In recent weeks I have mentioned that SFA reduced its
seeding in the 2012 Southland Conference Tournament almost exclusively due to
two shocking losses to Southeastern Louisiana last year. Last season’s 10 team league saw only two
teams staying at home for the conference tournament. The Lions capitalized on the setup and
despite a 5-13 SLC record earned the final seed and the right to go home on
Friday by playing host Central Arkansas in the first round.
When the eight teams got to Conway, the only SLC team that
Southeastern Louisiana had a victory against was SFA. They were 2-0 against us and 0-12 against the
other six teams. There is little
question that the two losses against the Lions in 2012 were among – if not THE
– most embarrassing of the year.
But that was last year and it is now very much in the
past. What can we expect out of SLU as
they travel over to Nacogdoches for Saturday afternoon’s match. Well, first off, they are technically already
here and scheduled for a practice in Shelton Gym this evening. But more relevant than that, what should
Ladyjack fans look for when SLU takes the court on Saturday?
One thing is for sure:
SLU has gone through a ton of changes since we have seen them last. They have hired their third coach in the last
handful of years, the current captain being long time Westmont College (NAIA)
coach Jim Smoot. In addition to the new
coaches, you won’t recognize many of the players either. Last night against
Northwestern State, they started four sophomores and two freshmen. So, they have a lot of new girls, a lot of
young girls, and some of the returners who played under former coach Geno
Frugoli are not seeing as much court time under Smoot.
Historically, SLU has played an above average number of
girls per match. Some teams tend to make
a minimal number of subs and put eight to ten girls in the box score. It has not been uncommon in recent seasons to
look over SLU’s player usage and see 12 or 14 girls a night – all with a decent
amount of playing time. Of course, one
thing that points to is a cast of characters that doesn’t produce a consistent
list of talent able to maintain starting spots.
The other explanation is just simply the desire to rotate hot hands on a
frequent basis, or looked at another way – subs for girls that are not able to
get it done for three or four sets a night.
Probably the one player on the SLU roster that you should
remember is MB Veronica Turk. Well, I
say you should remember her because I brought her name up more than once or
twice in this space last year. She was
one of the better freshman middle blockers to come to the conference last
year. That being said, either due to
coaches’ preference or injury, she hasn’t played as much so far this year. So, it is possible that we will see an
entirely different starting set of players tomorrow afternoon than we did last
year. Let’s break the team down just a
bit…
Mikayla Shippy handles the setting duties. She is a sophomore who is getting her first
look at regular playing time. She spent
most of last year as the backup to McNeese transfer Becky Bekelja – who is now
gone. The main offensive go-to so far
for the Lions is Louisiana Tech transfer and sophomore OH Tiffany Thomas. She will get a lot of balls set her way: She has almost twice the number of attacks as
any other girl on the team. Thomas is
averaging a whopping 3.49 kills per set and hitting a respectable .189 on the
outside. Her kill per set numbers have
her currently sitting 4th in that category in the Southland
Conference.
In addition to the popular combo of Shippy to Thomas, SLU
has regularly run a trio of middle blockers onto the court: The aforementioned Turk as well as the freshman
duo of Rachael Bunn and Landry Bullock.
Bunn is probably the main player I have interest in watching as the
match goes along tomorrow. She leads the
conference in hitting percentage at .393 and also ranks in the top 10 in
blocks. Bunn is a California girl who
stands 6’2” and just like our own freshman MB Justice Walker, has an
all-tournament recognition to her name earning that nod at the Florida Atlantic
Tourney a few weeks ago. Bunn had a
streak of four straight matches with 10+ kills ended last night against the
Demons. In fact, she only got in two
sets, so again, either the mix-and-match is at play or she suffered an injury
that I have no way of knowing about. She
started the first set, but that was it.
Hopefully, she is not hurt and we get a good look at what both her and
fellow freshman Bullock can do. Bullock leads the team in total blocks.
The Lions also use two other hitters frequently one being
Junior Elizabeth Ramee who has played off-and-on during her two years in
Hammond. She played more as a freshman
than she did last year. In fact, she got
my attention more than a time or two with some strong matches in her first year
as a Lion. Since then, she’s been on and
off the scouting radar. Lindsay Grace
rounds out the discussion of frequent attackers as the tall (6’4”) freshman
right side hitter has played in the majority of sets for the Lions, but isn’t
integrated regularly into the offense.
She’s yet to amass more than 6 kills in a match.
Finally, there are three back row players to note. First is sophomore Morgan Todd, who has taken
over the libero jersey from Megan McMillan.
Todd played regularly last year – in fact, she played in every match,
but primarily as a DS next to McMillan. Another
change in position at SLU belongs to Cherish Krohn, who used to be listed and
play as an undersized OH has now converted to a DS role. This suits her skills better as she is both a
good server and good in receive. Lastly,
sophomore Brook Balser is second on the team in digs to Todd and she also holds
down a DS role.
Look for a lot of substitutions and potentially different
lineups as we move from set to set on Saturday afternoon. SFA and SLU have two common opponents so far
this year. The ‘Jacks swept Southern
Miss while SLU dropped their three sets to them. The Lions have a four set
victory over Louisiana Tech and you’ll remember that it took the ‘Jacks five
sets to polish off the Lady Techsters.
SLU is 6-7 with their other five victories coming against Bethune
Cookman, Alabama A&M, Stetson, Nebraska-Omaha and Southern. Those last three wins were at their host
tournament that didn’t sport an overly high level of competition.
All in all, I think the team is still in flux and probably
doesn’t project as a 2013 tournament team.
They were picked 9th in both preseason polls. They may be improved enough to sneak in one
of the bottom two seeds, but this still sizes up as a team SFA should beat in
three or four sets.
While playing better against Houston and UNO in our last two
matches, SFA really still hasn’t put together a clean three or four sets in a
row. If they do, then the match Saturday
should end in three. If not, then a 3-1
victory would seem to be the “Vegas Line”.
If it goes to five sets, then Ladyjack fans can only hope that we aren’t
looking back on this match like we were in 2012.
I’m headed to an interview with Paige Holland and Tori Bates
so there should be plenty for you to read and listen to in the next day as you
make your plans to cheer on the ‘Jacks in Shelton Gym at 1:00 on Saturday.