Stephen F. Austin
16-2, 3-0Southland
Houston Baptist
8-8, 1-2Southland
Coleman's Career Night, Redmond's Timely Block Lift Ladyjacks to 3-1 Win over Houston Baptist
9/27/2018 9:24:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SFA increases winning streak to 13 matches with four-set win over scrappy Huskies
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Questionable grammar aside, the one phrase that could best be attributed to the SFA volleyball team's latest win is one of the oldest in the books.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
The Ladyjacks, fortunately, managed to learn that lesson and get the win Thursday night inside Shelton Gym.
Senior outside hitter Haley Coleman pounded down a career-high 19 kills and senior outside hitter Peyton Redmond added 12 more and finished SFA's 13th win in a row with a solo block as the Ladyjacks turned back a strong upset bid from a feisty Houston Baptist squad.
With the 3-1 win, SFA is now one of just two Southland Conference squads (Abilene Christian is the other) who have not suffered a loss in league play thus far in 2018.
SET ONE | SFA 25, Houston Baptist 21
• It took until midway through the frame, but the Ladyjacks were finally able to gain control with a major win in the opening frame of the match.
• Houston Baptist took control of an early back-and-forth affair by receiving terminations from three different players as well as a service ace from Camie Copeland as part of a 6-2 run that put the visitors ahead 14-12.
• The Huskies remained in front until Redmond began an 11-3 SFA run by pounding down the second of her three first-set terminations. Through that surge the senior chipped in two kills and her lone service ace of the night while junior middle blocker Danae Daron teamed with Coleman once and junior setter Ann Hollas another time to post a pair of blocks that lifted SFA up 24-18.
• Houston Baptist narrowed the gap be registering three consecutive points but out of an SFA timeout Coleman handed the home team a 1-0 lead with her sixth termination of the frame. She and the Huskies' Ashtyn Richey went toe-to-toe in the set with each player totaling six kills.
SET TWO | SFA 25, Houston Baptist 13
• Wanting to make short work of the Huskies, the Ladyjacks watched Coleman and Redmond pound down two kills each during their 9-4 run to begin the second frame. Senior McKenzie Brewer added her only service ace of the night during that run which was aided by a trio of unforced Houston Baptist attack errors.
• Three terminations from Daron as well as another trio of unforced errors by Houston Baptist represented the majority of SFA's 8-1 run that pushed the hosts ahead by an 18-7 margin.
• Though Houston Baptist managed to make a run at it by using a pair of rejections and a Megan Patillo service ace to go on a 5-1 run that trimmed SFA's lead to 20-13, the Ladyjacks responded with a 5-0 run featuring a kill and an ace from Coleman to win the set and take a 2-0 lead.
• SFA posted a hitting percentage of .290 in the set and held the Huskies to a lowly -.025 clip on offense.
SET THREE | Houston Baptist 25, SFA 20
• All SFA fans in attendance probably had good reason to believe the match was close to being over if the early stages of set three were any indication. Senior middle blocker Makenzee Hanna fired in a pair of kills and Daron capped a 6-1 SFA run to start the frame with a service ace.
• Entering the match for the first time, junior Xariah Williams terminated on her first three swings and Redmond added two more kills during a 6-1 SFA run which increased the Ladyjacks' lead to 13-5. That, however, is where things quickly swung in favor of the Huskies.
• Daron kept SFA in front by seven, 15-8, with another kill before Houston Baptist closed the match on a 17-5 run to force a fourth set. The Huskies notched nine kills and a pair of service aces during the surprising surge and kept SFA off-balance with an aggressive service game and some well-placed attacks.
• The Huskies' offense peaked in the frame as Houston Baptist hit .222 while holding SFA to a mark of just .125.
SET FOUR | SFA 27, Houston Baptist 25
• A fifth set seemed all but certain as the Huskies charged out of the gates on a 4-1 run and head leads of 17-11, 18-13 and 22-17, but the never-say-die attitude of SFA made all the difference.
• Three straight terminations by Mikayla Vivens put the Huskies three points away from getting the match to a fifth set, but SFA managed to reestablish its front row defense just in time. Blocks from Daron and Coleman and Daron and Hanna sparked a 7-2 run by the Ladyjacks who fended off three match-point tries by the visitors in the process.
• Trailing 24-21, SFA used terminations by Coleman and Daron coupled with an attack error by Patillo to knot things up at 24. Patillo managed to give her team the lead for the last time when her kill made matters 25-24, but it was all SFA from there.
• Houston Baptist committed a pair of attack error after Patillo's termination before Redmond rejected Patillo's kill attempt right next to the far antenna to seal the deal for SFA.
KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Offense was not a difficult commodity to come by Thursday night and neither were double-doubles. Coleman (19 kills, 16 digs), Redmond (12 kills, 15 digs) and Brewer (16 assists, 11 digs) notched double-doubles in SFA's victory while freshman libero Sabrina Monaco came up with a match-high 18 digs.
• Daron, Hollas and Anyia Williams each finished with four block assists each, helping SFA edge out the Huskies in terms of blocking by a 9-8 margin.
• Doing just what her team needed her to do at the perfect time, Xariah Williams finished with eight crucial terminations through the final two sets of the match. The junior hit .412 in the victory and gave SFA the third option they needed on the pin.
• Hollas finished with a team-high 29 assists to go along with one kills and an ace.
• Madison O'Brien finished with 40 assists, 18 digs and two of the Huskies' six service aces in her squad's setback. Vivens (15 kills) and Richey (11 kills) hit double-digits in the kill department but after putting down six kills in the opening frame Richey finished with just five the rest of the way.
• Megan Patillo totaled a match-high six blocks for the Huskies.
• SFA increased its winning streak to 13 matches which is tied with BYU, Illinois and Pittsburgh for the nation's longest active winning streak. The Ladyjacks' 16 total wins are the most by any NCAA Division I volleyball team in the land at this point.
QUOTABLE
SFA head coach Debbie Humphreys on the turning point in the third set | "We executed very well for the first half of the third set and then we just suffered from a lack of discipline. We made a number of uncharacteristic errors and all of those came back and bit us. Then Houston Baptist started playing out of their minds, we stared playing tight and it was just a domino effect. But again, fortunately, in a tight set we found a way to win."
…on the style of play necessary to win | "You can't play like you're holding onto something. You have to play like you have something to prove every single night. I think sometimes when you've had the success we've had to this point in the season and you do expect good things we have to remember that the only reason these good things are happening to us is when we just go attack people. We cannot become timid. We cannot become passive. Everybody we're going to play is a good solid team. We have to take care of our business to take our opponents out of what they want to do. We're all NCAA Division I volleyball teams."
…on where Xariah Williams would be most effective | "The question was where did we need her? Did we need her more on the right, did we need her more on the left and clearly after the first few sets we needed her on the right. She came in, lit it up and fortunately we didn't have to make a decision of where to put her in the fifth set because there was no fifth set."
…on the biggest lesson the team learned | "No matter what the score is, no matter who you're playing, there's a certain style of volleyball we have to stick with and we cannot let up on the discipline side of things."
COMING UP NEXT
Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m., the two teams who have won each of the last four Southland Conference regular season titles will duke it out in Shelton Gym when SFA hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Southland tilt will be carried nationwide on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Greg Miller and Brittany Castledine on the call.
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