be little time to rest for the Ladyjacks following Friday night's heated battle with Tulsa. On Saturday afternoon, SFA crosses paths with Colgate who bested both Little Rock and Tulsa on the opening day of the Holiday Inn Express SFA Invitational. The Raiders boast a 7-1 record as well as a two-match winning streak and at 1:30 p.m. the Ladyjacks will try to hand Colgate its first true road loss of 2017.
-SFA-
