FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 1, 2021) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team's long season-opening road trip wraps up this weekend at the SFA Tournament hosted by Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas. The Lumberjacks will begin the tournament against the host on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. MST before playing a single match on Friday at 2 p.m. MST and Saturday at 9 a.m. MST versus Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and Louisiana respectively.
Thursday's tournament opener between the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks can be seen on
ESPN+ (subscription required) while live stats will be available at this
link.
NAU's first week of the season did not go quite as planned due to Hurricane Ida's sweep through the state of Louisiana. The Lumberjacks only played two of three scheduled matches at last weekend's Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge and subsequently had their match on Tuesday canceled as well at Nicholls State. After departing Baton Rouge on Saturday, NAU spent a couple of unplanned days in Houston before making its way to Nacogdoches.
On the court, the 'Jacks opened the season with losses to Florida State and LSU before having their Tiger Classic finale versus Michigan canceled. While the competition last weekend was stiff, it still left NAU with its first 0-2 start since 2005, when the Lumberjacks began the season with four consecutive losses.
"We made a lot of progress from last week to the previous week and we know we have a team that needs to learn some of the lessons we learned last week," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "As long as we keep fighting and working hard, and learning as we go, I feel good about this. But that will be the task, to continue to move on the trajectory that we're on right now."
NAU's second weekend will not get any easier, as each of the three teams will pose challenges to a continually developing NAU squad. Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi were the Southland Conference regular season and tournament champions respectively, while Louisiana went 17-7 last season.
Junior
Taylor Jacobsen may have garnered the headlines in the first weekend of play, but freshman
Sophia Wadsworth made a strong first impression in her first two collegiate matches, and against Florida State and LSU nonetheless. The frosh hit a team-best .250 and averaged 1.57 kills per set, only ranking behind Jacobsen. Jacobsen paced NAU in both kills (3.86) and digs (3.29) in the fall's first two matches and notched a pair of double-doubles.
As a team, the 'Jacks only hit a combined .088 between the two matches, but NAU showed a big improvement offensively versus LSU. After hitting .026 in the season opener, NAU rebounded to hit .146 against the Tigers with Jacobsen, Wadsworth and sophomore
Lyla Hollis each tallying at least eight kills in match two.
The Lumberjacks may have struggled to terminate the ball, but their defense kept them in matches during stretches in which their offense was catching up. NAU managed to limit Florida State and LSU to a .207 clip or lower in three of the seven sets NAU played last weekend, and led by sophomore
Jordan Elder's presence at the net, the Lumberjacks owned a slight 12.0-11.0 block advantage against their two opponents. Elder totaled a team-best five blocks.
Stephen F. Austin opened the season with a 1-2 record at the SMU Doubletree Invitational last weekend. After getting swept by North Carolina and SMU, the Ladyjacks picked up their first win of 2021 with a four-set win over Pacific. The Ladyjacks won the Southland Conference regular season championship in the spring and was the preseason pick to finish first in the Southwest Division in their inaugural year in the WAC. Stephen F. Austin was led offensively by Ielan Bradley, who averaged 3.10 kills per set. After the first weekend of the season, Alyssa Ortega ranks 26th in the country with 5.30 digs per set.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the reigning Southland Conference champions and spring NCAA Tournament participant, faced a tough first slate in the 2021 season, suffering three sweeps at the hands of Arizona State, No. 13 Louisville and Cal Poly at Arizona State's tournament. The Islanders were picked to repeat as conference champions, receiving 13 of 16 first-place votes in the Southland Preseason Poll. While Kyndal Payne led the Islanders with 1.78 kills during the opening weekend, Julia Carter was second with 1.67 kills on .424 hitting, placing her 73rd nationally.
Louisiana nearly completed an unbeaten first weekend, compiling a 3-1 record at the Southern Miss Classic. The Ragin' Cajuns notched wins against Southern Illinois, USC Upstate and Mississippi Valley before falling in five sets to host Southern Miss in the tournament finale. Kelsey Bennett claimed the Sun Belt Conference's first Offensive Player of the Week award after averaging 3.80 kills per set and hitting .301 in the four matches last week. While Bennett led the charge offensively, the Ragin' Cajuns were one of the top defensive teams nationally, ranked 19th in digs per set and 41st in opponent hitting percentage.
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