NACOGDOCHES – The Sam Houston Bearkats could not complete a season sweep of its Piney Wood rival on Thursday night as Stephen F. Austin picked up a 3-1 win at Shelton Gym.
The Kats (6-17, 3-6 WAC) had taken down SFA (19-3, 7-2 WAC) in five sets in the season's first meeting in Huntsville, but that result wasn't to be in Round 2 as the Ladyjacks hit .282 for the match and had four players with at least 10 kills in the win.
Sam Houston will stay on the road for the second of four consecutive away matches on Saturday with first serve set for noon at UT Arlington. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
Madison Dyer was the lone Kat to reach double figures with 11 kills, also adding six blocks and five digs.
Avery Fowler added her fourth double-double of the year with 24 assists and 15 digs, while being matched by
Hannah Baker's 15 digs.
Alyssa Fielder added nine kills, while
Elizabeth See had eight kills and five blocks from her spot at the net.
SFA hit. Scorching .414 in Set 1, landing 13 kills with just one attack error to register a dominant 25-15 win; however, the Kats had the response and rallied from a 20-17 deficit with a 6-2 run, before eventually putting SFA away on consecutive scores from Fielder and Dyer.
The third set proved to be a true swing set with both offenses humming at a high level. The Kats hit .351 with just one misfire, tying the set late at 20-20 on a kill from
Madison Frusha and a block from See and Dyer.
But SFA hit .327 itself in the set and landed 21 kills in the set, including kills on four of the final points of the set from four separate players for its second set win of the night.
The Ladyjacks carried that momentum over into Set 4 where they opened up an early 11-5 lead before a big Sam Houston run cut the lead down to a point at 12-11. But four straight SFA points followed and the Kats would not get any closer than four points the rest of the way.
