Stephen F. Austin
Abilene Christian
SFA Honors Seniors and Puts Nation's Longest Win Streak on the Line in 2018 Home Finale against ACU
11/2/2018 2:23:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Ladyjacks remain on top in the Southland, have won 23 in a row
Match Twenty-Nine
SFA (26-2, 13-0 Southland) vs. Abilene Christian (13-13, 10-4 Southland)
Saturday, Nov. 3 | 1:00 p.m. | Shelton Gym (600) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3/ESPN app) | SFA Match Notes | Southland Standings
Play-by-Play | Greg Miller
Analysis | Brittany Castledine
THE FIRST SERVE
• McKenzie Brewer, Haley Coleman, Makenzee Hanna and Peyton Redmond have excelled at leading the SFA volleyball team on one of its most memorable runs in the history of the program and on Saturday afternoon that quartet will compete inside Shelton Gym for the final time in their collegiate careers when the Ladyjacks tangle with Southland Conference and in-state rival Abilene Christian.
• First serve in Saturday's senior day match is set for 1:00 p.m., and the match can be seen nationwide on ESPN3 and the ESPN app. Also making their final appearances inside Shelton Gym - at least for the 2018 season - will be Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine who will handle play-by-play and analysis duties for the ninth meeting between the Ladyjacks and Wildcats.
• Those four have SFA poised for its first perfect season at home since 2005. Thirteen years ago, the Ladyjacks posted a perfect 11-0 record in home games en route to the the Southland Conference regular season title.
• Brewer, Coleman, Hanna and Redmond will be honored for their contributions to the SFA volleyball program with a post-match ceremony which all fans are invited to stay around for.
LET'S TALK TROPHIES
• Should SFA emerge as the victors against Abilene Christian Saturday afternoon, the Ladyjacks would lock up at least a share of the 2018 Southland Conference regular season title.
• That would be the program's 10th regular season Southland Conference crown and the second in a row for SFA who claimed the 2017 league crown, too.
• SFA previously captured the Southland Conference regular season title in 2017, 2014, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 1996, 1995 and 1994.
• All of those regular season titles have been won under the direction of 31st-year head coach Debbie Humphreys.
LET'S TALK TOURNAMENT
• SFA locked up its spot in the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 20, with a 3-0 victory against Nicholls. Since then, it's been all about improving on seeding for the Ladyjacks.
• With various results from around the Southland Thursday night, SFA is assured one of the top three seeds for the eight-team tournament which is set to take place inside Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches, La., on Friday, Nov. 16-Sunday, Nov. 18.
• Should SFA post a win against Abilene Christian on Saturday afternoon, the Ladyjacks would lock up no worse than the number-two seed for the league tournament. Sam Houston State and Central Arkansas - who are 1.5 and two games back of SFA for the top spot in the league respectively - play in Conway, Ark., Saturday afternoon. The loser of that match will have three league losses and will be mathematically unable to finish any higher than third in the seeding scenarios for the league tournament.
LET'S TALK STREAKS (AND WINS)
• SFA's 23-match winning streak is currently the longest in the nation at the moment. Top-ranked BYU has won its first 22 matches to begin the season but the Cougars were idle Thursday night when the Ladyjacks topped Sam Houston State for their 23rd triumph in a row.
• That winning streak by SFA is 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). Also, the Ladyjacks' nine-match road winning streak is the second-longest in the nation behind only top-ranked BYU who has won 10 in a row on the road.
• Not only is SFA perfect on the road, but it is perfect inside Shelton Gym this season, too. The Ladyjacks are 13-0 on their home floor and have won 14-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 19 teams in the land this year that haven't lost a home match.
• Dating back to last season, SFA has also won 14 consecutive Southland Conference matches - the ninth-longest active in-conference winning streak in all of NCAA Division I volleyball.
• It has now been over 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.
• No team in the nation has amassed more wins so far than SFA. The Ladyjacks' 26 victories are three more than the next closest team in the land. Both fifth-ranked Pittsburgh and rv Denver are 23-1 thus far in the 2018 campaign.
LAST TIME OUT | Sam Houston State 1, at SFA 3 (Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018)
• With a wild gang of over 700 backers cheering them on, the Ladyjacks strengthened their grip on the Southland's top spot by downing longtime Piney Woods adversary Sam Houston State 3-1 inside a clamorous Shelton Gym Thursday evening.
• For only the fourth time this season - and the first in a Southland Conference match - three Ladyjacks finished with 10 or more kills in the victory. Coleman, Redmond and Danae Daron each tied for match-high honors by pounding down 12 terminations in SFA's second-straight victory over the Bearkats.
• Coming into Thursday night's match armed with the finest opponent hitting percentage figure in the Southland - which was also the sixth-best in the nation - the Bearkats had little to no answer for a high-powered Ladyjack attack that hit .500 in the opening set, .364 in the second and .274 for the match.
• The catalysts of SFA's attack were setters McKenzie Brewer and Ann Hollas who combined to produce 43 of the Ladyjacks' 50 assists. Hollas dished out a team-high 23 of them while Brewer added 20.
• Both Coleman and Hollas finished with double-doubles in the win, too. Coleman scooped up 12 digs to go along with her 12 terminations while Hollas ran down a career-best 23 digs that complimented her front-row defense which resulted in four block assists. Those 23 digs were the second-most by an SFA player this season.
• Daron hurt Sam Houston State on both offense and defense. The junior hit a match-best .647 and established a career best with three solo blocks. In all, Daron amassed seven rejections in the win and helped limit the Bearkats' attack to a clip of only .126.
• SFA snapped Sam Houston State's 10-match winning streak with the four-set victory. That streak was the 16th-longest winning streak in the nation coming into the match.
• Sam Houston State entered Shelton Gym just a half-game behind SFA for first place in the league standings but exited 1.5 games back.
SCOUTING ABILENE CHRISTIAN | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
SFA vs. Abilene Christian | 6-2 (.750)
In Nacogdoches, Texas | 2-0 (1.000)
In Abilene, Texas | 4-1 (.800)
At neutral sites | 0-1 (.000)
Streak | ACU won one
Last five matches | 3-2 (.600)
In three-set matches | 2-0 (1.000)
In four-set matches | 3-0 (1.000)
In five-set matches | 1-2 (.333)
Humphreys vs. ACU | 6-2 (.800)
Moody vs. SFA | 1-1 (.500)
Last meeting | ACU 3, vs. SFA 2 (11/17/17)
• One of the top four teams in the Southland, the Wildcats head into Shelton Gym still alive for either the second, third or fourth seed in the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament.
• From an offensive numbers standpoint, the Wildcats are a lot like SFA as no player on Abilene Christian's squad owns a kills per set average north of 2.89. Jacey Smith (2.85 kills/set), Katelyn Mueller (2.89 kills/set) and Lauren Walker (2.23 kills/set) are the Wildcats' top three kill getters and all three have their strengths defensively as well.
• Five Abilene Christian players - led by libero Lillian Drever's mark of 4.63 digs per set - are averaging at least two digs per frame. Included in that quintet are Mueller (2.79 digs/set) and Smith (2.29 digs/set). Setter Kendall Bosse (2.10 digs/set) and Mikai Brown (2.44 digs/set) are also at two or more digs per set.
• The Wildcats are behind only SFA in terms of blocks per set in the Southland Conference standings. Abilene Christian is blocking 2.34 balls per set and leading the way in that category is Kennedy Shelstead and her blocks per set average of 1.20.
• Walker (0.90 blocks/set) and Marybeth Sandercox (0.81 blocks/set) represent the other two individuals that SFA must look out for in terms of front row defense.
• ACU's setter, Bosse, leads the Southland with an assists per set average of 10.03 while Mueller is the best server the Wildcats have at their disposal. She's putting in 0.33 service aces per set.
COMING UP NEXT
• All of the Ladyjacks' matches over the next two weeks - no matter now many of them there wind up being - will be played in the state of Louisiana. That run begins Thursday night in Thibodaux, La., when SFA runs into Southland Conference adversary Nicholls inside Stopher Gymnasium. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m. in the penultimate game of the regular season for SFA.
-SFA-
