Stephen F. Austin
7-2
St. John's
7-3
Redmond, Daron Lead Ladyjacks in 3-0 Pasting of St. John's
9/7/2018 8:11:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SFA hits .366, runs winning streak to three
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Depth is a tool that SFA has long used to its advantage and that signature of the program was on display again inside Shelton Gym Friday evening.
Powered by the hard-hitting trio of Peyton Redmond, Danae Daron and Xariah Williams, SFA took the fight right to BIG EAST adversary St. John's as soon as the opening serve was in the air and scored a 3-0 victory over the Red Storm.
Using its second different starting lineup of the day and fifth different starting combo of the year, the Ladyjacks hit .366, out blocked St. John's 11-2 and received some great all-around performances up and down the lineup. Xariah Williams made her first start of the season and proceeded to hit over .300 with nine kills.
SET ONE | SFA 25, St. John's 22
• Thanks to a 4-0 run to start the set, the Ladyjacks did just enough to hold off their foes from the BIG EAST in the opening set.
• Xariah Williams started the match in style for SFA, launching down a powerful kill on the opening swing of the tilt. That kick-started the Ladyjacks' run that culminated with a kill from Coleman.
• SFA remained in the lead until Lexie Lobdell, who was playing back in her home state, started taking it to the Ladyjacks. With SFA up 14-11, Lobdell struck for four kills during a 6-1 St. John's run which put the Red Storm ahead 17-15.
• St. John's kept control of things until the late stages of the set. Daron ignited a 6-1 run with third of four kills in the set and an attack error by the Red Storm's Rachele Rastelli ended SFA's surge and put the home team ahead 24-20.
• The Red Storm fought off two set points before Daron shot down a kill that gave the home team a 1-0 lead.
SET TWO | SFA 25, St. John's 18
• An early 5-2 run gave St. John's the upper hand early before SFA was finally able to string together some points on the serve of Redmond midway through the set.
• SFA's offense continued its crescendo in the set, hitting .361 while St. John's went in the other direction and settled at .200 for the frame.
• Following another kill by Rastelli that pushed St. John's up 10-8, Daron started an 8-1 run that featured kills from three different Ladyjacks as well as another ace from Redmond. With their lead at 16-11 after that surge, SFA had to withstand just one more push from the visitors.
• A 5-1 run led by Jordan McCalla (two kills) cut SFA's lead to 18-17 but the Ladyjacks answered with a set-clinching 7-1 run that included four kills and a pair of rejections.
SET THREE | SFA 25, St. John's 11
• With their sights set on the win column for the second time in less than five hours, SFA made sure the Red Storm were never given a chance in the final frame.
• The Ladyjacks' offense peaked in the frame, striking for 17 terminations on 27 swings against just a single error for an attack percentage of .593.
• St. John's managed to obtain an early 1-0 lead when Rastelli delivered the set's first kill but it was all Ladyjacks from there.
• Six SFA players struck for kills during the Ladyjacks' ensuing 14-3 run that left the Red Storm at a loss for answers.
• Redmond's fourth and final ace of the match was SFA's third of the frame and upped the Ladyjacks' lead to 21-7.
• The Red Storm finished with only nine kills in the frame and hit .160.
KEY PERFORMERS/STATS OF NOTE
• Continuing her recent stretch of strong performances, Redmond could seemingly do no wrong once again. The senior finished with a match-high 11 kills to go along with nine digs and four of the Ladyjacks' six service aces.
• Daron added another 10 kills and hit a match-best .533 and stood at the forefront of a Ladyjack defensive unit that out-blocked St. John's 11-2. The junior finished with six total rejections - one solo and five assisted.
• Hanna wasn't far behind Daron as she submitted a final line of five block assists, four kills and an assist.
• In what was an impressive first start of the year, Xariah Williams pounded down nine kills on 23 swings (.348 attack percentage). The junior also added four block assists and a pair of digs
• Jordan McCalla turned in 11 kills for St. John's who hit .202 as a team. Defensively the Red Storm were led by Amanda Sanabia's match-high 21 digs.
COMING UP NEXT
• A Southland/Atlantic Sun showdown with a perfect The Fredonia Hotel/Holiday Inn Express SFA Invitational record on the line is next up on the Ladyjacks' docket. SFA will tangle with Stetson at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the second of four matches inside Shelton Gym to close out the invitational. Stetson posted a five-set win over St. John's and a four-set victory over Grambling State during the first day of competition.
-SFA-
