NACOGDOCHES, Texas (September 2, 2021) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team continued to show strides in development, but a couple of close sets went the other way and Stephen F. Austin emerged with a 25-23, 25-21, 24-26, 25-13 victory on Thursday. The opening loss at the SFA Tournament dropped the Lumberjacks' early season record to 0-3.
"It was a great match and both sides executed at a really high level," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "What's amazing is that we were hitting really well and I thought our defense was really good too, but we had a hard time forcing them to make some errors. I was excited to see the progress that our offense is making for sure."
NAU hit .269 and were sitting above .300 until the fourth set in what was a big step forward offensively for the Lumberjacks. NAU's outside hitters had effective performances with junior
Taylor Jacobsen racking up 16 kills and hitting .265 and sophomore
Lyla Hollis tying a career-high with 14 kills on .355 hitting. Junior
Neche Newton also matched a career-best with seven kills and led the team with a .357 clip.
However, Stephen F. Austin was just a tick better offensively hitting .279 for the evening. In addition to the hitting advantage, the host Ladyjacks won the service line as well with an advantage in aces (9-6) and the Lumberjacks committing 12 more service errors.
NAU found itself in an immediate hole in each of the first two sets, but managed to chop away at the deficit each time. Even with the Lumberjacks digging deep, the home team prevailed in taking a 2-0 match lead that proved to be too much for NAU to overcome.
The Lumberjacks erased a 5-1 first set deficit to tie it at 9-9. After the Ladyjacks pulled ahead again, back-to-back kills by Hollis and freshman
Sophia Wadsworth cut the lead to 21-20. Stephen F. Austin responded with consecutive points, only for NAU to get those two points back with the last coming on Hollis' sixth kill of the opening set.
Stephen F. Austin would eventually hold off NAU's charge to claim the first game and raced out to an 8-1 second set lead. Once again though, the Lumberjacks made a push and tied the game at 12-12 on an ace by senior
Aubrea Bandfield. Like the first set though, Stephen F. Austin nudged ahead and kept NAU at just enough of an arm's length despite the Lumberjacks' efforts to tie the match at one.
The third set was the tightest of the night and NAU stayed alive, battling through 14 ties and eight lead changes. With Stephen F. Austin looking like it might pull away with a 14-10 lead, NAU powered through with a 7-1 run to take a 17-15 lead. Even with the push, the Lumberjacks found themselves staring at match point down 24-23 before Newton sided out with a kill. A Ladyjack ball handling error followed by a Jacobsen kill clinched the set in the Lumberjacks' favor.
"We had chances to win each of the first three sets, but we didn't quite execute at the end of the first two and we did in the third," Murphy said. "That's going to part of our process too, learning how to finish. The third set was a pretty good indication that when we are making plays, we're going to get the results that we want."
Unfortunately with momentum on their side, the Lumberjacks quickly fell behind 8-1 to start the fourth set. Despite holding the Ladyjacks to their lowest set attack percentage (.200), the Lumberjacks also attacked at their lowest clip (.000) and Stephen F. Austin sealed up the win with a wire-to-wire set.
"Tonight in general was the best that we've played so far," Murphy said. "We're starting to look more like what we're going to be capable of. The thing we have to learn is that in the fourth set, clearly we had a letdown. This is a good group though and they'll learn how to finish matches."
Defensively, sophomore
Millie O'Ketter tallied a team-high 17 digs with Hollis close behind with 15 in her first double-double of the season. Newton logged four blocks with two coming of the solo variety – marking the second straight match in which she posted two solo stuffs.
The Lumberjacks will close the SFA Tournament – and a season-opening two-week road trip – on Friday with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 2 p.m. MST.
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