Stephen F. Austin
31-2, 16-0SLC
#5 Houston Baptist
16-16, 8-8SLC
Brewer and Hanna Help SFA Demolish Houston Baptist and Reach Southland Tournament Title Game
11/17/2018 1:37:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SFA moves on to Southland Conference Tournament title match for first time since 2009
NATCHITOCHES, La. - Senior middle blocker Makenzee Hanna provided the offensive smash while senior setter McKenzie Brewer came up with the serving panache, and because of it the SFA volleyball team is one win away from the program's fifth NCAA Tournament appearances.
Hanna hammered down a team-high 12 terminations and hit .550 while Brewer kept Houston Baptist off-balance all afternoon with a career-best five service aces as the top-seeded Ladyjacks defeated the fifth-seeded Huskies 3-0 to extend the nation's longest active winning streak to 28 matches and punch a ticket to the Southland Conference Tournament championship match for the first time since 2009.
SET ONE | SFA 25, Houston Baptist 22
• Haley Coleman, Danae Daron and Hanna each struck for kills during a 4-1 run by the Ladyjacks to start the match.
• SFA's lead increased to 11-5 after Coleman started a 5-0 run with another of her five terminations in the set. Brewer put a cap on that surge with her first service ace of the afternoon and forced a timeout by the Huskies.
• Anyia Williams launched in her first kill of the match to push SFA's lead to 14-7 but right after that Houston Baptist started to chip away.
• Consecutive terminations from Madison O'Brien finished a 7-2 run by the Huskies that cut SFA's lead to 16-14 and triggered an SFA timeout. Kills from Coleman and Daron out of that stoppage started a 4-1 SFA run to make it 20-15.
• The Huskies' final push came when Kelly Colwell started a 5-1 spree with a kill. A block by O'Brien and Megan Patillo finished it and pulled Houston Baptist within one, 22-21.
• Out of SFA's second and final timeout, Coleman and Daron pounded down kills and an attack error by HBU's Mikayla Vivens finished off SFA's set one victory.
SET TWO | SFA 25, Houston Baptist 22
• A back-and-forth battle was what set two brought with two of the three deadlocks in the frame coming in the final eight points of the frame.
• Though the Ladyjacks never trailed in the set, Houston Baptist's never-say-die attitude made sure whatever lead SFA enjoyed would not be safe for long. That proved true as after the Ladyajcks used a 3-0 run to open up a 15-10 edge the Huskies employed a 5-1 run of their own to cut SFA's lead to 16-15.
• Of the nine points SFA needed to win the set from there, three came by way of momentum-killing service errors by the Huskies. The first of those errors came after an SFA timeout and helped the Ladyjacks regain a 17-15 edge.
• After Houston Baptist knotted things at 20, Hanna registered back-to-back kills to put SFA up once again.
• The Huskies answered with two points of their own to tie things at 23 but Madison O'Brien's service error started a set-sealing 3-0 run by SFA. Brewer put in the second of her two service aces in the set during that surge.
SET THREE | SFA 25, Houston Baptist 18
• The Huskies' first lead of the match came early in the third when the lower-seeded squad start the frame on a 4-2 run.
• That lead proved to be short-lived as the Ladyjacks countered with a dominant 12-1 run that sapped the Huskies' energy and handed the top seed a 15-4 lead. Hanna turned in a trio of terminations during that surge while Brewer served up two aces and turned the tide for good with a dump kill.
• Houston Baptist crept back within four points, 16-12, by using kills from three different players during a 7-2 run.
• SFA again had the answer, using one ace apiece from Coleman and Hollas through a 6-2 surge that made matters 22-14.
• One final adjustment by SFA came in the last four points of the match when junior Xariah Williams stepped in to help the Ladyjacks finish off the Huskies.
• Houston Baptist concluded a 4-0 run with a block that made matters 22-18 but Hanna started a 3-0 match-clinching run by hammering down her 12th and final kill of the match. A Williams wall - Anyia and Xariah - stuffed an attack by the Huskies' Kayla Davenport to sew up the win.
KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• With her five service aces, Brewer reset her career high in that category and now has eight in seven sets of Southland Conference Tournament action this season. She's also the third Ladyjack this season to amass five service aces in a match, joining Coleman and Marisabel Torres.
• Hanna hit the double-digit kill mark for the first time sine November 1 against Abilene Christian and finished one termination shy of her season high. The DeSoto, Texas, product also added three blocks.
• Once again, it was Anyia Williams who did the most defensive damage at the front of the net. The sophomore amassed five rejections while Daron and Hollas added four more.
• Fresh off of a triple-double performance in the Southland Conference Tournament quarterfinals, Hollas put up a 22-assist, 11-dig double-double. It was her team-leading 15th double-double of the season.
• Coleman finished with nine kills while Daron and Redmond added six apiece for SFA who won its 30th Southland Conference Tournament match.
• Sabrina Monaco tied Hollas for team-high honors in digs by scooping up 11, too.
• Mikayla Vivens posted a 14-kill, 13-dig double-double to lead the way for Houston Baptist. Davenport posted a match-best six blocks in the Huskies' final match of the season while Hannah Lewis added a match-high 17 digs.
QUOTABLE
SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys on McKenzie Brewer's service game | "McKenzie has a great serve and with our team we have so many people who can bring service pressure. Serving is a tough thing, though, because on one hand it's mental and on another it's just making sure you've got that consistent toss every single time. So many things factor in whether it's the adrenaline or the atmosphere and today McKenzie found it and those aces came in handy."
...on SFA's passing | "I thought we passed really really well until the very end of the match when we had a little bit of a lull. Houston Baptist is the strongest serving team in the league and for us to be able to pass decent against them and bring our own service pressure was huge."
...on finishing off the Huskies who came back from a 2-0 deficit in the Southland Conference Tournament quarterfinals | "Everybody that started with a 2-0 lead yesterday lost so we went up 2-0 and our girls knew - they were even saying it, it wasn't even me - 'hey, we have a lot of volleyball left.' It was one of those things where we told them if you want you rest before a championship match tomorrow, let's go out and execute in this third set and get it over with. I'm Just real pleased with how they came out because you never know from one day to the next who's going to come out and light it up and that held true today.
...on the play of Makenzee Hanna | "We needed that from her. There have been a couple of matches where she hasn't been putting up the numbers that she's used to. She struggled for a while yesterday trying to get anything going and for her to come in and have that match we needed it and I'm not surprised by it at all. Somebody - or a couple somebodys - will come in and do something like that every night for us. We just don't know who it is, but that's part of the fun of it.
...on playing in the Southland Conference Tournament title match for the first time since 2009 | "Whichever team we play I can guarantee you we're going to leave everything we have in Natchitoches tomorrow."
COMING UP NEXT
• For the first time in nearly a decade, SFA is headed back to the Southland Conference Tournament championship match. The top-seeded Ladyjacks await the winner of second-seeded Central Arkansas and third-seeded Sam Houston State who will oppose SFA at 3:05 p.m. Sunday afternoon. The match will be carried nationwide on ESPN+ and the ESPN app and SFA is seeking its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2006.
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