Volleyball faces crucial match Saturday
10/24/2014 5:19:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
After dropping two close five set matches to Southland Conference leaders Central Arkansas and Stephen F. Austin, the Bearkat volleyball team faces another critical road match Saturday afternoon in Natchitoches, La.
Sam Houston takes on Northwestern State at 2 p.m. in a contest between teams vying for third place in the Southland Conference standings.
The UCA Bears and SFA Jacks both stand atop the league with perfect 10-0 records. Northwestern State third in the league with a 7-3 mark. A&M-Corpus Christi and Sam Houston follow with league marks of 6-3 and 5-3, respectively.
Sam Houston looked poise to pull off upsets in each of their past two road matches. At UCA last Saturday, the Kats held a two sets to one advantage. Thursday night in Nacogdoches, the SHSU women won the first two sets before SFA rallied for the win.
The Bearkats stand 6-3 this season in three-set matches and 4-1 in four sets. But, going the distance to five sets, the SHSU women are 2-5.
Northwestern State owns a perfect 5-0 record on their home floor at Prather Coliseum. The Demons stand 10-13 overall for the year.
Neely Mackenzie leads the Demon attack with 2.77 kills per set this year and a season total of 233.
Sam Houston's Deveney Wells-Gibson leads the Southland with 376 kills for the season, an average of 4.70 per set.
Carling Urben (136 kills), Shelby Genung (131) and Jordyn Vaughn (120) also provide firepower for the Kat attack.
Defensively, libero Claire Kilpatrick has totaled 336 digs to rank sixth in the league. Kilpatrick was honored as the league's defensive player-of-the-week winner Monday. Breanna Homer has added 290 digs (3.58 per set) and Wells-Gibson 224 digs (2.80 per set).
Genung leads the Kats' front line with 51 blocks.
Setter Michelle Griffith, who has 876 assists on Sam Houston's 1,068 kills this year, leads the Southland in her specialty. Griffith also has helped defensively with 211 digs (2.57 per set).
Following the match at Northwestern State Saturday afternoon, the Bearkats return home to play host to Houston Baptist in a 6:30 p.m. contest at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum on Thursday, October 30.
