Ladyjacks Return to Shelton Gym, Prepare for Southland Showdown against New Orleans
10/17/2018 3:27:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SFA leads the nation in wins, remains in first place in Southland standings
Match Twenty-Four
SFA (21-2, 8-0 Southland) vs. New Orleans (10-14, 4-5 Southland)
Thursday, Oct. 18 | 6:30 p.m. | Shelton Gym (600) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3/ESPN app) | SFA Match Notes
Play-by-play | Greg Miller • Analysis | Brittany Castledine
THE FIRST SERVE
• Perfect through the first half of its 2018 Southland Conference schedule, the SFA volleyball team returns to Shelton Gym for the first time in nearly one month to take on Southland adversary New Orleans at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night.
• The 14th all-time meeting between the Ladyjacks and Privateers will be broadcast around the globe on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with the duo of Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine on the call. Thursday's match will also serve as SFA's Dig Pink match. Dig Pink is a nationwide movement to provide meaningful and impactful experiences for athletes while inspiring and empowering them to come together in support of the stage IV breast cancer community.
• Thursday night's tilt with the Privateers represents the Ladyjacks' first action inside Shelton Gym since Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018. Since that date, SFA has played four Southland Conference road matches and won each of them to push their winning streak to 18 matches.
• SFA's 18-match winning streak is currently the second-longest in the nation behind only Pittsburgh who has won its first 20 matches of the 2018 campaign. The 18-match winning streak is also the Ladyjacks' fifth-longest in program history and marks the first time SFA has won 18 or more matches since 2004.
• SFA joins Pittsburgh and BYU as the only teams in the nation who are undefeated both at home and on the road in 2018. The Ladyjacks have won 11-straight matches inside Shelton Gym and that includes the team's perfect 10-0 record in that facility through 2018 thus far.
• SFA is one of four teams - BYU, Pittsburgh, and South Florida are the others - from around the NCAA Division I volleyball landscape who have not lost a true road match in 2018.
• Not only do the Ladyjacks possess the best record among all Southland teams, they possess the best RPI as well. In the latest RPI rankings, SFA checked in at number 61 and has a pair of wins against top-35 RPI teams in 2018. The Ladyjacks downed Rice (RPI of 34) 3-1 in Shelton Gym on September 11 and also defeated Wichita State (RPI of 30) in Denton, Texas, on September 15.
• SFA's 21 wins are the most by any NCAA Division I volleyball team in the nation at this point. The Ladyjacks and Pittsburgh (20-0) are the only two teams with 20 or more victories so far in 2018.
LAST TIME OUT | SFA 3, at Central Arkansas 1 (10/16/18)
• For the first time in a decade, SFA exited the city of Conway, Ark., with a victory in hand after the Ladyjacks handed Central Arkansas their first home loss of the season Tuesday night.
• Senior outside hitter Haley Coleman turned in her second-consecutive double-double effort, finishing with 10 kills and a team-high 14 digs to help lead the Ladyjacks to the 3-1 victory.
• Senior middle blocker Makenzee Hanna accumulated double-digit kills for the first time in almost one month, finishing with a team-high 11 terminations to go along with three digs and five block assists.
• Five of junior middle blocker Danae Daron's match-high six rejections came in the first set. In all, SFA racked up nine rejections in its win over the Sugar Bears with eight of those rejections coming in the opening frame.
• UCA committed a total of 30 attack errors and 13 service errors in the four-set battle. Both of those error totals were the most in a single match by an SFA opponent this season.
• SFA got a huge contribution from junior outside hitter Xariah Williams through the final two sets of the hard-fought match. The Arlington, Texas, product slammed home seven terminations on 14 error-free swings to finish with a match and season-high attack percentage of .500.
SCOUTING NEW ORLEANS | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
SFA vs. New Orleans | 10-3 (.769)
In Nacogdoches, Texas | 5-0 (1.000)
In New Orleans, La. | 3-2 (.600)
At neutral sites | 2-1 (.667)
Streak | SFA won nine
Last five matches | 5-0 (1.000)
Last 10 matches | 9-1 (.900)
In three-set matches | 4-2 (.667)
In four-set matches | 5-1 (.833)
In five-set matches | 1-0 (1.000)
Humphreys vs. New Orleans | 10-3 (.769)
Van Norden vs. SFA | 0-6 (.000)
Last meeting | at UNO 1, SFA 3 (10/26/17)
• Ever since the calendar flipped to the month of October, New Orleans has been unable to get into the win column. After posting a 3-0 home victory over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday, Sept. 29, the Privateers have dropped five consecutive matches. All of those matches have gone either four or five sets, too.
• As it stands, New Orleans sits in seventh place in the Southland Conference standings with seven league games remaining on its 2018 schedule. Four of the Privateers' next five matches will take place on the road and three of those tilts are against top-three Southland squads.
• Once again, Kaitlyn Grice has distinguished herself as one of the most talented players in the Southland Conference. The senior middle blocker leads the Southland Conference in attack percentage (.345), total points (320.5), and total blocks (116). Her per-set averages in kills (2.36) and blocks (1.21) rank 17th and third respectively among all Southland Conference players.
• A team that employed the service ace as one of its primary weapons, New Orleans has amassed a Southland Conference leading 145 winners from the service line thus far. That's the fifth-highest total among all NCAA Division I volleyball teams this year and the Privateers have racked up 11 or more service aces in four of their matches in 2018.
• Leading the way in the service ace department are Grice (27, 0.28 per set), Brianna Vega (29, 0.33 per set) and Blessing Dunn (31, 0.32 per set). It is Dunn who leads the Southland and ranks 33rd nationally in terms of total service aces.
• Those three also represent the Privateers' top kill threats. In addition to Grice, both Dunn (2.27 kills/set) and Vega (2.22 kills/set) have amassed 195 or more kills through 2018 thus far.
• Libero Andrea Nava and Dunn have done an admirable job patrolling the back line for the Privateers. Nava leads the team with a digs per set average of 3.15 while Dunn solidifies her reputation as a valuable six-rotation player with a digs per set average of 3.05.
COMING UP NEXT
• For its second and final home appearance in the month of October, SFA hits the midpoint of its stretch of three consecutive Southland matches against foes from the state of Louisiana. Saturday afternoon, the Ladyjacks tangle with Nicholls at 1:30 p.m. inside Shelton Gym. The match is set to be broadcast nationwide on ESPN+ and the ESPN app with Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine on the call.
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