Stephen F. Austin
19-2,7-1Southland
Southeastern Louisiana
10-12,2-6Southland
Massive Rally in Set One Spurs SFA to 3-0 Win over Southeastern Louisiana
10/19/2019 3:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Ladyjacks come back from 24-19 down in set one, lock up 11th-straight sweep
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Staring a 24-19 deficit squarely in the face at the tail end of the first frame, it looked as though the SFA volleyball team's nation-leading streak of sets won was going to come to an end at the hands of Southeastern Louisiana.
It didn't. And neither did the Ladyjacks' Southland Conference dominance.
Staving off five match-point tries by the Lady Lions, SFA ended the first set on an 8-1 run to send a raucous Shelton Gym congregation into a frenzy and used the residual effects from that win to secure its 11th-consecutive 3-0 victory.
SET ONE | rv SFA 27, Southeastern Louisiana 25
• With their sights set squarely on being the team to put an end to the Ladyjacks' nation-leading streak of consecutive sets won, the Lady Lions came out strong and controlled things for the majority of the opening frame.
• SFA opened up just two narrow leads early in the frame - one by two points (3-1) and the other by one (8-7) - as Southeastern Louisiana showed off its impressive array of attackers. Eighteen of the Lady Lions' 42 kills came in the set and Caroline Golden captained a 7-2 run by the visitors with a kill as well as a pair of service aces to hike their lead to 20-15.
• Jolie Hidalgo added another trio of terminations by the visitors to put them ahead 24-19. That's when the Ladyjacks came to life.
• Ariana Pagan started SFA's massive comeback with the last of her three terminations in the set, Evans pounded down two kills and Taya Mitchell came up with a pair of blocks - the last of which was an emphatic solo stuff of the Lady Lions' Jodi Edo - to knot things at 24.
• Southeastern Louisiana ended the run with a Karlee Wilkerson kill, but SFA had the momentum. Evans slammed home two more terminations while Danae Daron and Ann Hollas joined forces for another rejection to help the hosts end the frame on a 3-0 run.
• Evans came up with six of SFA's 15 kills in the frame and half of the Ladyjacks' 14 blocks came in set one.
SET TWO | rv SFA 25, Southeastern Louisiana 17
• Slightly demoralized after losing their grip on the opening set, the Lady Lions pushed their way out to an early lead in the second set before some unforced errors helped SFA take control the rest of the way.
• Down 4-3, SFA benefited from a pair of attack errors as well as a bad set by Southeastern Louisiana to power a 4-1 run that put the home team up 7-5.
• Pagan and Xariah Williams fired in kills through another 4-1 Ladyjack surge to make matters 12-8. Southeastern Louisiana crawled back into it with a pair of solo blocks as well as a kill from Edo which powered a 4-0 run that knotted things up at 12. From there, however, it was all SFA.
• The Ladyjacks answered their Louisiana foe's 4-0 run with a match-clinching 13-5 scoring spree. Through that run, Hollas came up with a trio of kills, Maddie Miller served up an ace and the combination of Daron and Williams blocked a pair of balls to put SFA up by two sets.
• After letting Southeastern Louisiana hit .250 in the opening frame, SFA made some well-timed adjustments on defense and held the Lady Lions to an attacking clip of only .077 in set two.
SET THREE | rv SFA 25, Southeastern Louisiana 15
• Mitchell and Williams set the tone with a block to start the third set and the Lady Lions weren't able to recover. That rejection helped SFA go on a 7-2 run to begin the frame and allowed the hosts to keep Southeastern Louisiana at arms length the rest of the way.
• The Lady Lions pulled within four points on four occasions - the last time when Evans committed an attack error to make the score 16-12 - but SFA allowed them to get no closer.
• Three more kills from Evans, a service ace courtesy of Hollas and two blocks by Williams represented most of the points on SFA's 9-3 run to finish the set.
• Southeastern Louisiana amassed only 10 kills and hit .048 in the set thanks to the Ladyjacks' strong defense.
KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Evans' match-high 15 terminations paced an SFA offense that hit .250 in the match. Williams added seven on a match-high attack percentage of .583.
• Margaret Dean finished with her second-straight double-double, amassing 17 assists and 16 digs. Also looming large in the back row was Miller who finished with a match-best 22 digs. In the front row, Daron and Mitchell posted six blocks each to lead the way.
• By getting the win, the Ladyjacks became the second NCAA Division I volleyball team in 2019 to reach the 20-win mark. Nineteenth-ranked Western Kentucky became the first by getting a win Friday night - a little over 12 hours from when SFA was scheduled for first serve Saturday.
• With its latest 20-win campaign, SFA has now reached the 20 win mark in 23 seasons under the direction of head coach Debbie Humphreys.
• SFA ran its streak of consecutive sets won to 34 with the victory and remains the only Southland Conference team without a league loss.
• Golden and Wilkerson netted 11 kills apiece for Southeastern Louisiana while Lizzy Low scooped up a team-high 21 digs.
COMING UP NEXT
• Halfway through their Southland Conference schedule, the Ladyjacks set out on the road once again to begin the second half of league action. Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m., SFA steps inside the Prince Center in Conway, Ark., to do battle with Southland combatant Central Arkansas in a rematch of the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament championship match.
-SFA-
