Stephen F. Austin to Face Texas State in Southland Volleyball Finals
SAN ANTONIO - The No. 3 Ladyjacks jumped out to a 2-0 lead and
then fought off three set-point opportunities for No. 7 Nicholls that would
have forced a decisive fifth set and earned a berth in the title match of the
Southland Conference Tournament with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-20, 19-25, 27-25) win
over the Colonels in the semifinals.
SFA
(24-12) will take on top-seeded Texas State in the tournament finals, marking
the fifth time in the past six years they have met at some point in the
tournament, including the third time in the championship match since 2004. The
Bobcats punched their ticket with a 3-1 win over No. 4 Lamar in the day's first
semifinal.
Saturday's
match versus Nicholls (13-19) was a far cry from one week ago when the
Ladyjacks cruised to a 3-0 win in the regular season finale. The Colonels
struggled to find the floor in the first set, hitting just .026 but swung .327
the rest of the way and forced the Ladyjacks to put together a late three-point
rally in the fourth set to advance. Senior Manieka Golden led the Nicholls offense posting her seventh double-double of the season with a match-high 23 kills and had 14 digs.
Three
Ladyjacks made it into double-figure kills, led by Bailey with 15 kills and six
blocks, and Arielle Daron with 14 kills on .345 hitting. Overall, SFA swung
.219 on the night compared to .247 for the Colonels who were led by Manieka
Golden's 23 kills, the second consecutive night she went over 20 kills after
having 21 on Friday versus Sam Houston.
Melissa
Miksch finished with a team best 17 digs and five kills, including two key
swings in the final five points. She was one of three Ladyjacks that exceeded
11 digs as Kelsey Owens also had 10 with her six kills, and Madison Hanlan
added 10. Paloma Buckner also finished with 49 assists for the Ladyjacks.
SFA
swung just .158 in the first set, but it was more than enough as 10 misfires
from the Colonels aided the Ladyjack cause. SFA led by as much as five at 19-14
on consecutive Colonel errors, but Nicholls made it all the way back to tie it
up at 22 on a Rachel Yezak service ace. But Daron gave SFA the lead on the very
next play and three shots later Mary Caitlin Bottles put home the second of her
10 kills on the night to put SFA out in front 1-0.
It
was Daron that led the way in the second set with six kills, but SFA was never
able to shake free of the Colonels until she landed three straight kills late
in the set for a 22-17 lead. From there the Ladyjacks were able to close
it out with points coming from Daron and Bottles and headed into halftime with
a 2-0 stranglehold on the match.
But
the third set was nearly all Colonels with Golden and Jennifer Brandt each
landing four kills as Nicholls swung .387 to just .184 for SFA, who managed to
get four kills apiece as well from Bailey and Daron. The Colonels got a kill
from Jessica Addicks on for the set's first point and never let SFA take the
lead, taking the set and leading by as much as six at 22-16.
That
all set the stage for a dramatic fourth set that never saw a lead larger than
three points by SFA at 18-15. But Nicholls quickly tied it up with three
straight points of their own and the teams traded blows until the Colonels used
a Golden kill and a Bottles error to get their first set-point opportunity at
24-22. But Bottles responded with her next swing for a Ladyjack point and then
Miksch came through with a kill from the left side to pull even at 24 apiece.
Golden then gave Nicholls another shot to force a fifth set with a kill to the
back line, but Buckner found Miksch once again with her fourth kill of the set
that gave SFA the serve once again. And from there SFA did not give Nicholls
another chance as kills from Buckner and Bailey to close it out.
The
Ladyjacks will be going after their fifth Southland Conference Tournament title
on Sunday, in a match that will be aired on the Southland Conference TV Network
at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday with Doug Anderson and Jenny McGhee with the call.
Post Match Quotes:
Stephen F. Austin Coach Debbie
Humphreys
On
going up 2-0 and hanging on late"Coming
out of halftime we felt like if we could start strong and be the aggressor at
the service line, and we wanted to keep them out of the opportunity to make
perfect passes. They have a consistent setter and some hitters that can hit
that tempo, so the way that you defend is with aggressive service and
aggressive offense. We really never got that going and the match just turned
into a dogfight."
On
taking momentum from a tough match on to the title match"I
don't know if it's a huge momentum boost going into tomorrow, but it just shows
that this team is going to keep fighting. We've been in that situation several
times, and even as recently as last night against UTSA, when we've been down
and out and fought through. We got past it last night against UTSA, and did it
today against Nicholls mainly due to the confidence we have in our ability to
side out quickly."
On
playing Texas State in the final"It
would not really be a Southland tournament if we didn't play Texas State at one
point. It's always a battle, no matter the circumstance. They have great
offensive weapons, and if we can't disrupt their passes then they have a lot of
places they can go to. If they are in system they are an excellent team. We
will likely have to have more offense than what we've had the past two days,
but we are still a defensive team and we rely on that."
Stephen
F. Austin Senior Ashley Bailey
On pushing through against a scrappy
Nicholls team"I feel like we went in and talked about
fighting hard and I think we have done a great job of fighting and sticking
together as a team. We have had to work for all that we have gotten this
season, and tonight it paid off. Even though we were down, we were still
confident we could close out the match there at the end."
On having a better offensive match than
Round 1 vs UTSA"The coaches really just told me to
swing my arm fast and I believed in myself and good things happened. That is
something that they have tried to instill in me from the beginning, is just to
trust myself and trust my skills and the rest will take care of itself. I think
I did that tonight."
On closing out a senior year with a shot
at a Southland Tournament title"It's a great thing for me to be able to
end a senior year this way, especially being here a full five years and the
only thing way it can be better is to go out on top and advance to the NCAA
Tournament. I came in and have had a lot of success at SFA and hopefully it
gets to keep going."
Nicholls
Coach Chris Laird
"I am so proud of this team. We've come
a long way this season and we gave it all we had today. But it's tough to lose
like this. I feel like we had an opportunity in the end but the better team won
today. Stephen F. Austin came at us and got us out of our game plan. We were
able to make some adjustments but SFA was able to step it up and took control at
the end."