Tuesday, August 30
Saulsberry’s Career High Night Leads Troy Volleyball to Home Opening Win
TROY, Alabama – Jordyn Saulsberry earned a career-high 12 kills en route to a 3-0 home opening victory for Troy volleyball over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday night at Trojan Arena.
The Trojans (2-2) opened its homestand with their first three set victory of the season over Southeastern Louisiana (1-2). The Trojans won the first set 25-19 and the final two sets 25-20.
TURNING POINT
Troy had a .250 team attack percentage in the third set and jumped out to an 8-3 lead and never looked back as the Lions only came within one point of the Trojans for the remainder of the set.
STAT OF THE MATCH
Sophomore Jordyn Saulsberry picked up 12 kills in the match, a new career-high. The previous career-high also came against Southeastern Louisiana last year as she earned seven. Saulsberry picked up two kills in the first set, six in the second (including three in a row to give the Trojans an eight point advantage) and four in the third.
QUOTABLE
"We put a lot of work into practice yesterday to try and fix some of the errors we had last weekend," Sonny Kirkpatrick said. "I thought our players did a really nice job of coming out and fixing those things. It was very apparent tonight and I'm really proud of what they showed and the work they put in just trying to get better this week."
UP NEXT
The Trojans will host the Trojan Invitational with matches beginning on Friday at noon when Troy takes on Southern. The Trojans next game will be at 7 p.m., against Valparaiso on Friday. The Trojans conclude the Trojan Invitational with a 9 a.m., match against New Mexico State on Saturday.
NOTEWORTHY
• Troy extended its home opener win streak to four years in a row with the win over Southeastern Louisiana.
• Reina Terry added 27 assists to her season tally and picked up 11 digs for a double-double performance.
• Alisha Hinrichs was the only other Trojan to have a double-digit performance with 12 digs.
• Avalon Nero picked up two service aces in tonight's win.
Texas State Sets Attendance Record Tuesday Night Against Baylor
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Tuesday night in Strahan Coliseum the Texas State volleyball team set a new attendance record of 3,634 in a 3-1 (16-25, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25) setback to Baylor. The previous attendance mark was set during the 2014 season, also against the Bears.
The Bobcats fall to 1-3 on the young season while Baylor improves to 3-1.
After falling behind early, Texas State came back to tie the first set 5-5 following a kill from Lauren Kirch and an attack error by the Bears. The visitors responded with a 5-1 run to take the lead for good the rest of the set.
Set two saw the Bobcats jump out to a 4-0 lead behind two errors by Baylor and a kill apiece from Jordan Kohl and Kelsey Weynand. Texas State maintained the advantage the entire set its defense that held the Bears to nine kills and a .000 attack percentage. The Bobcat defense also posted four blocks with Kirch having a hand in all of them.
The third set saw Texas State record a .314 attack percentage behind 14 kills to only three errors. Kohl pace the Bobcats with five kills and a .455 attack percentage and Weynand added four kills with a .375 attack percentage. However, Baylor hit .389 in the set on 16 kills to just two errors to take a 2-1 advantage in the match.
A 3-0 run to begin the fourth set by the Bobcats was capped off with an ace from Weynand. Baylor responded with four straight points before back-to-back kills from Kohl and Weynand put Texas State back in front 5-4. The Bears took back the lead and eventually stretched it to 17-11.
The Bobcats answered back by winning seven of the next nine points behind four kills by Kohl to cut the deficit to 19-18. Five of the following six points went in favor of Baylor to bring them to match point. An attack error by the visitors followed with a block by Madison Daigle and Kohl kept Texas State's hopes alive but the Bears got a kill to take home the victory.
Kohl led the Bobcats with 21 kills and a match-high .556 attack percentage. Both were season-highs for her as well. Weynand added 13 kills and seven digs.
Emily Shelton recorded a double-double of 36 assists and 12 digs. Both Micah Dinwiddie and Alex Silver reached double-digits in digs with 14 and 11, respectively.
At the net, Kirch had six blocks and Shelton had three. Morgan Lewis, Megan Porter, Kohl and Weynand all finished with two rejections each.
Pacing Baylor was Katie Staiger with 26 kills on a .267 attack percentage. She had 12 digs as well to finish with a double-double. Jana Brusek posted a match best 22 digs and Morgan Reed had 45 of the team's 51 assists.
Next up for Texas State is the Creeds & Crests Classic this weekend in Strahan Coliseum. The Bobcats open with Stephen F. Austin at 10:30 a.m. on Friday. They will also face Kennesaw State on Friday at 7 p.m. and conclude the tournament against Tulsa at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Demons Spoil Ragin' Cajuns Home Debut
LAFAYETTE – Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball fell to Northwestern State in its 2016 Earl K. Long Gym debut as the Demons bounced back from a sluggish first set to rally for the 3-2 (15-25, 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 15-9) win.
NSU (1-3) committed 13 attack errors in the first-set defeat, but limited the miscues the final four sets committing one less error than Louisiana (0-4).
Tuesday's match started a five-match homestand for Louisiana which continues this weekend with the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic and wraps up next Tuesday (Sept. 6) against McNeese State.
Chanelle Gardner and Stacey Reilly fueled the Ragin' Cajuns offense, tallying 14 kills apiece. The duo reached double digits in kills for the fourth time in as many outings this season.
Gardner threw up a career-high tying eight blocks. The senior middle blocker increased her career total to 306 blocks, making her just the second Ragin' Cajun in the rally scoring era (2001-present) to reach 300 career blocks joining Kim Rodgers (396).
Reilly set a new career high with 20 digs, topping her previous best of 19 last reached on Sept. 25, 2015 vs. ULM. Libero Sydney Davis topped the Ragin' Cajuns with a season-high 24 digs.
The Ragin' Cajuns offense hit .211 (52 K, 21 E, 147 TA) and generated 50-plus kills for the third straight match.
NSU was led offensively by Lauren Agan and Alexis Warren who each landed 17 kills. Libero Channing Burleson scooped a match-high 24 digs.
A multitude of errors from the Demons attackers at the onset of the match aided Louisiana in building an early 9-0 lead. The Ragin' Cajuns were never threatened as the lead was trimmed no lower than five points.
The script was flipped in the second set as it was the Ragin' Cajuns unforced errors that made the difference. Tied at 13-all, a service error and attack error by Louisiana returned the lead to NSU and the visitors never looked back in evening the set.
The teams swapped wins in the third and fourth set, setting up the winner-take-all fifth set. NSU scored the final six points of the third frame to rally for a 25-23 win. The Ragin' Cajuns responded with an 18-kill attack on a .368 percentage, boosted by six kills from Reilly, to bring the match to a tie.
The fifth set saw seven ties and two lead changes before the Demons made the pivotal breakthrough. Even at 7-all, the visitors opened a 10-7 advantage benefiting from a pair of Cajuns attack errors in the spurt.
Louisiana received a sideout after a NSU service error and closed the deficit to 12-9. Warren then took charge for the Demons, throwing down three straight kills to secure the match.
The Ragin' Cajuns welcome Air Force, Alabama A&M and Nicholls State for the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic. Matches begin at 1:30 p.m. on Friday. Louisiana's tournament opener is at 6:30 p.m. vs. Air Force.
Mean Green thwarts Mav rally in five
DENTON, Texas – UT Arlington rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to force a deciding fifth set, but North Texas managed to hold off the Maverick rally to take a 3-2 (25-16, 25-18, 12-25, 19-25, 15-13) win at the Mean Green Volleyball Center on Tuesday evening.
The Mean Green (2-3) hit just .175 for the match, but managed to hold serve on its home court, denying UTA (2-2) its first win in Denton since 2008. Qiana Canete finished with her third double-double in four tries this season, scoring 16 kills to go with 13 digs while hitting .244 for the match.
"I'm very pleased with the way we came back," coach Diane Seymour said following the match. "We came out very flat and North Texas was having a great time on their home court, obviously. We didn’t' answer back in the first two sets, but I am extremely proud of who we were when we came out and played sets three and four, and even five. We really like where this team is headed."
UTA will continue its eight-match road swing this weekend when it heads to Oxford, Miss., for the Ole Miss Invitational, opening up with the Rebels on Friday night at The Pavilion.
PLAYERS OF THE MATCH
Along with Canete's double-double, Jessica Nwabuko had a hand in 10 of UTA's 14.0 blocks on the season, the most by a Maverick in four matches this season. Three players finished with double-digit digs, led by Taylor Murata's 15, while Zhanelle Geathers hit .364 with 13 kills. Kaitlyn Granger finished with 11 kills, her third double-digit kill effort this season.
KEY STATS
The Mean Green hit a combined .352 in the first two sets to stake itself to a 2-0 lead before the Mavs turned the tide in the next two sets, hitting .296 to tie things up. That included a 15-2 run to close out the third set for UTA, a set that saw them hit .500.
TURNING POINT
UTA trailed just 9-8 in the fifth set before UNT's Amy Henard scored one of her three kills on the night to start a quick 3-1 spurt that upped the lead to 12-9 late in the set. The Mavs would get to within one at 14-13 after a block by Marisah Ingram and Kylie Jedlicka before the Mean Green closed the match out one point later.