Soutland Volleyball Tournament - Day Two
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin volleyball team punched its ticket to the Southland Conference Tournament championship match with a 3-0 (30-22, 30-14, 30-18) win over Northwestern State in the SLC semifinals, and will now need one more win to defend its SLC Tournament title from a year ago.
SFA (27-7) has never dropped a match to Northwestern State (11-16) under Debbie Humphreys, running her record to 32-0 all-time against the Demons.
Never in question, the Ladyjacks made a statement in front of an enthusiastic SFA crowd that made the trip to San Antonio by hitting .339 on the afternoon, only missing the mark 10 times in 109 attempts. SFA would out block the Demons 14-2 in the match, marking the second highest block total the Ladyjacks have posted this season.
The win is also the 19th sweep of the season for SFA, tying the school record for sweeps in a season.
The Ladyjacks would score the first three points of game one on their way to a 15-9 early lead behind three kills from Traci Rohde and two of Ashley Bailey's eight kills on the afternoon, eventually forcing a Demon timeout at the 19-13 mark of the first game. SFA dominated the game at the net, finishing with a 6-1 edge in blocks and hit at a .256 clip in the first frame on its way to a 30-22 win.
The story continued to be the same at the beginning of game two as SFA broke it open early as JJ Jones would serve 12 consecutive Ladyjack points, pushing the lead to 16-3 before the Demons could regain the serve. Northwestern would get back with in nine points at 18-9, but then Jones would find Rohde who would hammer home a kill to quell any momentum the Demons might have picked up. In the end it would be Jones setting up Bailey for a monster kill to put SFA at a game point opportunity. Eventually Jones would find junior Shelly Swendig for the game's final point to send the Ladyjacks into the locker room with a 2-0 advantage.
Rohde would lead the initial charge in the third stanza as well, slamming in three of her game-high six kills in SFA's first five points on their way to a 9-3 lead. Northwestern State would continue to fight, however, and pulled back to within three points before Jones switched from passer to hitter, taking a pass from freshman Whitney Schott for a deep-line kill to push the lead back to 15-11. SFA would continue to build upon its lead, as Lauren Railey would knock home three kills in the game's final 12 points, including the match point on a set from Schott.
Rohde led all players for the match, posting 12 kills for the second straight night on a .407 attack percentage and has now picked up at least a dozen kills in her last five matches and is hitting .379 in that span. She also picked up five blocks, all block assists, to move past Aubrey Duncan for th all-time lead with 433 block assists for her career.Lauren Railey would be right behind her offensively, picking up 11 kills, nine digs and five blocks while not committing a single error in 23 tries for a season-high .478 attack percentage.
The setting tandem of Jones and Schott would combine for 41 assists with Jones adding in eight kills, four blocks and four aces in another all-around effort. With her 22 assists she now just needs 11 more assists to take sole possession of the all-time lead at SFA.
Match Six
AJ Watlington set a career high with 15 kills in a match that saw 49 ties and 17 lead changes as No. 5 Texas State knocked off No. 1 Lamar 3-1 (30-27, 30-27, 28-30, 30-23) on Saturday to advance to the 2007 Southland Conference Tournament Championship Match.
The ?Cats (20-11) now get a chance to avenge a pair of regular season losses to No. 2 Stephen F. Austin (27-7), who swept No. 6 Northwestern State in the other semifinal match. Texas State advances to the SLC Tournament championship for the first time since 2005, when the Bobcats defeated the Ladyjacks in the semifinal before sweeping UTSA to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Lamar (25-9) pulled out to an early 11-7 lead in game one before a 5-1 Bobcat rally tied it at 12-12. The two teams would stay within three points of each other the rest of the game, but Jones took over near the end to lead Texas State to the 30-27 win. Jones tallied two of the final three Bobcat kills and served an ace that put the ?Cats at game point before they sealed the win on a Lamar error.
Game two started with a 5-0 Texas State run, but the lead quickly shrank to one and started another back-and-forth game that featured 10 ties and four lead changes. Lamar managed to claim a two point edge at 22-20 and held its advantage until Watlington took over with consecutive kills that tied the game at 26-26. Another kill by the freshman gave Texas State a 28-27 lead, as the 'Cats scored the final three points of the stanza to hold a 2-0 match lead.
The Bobcats looked for the sweep out of the break but encountered another tough game with 17 ties and six lead changes in it. Holding a 19-15 lead, Texas State gave up a 6-1 rally to Lamar as the Lady Cardinals staked a 21-20 lead. The two teams then traded points until it was tied at 28-28, but Genevieve Gladle’s ace gave Lamar a 30-28 win to stay alive.
Trying to force a fifth and deciding game, Lamar staked a 9-5 lead in game four before the Bobcats fought back to tie the game before using a 7-2 run to take a 22-17 lead. The Lady Cardinals trimmed it to 23-21 but would get no closer as Watlington slammed home the match-winner for a 30-23 win.
Watlington was one of four Bobcats in double figures in kills, with Lawrencia Brown adding 14, Melinda Cave 12 and Jessica Weynand 11. Texas State also spread the ball around on defense with five players with at least 12 digs. Shelbi Irvin led the ?Cats with 16 while Brown and Weynand each had 15 and Kacey Wimpy and Brittany Collins had 12 digs. Irvin and Collins also combined for 57 assists, with Collins leading the way with 34 while Irvin added 23.
Texas State also set a pair of season highs in the match with 69 kills and 17 team blocks against the regular season champion Lady Cardinals (25-9).
Courtney Mitchel led Lamar with 19 kills while Molli Abel added 11. Four Lamar players tallied at least 10 digs, led by Andrea Hamilton’s 16.
Live stats for Sunday’s championship match will be available via host UTSA’s website at goutsa.com. The Southland Conference will also provide free live streaming video via the conference’s new Southland.tv website.
Championship Match - 2 p.m.
No. 5 Seed - Texas State vs. No. 2 Seed - Stephen F. Austin