Stephen F. Austin
Rice
SFA Concludes Six-Match Home Stretch by Hosting C-USA Power Rice
9/10/2018 5:02:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Ladyjacks shooting for first win over Owls since 2007
Match Twelve
SFA (9-2) vs. Rice (6-3) | Tuesday, September 11 | 5:00 p.m. | Shelton Gym (600) | Nacogdoches, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | SFA Match Notes | Rice Match Notes
Play-by-Play | Greg Miller • Analysis | Brittany Castledine
THE FIRST SERVE
• Two of the top mid-major volleyball teams in the state of Texas are set to duke it out Tuesday evening in Shelton Gym when SFA puts its six-match winning streak on the line against visiting Rice at 5:00 p.m. ESPN+ is set to carry each and every point of the Southland/Conference USA battle with Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine providing play-by-play and analysis of the 22nd all-time meeting between the two clubs.
• In order to stretch their winning streak to seven matches, the Ladyjacks will have to take down Rice for the first time in over a decade. The Owls have won the last five meetings between the two programs with SFA's most recent win coming in a five-set, neutral site battle on September 15, 2007. The Ladyjacks, however, have the upper hand over their Conference USA foes in Nacogdoches as SFA has won six of the eight meetings between the two teams in Texas' oldest town.
• Tuesday's tilt marks the first time since 2016 that a Conference USA team has set foot inside Shelton Gym to do battle with the Ladyjacks. The last C-USA club to come to Nacogdoches was North Texas who SFA defeated 3-0 on September 16, 2016.
LAST TIME OUT
• Finally at home after six matches on the road to start the 2018 campaign, the Ladyjacks won each of their five matches inside Shelton Gym last week and claimed The Fredonia Hotel/Holiday Inn Express SFA Invitational title in the process.
• Senior outside hitter Peyton Redmond was named the MVP of the invitational and averaged 3.19 kills and 3.00 digs per set through the Ladyjacks' five matches.
• Redmond was joined on the All-Tournament Team by senior outside hitter Haley Coleman who generated 2.82 kills, 1.41 digs and 0.76 blocks per set. Also representing SFA on the All-Tournament Team was junior setter Ann Hollas who posted a triple-double in the Ladyjacks' 3-1 win over Tennessee State and averaged 1.65 kills, 2.41 digs, 6.47 assists, 0.71 blocks and 0.41 aces per set.
• SFA defeated Tennessee State, St. John's, Stetson and Grambling State and now holds a combined record of 18-0 over that quartet of opponents following the events of last weekend.
SCOUTING REPORT | RICE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Though a perfect weekend in Waco wasn't in the cards, the Owls still managed to turn some heads by earning a straight-set victory over UTRGV before pushing then-15th-ranked Baylor to four sets on the Bears' home floor.
• In search of its first road win of the 2018 season, Rice head to Nacogdoches having dropped a five-set battle at Texas Tech in addition to its four-set meeting with Baylor last Saturday. Those are the only two true road matches the Owls have taken part in but the squad has already picked up some key victories over Big Sky power North Dakota (3-1) and SEC foe South Carolina (3-1).
• Grace Morgan represents the best front row defensive presence Conference USA has to offer up to this point in the season. Her 1.26 blocks per set lead both Rice and the league while placing her 63rd in the nation in that particular statistical category. Morgan has generated just over half (55-percent) of the Owls' rejections in 2018.
• Because of Morgan's prowess in the front row coupled with a strong back line, the Owls' opponents have not had an easy time racking up kills. Rice leads Conference USA and ranks 20th nationally in opponent hitting percentage with the Owls' foes attacking at a collective clip of just .145.
• Libero Lee Ann Cunningham leads Rice's back row with a digs per set average of 4.89 that ranks third in all of Conference USA and 52nd among all NCAA Division I volleyball players. She is one of five Rice players averaging at least 2.15 digs per set this year.
• On offense, it's Nicole Lennon who is the Owls' primary kill generator. She has accumulated 124 of the team's 463 terminations (26.8-percent) and averages a team-best 3.54 per set on the strength of a .206 attack percentage.
• Morgan serves as a great offensive presence for the Owls, too, as she leads the team in attack percentage (.377) while putting in 2.56 kills per set.
ONE HOLL OF A PERFORMANCE
• Against Tennessee State last Friday afternoon, junior setter Ann Hollas did something no Ladyjack had accomplished in almost six years when the Longview, Texas, product recorded a triple-double.
• Hollas went for 10 kills, 12 digs and a match-high 29 assists in the Ladyjacks' four-set victory over the Tigers, making her the first SFA player to notch a triple-double since Paige Holland did so on October 27, 2012, in a five-set Southland Conference win at Nicholls. Holland turned in 10 kills, 10 digs and 49 assists in that match.
• Hollas' triple-double is one of just two posted by a Southland Conference player so far this season. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Madison Green notched the first in a five-set match against South Florida on Friday, August 31.
RED ALERT
• Through the Ladyjacks' five-match winning streak, the best offensive weapon for the squad has been senior Peyton Redmond. Through her last five matches, the Liberty Hill, Texas, product is hitting .312 with 3.19 kills and 0.38 service aces per set.
• Defensively, Redmond has turned in a digs per set average of 3.00 which ranks second on the team over the last five outings.
DARON CLAIMS SOUTHLAND DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARD
• For the first time in her collegiate career, SFA middle blocker Danae Daron claimed the title of Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week. The league made that announcement in a press release issued Monday afternoon.
• Daron made life exceptionally difficult for opposing hitters inside Shelton Gym last week and never finished with fewer than four total blocks in each of the four matches she appeared in. Leading off the week by racking up a season-best seven block assists during a straight-set victory over Sun Belt adversary Louisiana-Monroe, Daron continued her defensive dominance against Tennessee State by totaling another seven block assists.
• Against St. John's Daron blocked six balls and closed out her high-powered defensive week with a four-block performance against Stetson Saturday morning. For the week the junior averaged 1.71 rejections per set and helped limit SFA's opponents to a collective attack percentage of .126.
• Offensively, Daron was just as deadly through the five-match stretch. She led all of the Ladyjacks' primary attackers with a hitting percentage of .409 while averaging 2.71 terminations per frame. Twice she generated double-digit kills with with the first occurrence coming against Tennessee State where she totaled 14 and hit .571 for the match. Daron followed that up with a 10-kill showing in the Ladyjacks' straight-set triumph over BIG EAST combatant St. John's.
• Currently, Daron's numbers rank among the best in the Southland Conference as she checks in at fourth in the league in blocks per set (1.12), sixth in attack percentage (.308) and ninth in points per set (3.44). She also leads SFA in all of those statistical categories.
WHERE THERE'S A WILL(IAMS), THERE'S A WAY
• Just as she did through her freshman year, sophomore middle blocker Anyia Williams has proven to be a highly effective offensive threat for the Ladyjacks so far in 2018.
• Williams leads both SFA and the Southland with an attack percentage of .353. Offensively, the sophomore is averaging 2.00 kills per set which makes her one of four Ladyjacks who are striking for at least two terminations per frame. Her attack percentage has helped SFA rise to the top of the Southland with a team attack percentage of .255 that also ranks 44th nationally.
• Her defense has been a strong component of her game, too, as Williams is averaging a 0.85 blocks per set.
COMING UP NEXT
SFA's final road trip in the month of September sends the Ladyjacks north to Denton, Texas, where they will be one of five teams taking part in the North Texas Challenge. SFA begins its three-match set Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. with a showdown against national power Wichita State. The Shockers received six votes in the latest version of the AVCA Coaches Poll which was released Monday afternoon and SFA will also tangle with host North Texas and SEC foe Mississippi State on Saturday.
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