Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament - Day 1

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Courtesy: Southland.org

            Release: 11/16/2007

 SLC Volleyball Tournament Day 1 Final Box Scores 

Courtesy: Southland.org

Destiny Mason posted a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs in Lamar's first round win over Sam Houston. 

(Match 1)

SAN ANTONIO – Emily Jones broke the Texas State single-season record for block assists while AJ Watlington totaled 11 kills as the fifth-seeded Bobcats advanced to the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals with a 3-0 (30-26, 30-14, 30-25) sweep of McNeese State on Friday.

The ‘Cats (19-11) will now face the winner of top-seeded Lamar and eighth-seeded Sam Houston State at 5 p.m. Saturday with the winner advancing to the championship match.

Jones finished with seven block assists, giving her 132 on the season to surpass Amy Amundson’s old record of 131. Amy Weigle also pulled within a block assist of fifth place on the single season list with her 112th on the year while Brittany Collins set a career high with seven aces in the match.

As a team, Texas State hit a season-best .380 in the match while avenging a regular-season loss in Lake Charles to the Cowgirls (19-14).

The Bobcats controlled the match early on, opening game one with a 15-10 lead before McNeese State rallied with an 11-5 run to claim a one point advantage. From there the teams would trade points until a pair of Melinda Cave kills helped the ‘Cats reclaim a 27-26 lead. Collins’ first ace gave the Bobcats game point, and Watlington put one just inside the back line for the game one winner.

Three more aces from Collins in game two helped spark a 15-4 opening run for Texas State, who dominated the second frame with a 30-15 win. Jones and Jessica Weynand were perfect in game two, combining for nine kills in nine attempts to lead the offensive charge.

McNeese State came out in game three looking to capture some momentum but fell behind 21-12 after a 14-6 Texas State run. Down 28-18, the Cowgirls tried to save their season with a furious 7-1 run to pull within five before Weynand’s tenth kill clinched the match.

Lawrencia Brown added a double-double with 11 kills and 13 digs on offense to go along with a .360 attack percentage. Shelbi Irvin led the ‘Cats with 26 assists while Collins added 21. On defense, Kacey Wimpy finished with 12 digs while Watlington added five blocks.

McNeese State was led by Chanel Tyler and Alyson Jones, who each finished with 10 kills, but a staunch Bobcat defense held the Cowgirls to a .148 team hitting percentage. Sarah Cartie tallied 29 assists while Jessica Strama netted 12 digs in the match.

Match 2

After a slow start, the No. 1 seed Lamar University volleyball team stormed past the No. 8 Sam Houston State Bearkats 3-0 in the opening round of the Southland Conference Tournament at the Convocation Center on the campus of UT-San Antonio.

With the win the Lady Cardinals improve to 25-8 on the year and advance to play the Texas State Bobcats on Saturday a 5 p.m. in the semifinals. With the loss Sam Houston finishes the year with an 11-19 record.

The Lady Cardinals struggled offensively in game one as Sam Houston rallied to a 24-19 lead. With the game slipping away and the LU hitting just .025, head coach Justin Gibert called a time out to help his team gain their composure. The break in the action was just what the Lady Cards needed, as they ripped off an 11-3 run to take the opening game 30-27.

Lamar finished game one with a .143 hitting percentage, while the Bearkats managed to hit just .044. Kaci Brewer led the way offensively for LU, knocking down five kills, while Molli Abel and Destiny Mason each added four kills. Adrianne Meengs passed out 13 assists and picked up six digs in the game.

In game two the Lady Cards continued the strong play that helped them race past the Bearkats in game one, hitting .356 as a team and cruising to a 30-20 win. Brewer and Mason were the offensive leaders for Lamar, posting eight and seven kills apiece, while Meengs dished out 16 assists.

In game three Lamar continued to steamroll through the Bearkats, closing out the Kats with a 30-16 win. The Cardinals hot offensive play propelled them to a .344 hitting percentage, led by Brewer who had four kills. Meengs continued her strong play from the setter position, passing out 12 assists.

"I though t we came out a little jittery in game one, but we settled in and got it going late in the game," Gibert said "We rallied behind out outsides Kaci (Brewer) and Destiny (Mason), and of course the conference player of the year Molli Abel was very impressive with her shot making. This is a nice win that sets us up for a big match tomorrow against Texas State."

Brewer led the way for Lamar in the match, knocking down 17 kills with a .400 hitting percentage, while Mason was dominating with a double-double, knocking down 14 kills and picking up 13 digs. Abel posted a match-high .571 hitting percentage with eight kills, while Meengs finished the match with 41 assists and nine digs. Libero Andrea Hamilton also played a solid match for LU, registering 10 digs.

The Bearkats were led by Cynthia Yarotsky who had 14 kills and 14 digs, while Megan McNamara passed out 25 assists. The SHSU defense was led by Shamira Washington who collected a match-high 16 digs.

Match 3

Newcomers Markie Robichau and Megan Manning helped lead the Northwestern State volleyball team to a first-round Southland Conference Tournament upset of third-seeded Texas-Arlington Friday afternoon, with the Lady Demons avenging a regular-season 3-0 loss at UTA three weeks ago with a 3-1 neutral court triumph over the Mavericks.

Northwestern (11-15) won its third straight match this season and recorded its first-ever SLC Tournament win over one of the SLC’s premiere programs. UTA (19-11), which reached the NCAA Final Four in 1989, was denied its 24th 20-win season with its first opening-round loss since 2003. The Mavericks have 12 SLC championships, twice as many as any other team, and had four players voted on the All-SLC team, including two first-team selections, while no Northwestern players even received honorable mention status.

The Lady Demons overcame a 26-30 loss in the opening game to take the next three, 30-27, 30-26 and 30-23. Northwestern will play top-seeded and defending tournament champion Stephen F. Austin, a 3-1 winner Friday night over the eighth-seeded host team, Texas-San Antonio, in a 2 o’clock semifinal match Saturday. The championship game is Sunday. SFA beat Alabama in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

Robichau, a sophomore transfer from Henderson State, had a match-high 23 kills, hit .236 and added 23 digs. Manning, a freshman from Mesquite, Texas, contributed 25 digs.

Sophomore Megan Dockery added 21 digs and 65 assists, while senior Ariane Damasio led NSU with a .273 attack percentage while notching 14 kills. Senior Talita Santos had 16 kills as senior Janel Fisher-Thurston hit .258 and added 11 kills and 15 digs. Sophomore Yelana Enwere added 11 kills.

Northwestern held a .176-.165 advantage in attack percentage but had 71 assists to 49 for UTA.

UTA had won 32 of the previous 34 meetings, with NSU’s only two wins coming two years ago in the midst of UTA’s worst season in more than two decades.

That was the first season NSU qualified for the SLC Tournament. The Lady Demons made it back last year in Brittany Uffelman’s first season as head coach after two years as an assistant.

"Winning a first-round match was a primary goal for us this season," she said. "It’s a big step forward but it’s not all we are capable of. Our team played very hard, very together and very inspired today and we can play with anybody if we play that way.

"We played relaxed and confident. I don’t want to sound cocky, but we felt very good going in. The pressure was totally on UTA with five seniors on their team, and we knew we had a lot more to bring to the court than we had showed against them three weeks ago," said Uffelman. "When we lost game one, it wasn’t like we were really down. We controlled things pretty well. We made one adjustment on defense and came though over the last three games."

UTA hit .371 to prevail in the opening game. Northwestern built a seven-point lead in the second game as Robichau had back-to-back kills and held off the Mavericks.

In game three, the score was knotted at 24 before two straight kills by Robichau off assists by Dockery, followed by an attack error by UTA and two more Robichau putaways with assists by Dockery for a 29-24 advantage. Enwere finished the game with a kill on another Dockery assist.

The clinching win in the best-of-five match came after NSU went ahead to stay, 11-10, on another Robichau kill. NSU climbed up 18-13 and UTA never got closer than four afterward.

Match 4

The Ladyjack volleyball gave up an early rally to UT-San Antonio in the first game, but rallied to assert its will and capture a 3-1 (29-31, 30-19, 30-22, 30-18) win in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament on Friday.

SFA (26-7) led throughout the first game and even had a game point at 29-27 before the Roadrunners (13-21) rallied behind its home crowd. That would be as close as it would get, however, as SFA would go on to take its 16th straight win over UTSA and advance to face Northwestern State in the second round of the SLC Tournament at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The Ladyjacks struggled in finding their groove throughout the night, only hitting .157; but, that was more than enough against the youthful Roadrunners who only managed to hit .060 for the night. SFA even held them to negative attack percentages in the second and fourth games.

Lauren Railey and Traci Rohde each tallied double figures in kills with 13 and 12, respectively. JJ Jones picked up a double-double with 30 assists and 14 digs and now only needs 33 more assists to take hold of the all-time lead at SFA.

Newly crowned SLC Libero of the Year led five Ladyjacks in double-figure digs with 23, and Rohde and Ashley Bailey would each have six blocks for the evening.

Freshman Kendra Rowland led UTSA with 22 kills, but missed the mark 15 times and only posted a .113 attack percentage on the evening.

Other results from the tournament include Northwestern State upsetting No. 3 seeded UT-Arlington 3-1 to move on to face SFA tomorrow. Also, Texas State will face Lamar in the other semifinal after sweeps of McNeese State and Sam Houston, respectively.

Day Two Matches

Match 5: No. 2 Seed - Stephen F. Austin vs. No. 6 Seed - Northwestern State

Match 6: No. 1 Seed - Lamar vs. No. 5 Seed - Texas State

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