HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston volleyball team is still in the hunt for a share of the Southland crown, but it was Stephen F. Austin who clinched its share first on Thursday night with a 3-1 win at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
 
SFA (22-5, 10-1 SLC) staked itself to a 2-0 lead and then shook off a dominant third set by the Bearkats (9-2, 9-2 SLC) to close things out in four sets and clinch at least a share of the league crown.
 
Each team has one match remaining to close out the regular season with the Bearkats still with a chance to earn a share of an SLC title for the first time since 2012. The Bearkats would need to defeat Abilene Christian on Saturday morning, while also having SFA fall in its finale at Houston Baptist for that to happen.
 
Should that happen, Southeastern Louisiana would have an opportunity to make it a 3-way tie for the title should the Lady Lions win their finale on Saturday at Central Arkansas.
 
Ashley Lewis led Sam Houston with 14 kills and 14 digs and Breanne Chausse (11 kills) and Catherine Krieger (10 kills) joined her in double figures, but in all the Ladyjacks made the Kats work for everything they got, holding SHSU to under .200 hitting in Sets 1, 2 and 4.
 
Morgan Janda finished with 25 assists and 19 digs, while Hannah Baker totaled 20 digs. Sam Houston also finished with eight team blocks for the match with seven coming from McKenzie Morvant and six from Chausse.
 
For SFA, Taya Mitchell was the lone Ladyjack in double figure kills, finishing with 14 and only one attack error on 24 tries to go with four blocks.
 
The Kats hit just .150 and .191 in Sets 1 and 2 and had a chance to even things up at 1-1 with a win in Set 2 after a 5-0 run gave Sam Houston a 22-19 lead; however, SFA answered with a 4-0 run of its own and eventually took advantage of its second set-point try on consecutive scores from freshman Ashley Procious to secure the 2-0 lead at the break.
 
Set 3, however, was a totally different story as the Kats took control with a 10-1 run of their own midway through, upping its lead to 15-6 on a service ace from Lewis. The Kats hit .290 in the set, scoring the final six points for an emphatic 25-10 win to get back into the match.
 
The Kats looked to be positioning themselves to push things to a fifth set with an early 11-9 lead in the fourth. But SFA responded with eight of the next nine points in its favor, a run punctuated by three consecutive blocks form Mitchell that put the Ladyjacks in front 20-13, a lead that was too much for SHSU to overcome.
 
Sam Houston will close out the regular season and try to clinch a share of the league crown on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Johnson Coliseum against Abilene Christian. The match will be streamed on ESPN+ and will also serve as senior day for Bearkat seniors Madilyn Miles and Samantha Boatman.