Oct. 4, 2007

Box Score

ARLINGTON, Texas - The rematch of last season's Southland Conference Tournament championship match had the same result on Thursday night, as the Ladyjack volleyball team defeated UT-Arlington 3-0 (30-23, 30-28, 30-21) to run its conference win streak to 56 matches.

SFA (15-5, 5-0) has now swept its last seven opponents, not losing an individual game since September 15 against Rice. It is the most consecutive sweeps an SFA team has posted since the 1999 squad recorded eight in a row.

"I thought we battled well, and played well overall," head coach Debbie Humphreys said. "I thought when we were able to hang on and win game two to go into the locker room 2-0 that it was big."

Even more impressive may be the mark that the Ladyjack seniors reached on Thursday. The senior trio of Traci Rohde, Jami Hill and JJ Jones picked up their 100th win in SFA uniforms in handing the Lady Mavs (10-7, 3-1) their first conference loss of the year. In their four-years in Nacogdoches the group is 100-18 (.847) with three SLC championships.

Game one saw a seesaw battle between the teams, with SFA committing seven errors on its first 26 attacks to give UTA a 15-13 at the game's first timeout. The Lady Mavs would use that momentum to push the lead all the way to seven before the Ladyjacks regained the serve at 20-14. SFA would then begin to rally, going on a 16-7 run to close out the game 30-23.

In game two, UTA would jump out to a 15-10 lead and even hold that lead late in the game at 25-26; however, once again the Ladyjacks showed resiliency by finishing strong with a 5-2 spurt to finish out the second frame with a 30-28 win and head into the locker room up 2-0.

The third game would see much of the same story as UTA came out of the gate with a purpose, not allowing SFA to take the lead until 20-19 mark. But once the Ladyjacks got the lead, they were able to finish the job. SFA would get kills from six different players in winning 10 of the final 11 points of the match, but in the end it was Shelly Swendig and Ashley Bailey blocking a Teena Sobczak attempt that did in the Lady Mavs for good at 30-21.

Lauren Railey, the reigning SLC Offensive Player of the Week, led the offense by putting home a match-high 18 kills on 38 attacks for a .263 attack percentage. Rohde and Swendig were right behind her, combining for 21 kills of their own. Rohde would add a match-high five blocks and Swendig would tally three of her own.

Jones finished with a double-double, notching six kills with a dozen digs and 33 assists on the night. It is the first time she has notched over 30 assists since September 14. Jami Hill justified her SLC Defensive Player of the Week selection by keeping alive 25 digs of her own. She now has 69 digs in her last three matches, all sweeps, for a 7.67 dpg average.

UTA was led by Torie Dacus with 11 kills and Emily Nedderman with 28 assists.

The Ladyjacks continue Southland Conference play on Saturday, with a 2:00 p.m. match in San Marcos against Texas State.

-SFA-