Stephen F. Austin
Sam Houston State
Southland Supremacy at Stake When SFA, Sam Houston State Wage War Thursday Night
10/31/2018 3:20:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Ladyjacks lead Bearkats by half-game for top spot in Southland, put 22-match winning streak on the line in Shelton Gym
Match Twenty-Eight
SFA (25-2, 12-0 Southland) vs. Sam Houston State (20-5, 12-1 Southland)
Thursday, Nov. 1 | 6:30 p.m. | Nacogdoches, Texas | Shelton Gym (600)
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+/ESPN app) | SFA Match Notes | SHSU Match Notes
Play-by-Play | Greg Miller
Analysis | Brittany Castledine
THE FIRST SERVE
• Riding the nation's longest active winning streak, the Southland Conference-leading SFA volleyball team braces for a huge Thursday night collision with age-old Piney Woods and Southland rival Sam Houston State inside Shelton Gym.
• The Ladyjacks, who lead the nation in total wins, own a half-game lead over the Bearkats for the top spot in the Southland standings heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. First serve between SFA and Sam Houston State is set for 6:30 p.m., with the duo of Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine calling each and every point on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
• Thursday night's match also features two of the 21 NCAA Division I teams that have accumulated 20 or more wins in 2018. Of those 21 teams, three compete in the Southland Conference (SFA, Central Arkansas and Sam Houston State) giving the Southland the most 20+ win teams of all NCAA Division I conferences this season.
• With four matches remaining in its regular season, SFA has already clinched a top-four seed in the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament. Only 2.5 games separate the league's top four teams at the moment.
A PERFECT OCTOBER
• In order to continue its 22-match winning streak, SFA had to win all eight of its matches in the month of October and that's exactly what the Ladyjacks did.
• By going 8-0 in the month, it marks the fifth time in program history that SFA has not dropped a match in October. Previously SFA accomplished that feat in 2014 (9-0), 2006 (10-0), 2005 (10-0) and 1995 (10-0).
LET'S TALK STREAKS
• SFA's 22-match winning streak is tied with top-ranked BYU for the longest active winning streak in the nation.
• It's also the third-longest in program history, surpassed only by a run of 24 in a row in 1995 and a streak of 26 consecutive victories in 2006.
• SFA is a perfect 9-0 in road matches this season. That makes the Ladyjacks one of only two NCAA Division I volleyball teams in the land who have not lost a true road match this season (BYU is the other).
• Not only is SFA perfect on the road, but it is perfect inside Shelton Gym this season, too. The Ladyjacks are 12-0 on their home floor and have won 13-straight matches there dating back to last season. That gives SFA the nation's seventh-longest active home court winning streak and makes it one of 22 teams in the land this year that haven't lost a home match.
• Dating back to last season, SFA has also won 13 consecutive Southland Conference matches - the 11th-longest active in-conference winning streak in all of NCAA Division I volleyball.
• It has now been exactly one calendar year since a Southland Conference foe hit over .200 against the Ladyjacks, too. The last Southland adversary to hit .200 or better against SFA was Texas A&M-Corpus Christi who hit .267 in a 3-0 win over SFA on October 31, 2017 inside Shelton Gym.
APPROACHING 1,000
• Senior outside hitter Haley Coleman already reached the 1,000-dig plateau earlier this season and she will likely arrive at another major statistical milestone Thursday night.
• The Rockwall, Texas, product needs only 1.5 more points to reach an even 1,000 for her career. Coleman has tallied 998.5 points (847 kills, 83 service aces, 68.5 blocks) thus far in her SFA career. Currently, Coleman ranks ninth in the Southland in kills per set (2.86) and eighth in the league in points per set (3.38).
HUMPHREYS/GRAY LVI
• Thursday night's big-time showdown between SFA and Sam Houston State pits SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys and Sam Houston State head coach Brenda Gray against one another for the 56th time in history.
• Both of those individuals have been at their respective institutions for over 30 years and in that time they have combined to coach some 2,220 matches, amass 1,384 wins (Gray 697, Humphreys 687) and have a combined 66 years of head coaching experience.
• Both coaches rank among the top 15 in wins for active NCAA Division I volleyball coaches and both need fewer than 15 wins to reach the 700-win mark in their respective careers.
LAST TIME OUT
• Sophomore middle blocker Anyia Williams came off the bench and hit an impressive .889 with eight kills to lead the Ladyjacks in their 3-0 victory over Lamar inside McDonald Gym last Saturday afternoon.
• Williams led a balanced Ladyjack attack on offense that was also highlighted by the play of Makenzee Hanna who put in seven kills and Ann Hollas who finished with six terminations and hit .545.
• It was Hollas and senior setter McKenzie Brewer who led an SFA offensive that hit .233 by passing out 22 of the Ladyjacks' 29 assists.
• SFA kept the pressure on Lamar from the service line, too, totaling seven aces in the team's 11th consecutive victory over the Cardinals. Haley Coleman and Peyton Redmond captained that effort in the service game by striking for two aces apiece.
• Defensively, no SFA player finished with over nine digs but a strong floor defensive effort was hardly necessary against against the error-prone Lamar squad. The Cardinals committed 26 unforced miscues including 17 unforced attack errors, five ball handling errors and four serves that would up out-of-bounds.
• Danae Daron led the Ladyjacks' front-row defensive effort against Lamar with a match-high five block assists. For the match, SFA limited the Cardinals to an attack percentage of only .020 - the second-lowest by an SFA opponent this season.
• In Southland Conference matches this season, opponents of SFA are hitting only .120. That gives the Ladyjacks the lowest in-conference opponent hitting percentage of the 13 teams in the Southland.
SCOUTING SAM HOUSTON STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
Overall vs. Sam Houston State | 35-23 (.603)
In Nacogdoches, Texas | 20-7 (.741)
In Huntsville, Texas | 13-10 (.565)
At neutral sites | 2-6 (.250)
Streak | SFA won one
Last five matches | 3-2 (.600)
Last 10 matches | 5-5 (.500)
In three-set matches | 17-9 (.654)
In four-set matches | 12-7 (.632)
In five-set matches | 6-7 (.462)
Humphreys vs. SHSU | 35-20 (.636)
Gray vs. SFA | 28-35 (.444)
Last meeting | at SHSU 0, SFA 3 (11/4/17)
• With its first 20-win season since 2012 already assured, the Bearkats roll into Shelton Gym on a 10-match winning streak (16th-longest in the nation) and are armed with the frontrunner for Southland Conference Player of the Year in senior middle blocker Taylor Cunningham.
• The do-it-all product of Huntsville, Texas, leads both the Bearkats and the Southland Conference in total kills (352), kills per set (3.96), total points (417) and points per set (4.69), but her offense is hardly the extent of her skill set. Cunningham sits in fourth place in the Southland in attack percentage (.319) and ranks as the Bearkats' best blocker with a blocks per set average of 1.12 that is the fifth-highest in the 13-team league.
• Rounding out her rep as an excellent six-rotation player, Cunningham ranks second on the team in digs with an average of 3.29 per set.
• Leading the Bearkats in floor defense is outside hitter turned libero Madison Wallace. Since she moved into the off-color jersey earlier in the season, Wallace has become one of the league's best back-row players. Wallace leads Sam Houston State and ranks second in the Southland with a digs per set average of 4.88.
• Wallace has also proven to be a handful from the service line as she leads the Southland in both service aces (38) and service aces per set (0.43).
• Setter Jaclyn Ward runs the Bearkats' offense and is passing out assists at a rate of 8.47 per set. She's also one of four players on Sam Houston State's roster averaging more than 2.19 digs per set and her per-set average of 2.20 is the fourth-highest on the squad.
• Two of the Bearkats' other primary offensive pieces are freshman Breanne Chausse and sophomore Caroline Sheaff. Both average greater than 2.00 kills per set with the former ranking second on the squad at 2.43 terminations per frame.
• The Bearkats' floor defense is among the best in the nation and as a result Sam Houston State leads the Southland and ranks fifth nationally in opponent hitting percentage (.147).
WE ROLL DEEP
• All through the 2018 season, the primary calling card of the Ladyjacks has been their depth. That has allowed the team to put up some impressive team numbers without the need for any league-leading individual numbers.
• Four players - Haley Coleman (2.86), Peyton Redmond (2.37), Danae Daron (2.30) and Xariah Williams (2.11) - are averaging at least two terminations per frame.
• Only one of those players - Coleman - ranks among the top ten in the Southland in terms of kills per set. The senior's 2.90 terminations per frame is the ninth-highest among all players in the 13-team league.
• Three of the Southland's top ten leaders in attack percentage sport SFA uniforms, too. Danae Daron is hitting .319 to rank fifth in the league while Anyia Williams (.318) and Hanna (.294) rank sixth and 10th respectively in the Southland.
• Those same three players have helped SFA rise to the top of the Southland in terms of blocks per set. The Ladyjacks are rejecting 2.47 shots per frame with Daron Williams ranking fourth in the league with 1.15 blocks per set. Williams is at sixth with 1.11 blocks per set while Hanna's blocks per set average of 0.90 is the 11th-highest in the 13-team conference.
• The Ladyjacks' floor defense has been headlined by five players who are averaging at least 2.30 digs per set as well. At the head of that line is freshman Sabrina Monaco who ranks 10th in the Southland with a digs per set average of 3.55. Redmond (2.65 digs/set), Coleman (2.59 digs/set), Hollas (2.45 digs/set) and Marisabel Torres (2.40 digs/set) round out SFA's top five floor defenders.
• Because of their depth, the Ladyjacks have seen a variety of different players earn weekly recognition from the Southland Conference. Four different Ladyjacks have been named either the Southland Conference Offensive or Defensive Player of the Week in 2018.
• There are only nine programs in the nation who have had more than four different players earn weekly awards in their respective conferences in the 2018 season. That list includes Austin Peay (five, OVC), Buffalo (five, MAC), Eastern Michigan (five, MAC), Minnesota (six, Big Ten), Morgan State (five, MEAC), Rice (five, C-USA), Texas State (six, Sun Belt), UTSA (five, C-USA) and Western Kentucky (five, C-USA). It's worth noting, however, that all nine of those programs compete in conference that offer at least three different Player of the Week citations while the Southland offers just two.
COMING UP NEXT
• Saturday afternoon, SFA's four-woman senior class of McKenzie Brewer, Haley Coleman, Makenzee Hanna and Peyton Redmond will all play their final match inside Shelton Gym when Southland Conference and in-state rival Abilene Christian makes the trip to Nacogdoches. First serve in the battle between two of the top four teams in the league is set for 1:00 p.m. and the match will be carried nationwide on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine on the call.
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