This team has a lot of young players. How about that for stating the obvious at the first of an article? What isn’t so obvious is which young players will shine or even which young players will be on the floor from night to night. At setter, we’ve seen veteran Jayden Flynn have counterpart freshman Sophia Wilson at times and at others it has been redshirt freshman Cambry Saul. At libero, freshman Natalie Guerrero started out fast but then gave way to fellow freshman Brooklyn Shelton. As of late, we’ve seen a hybridization of the two as Guerrero has often been the “serving libero” and Shelton the “receiving libero”. Such back and forth has been one technique teams (including ours) have used now that the libero rules have expanded. Sophomore Caroline Kahle, an excellent server, passer and defender, has sat recently in favor of the potential of more offense in freshman Kennedy Jones. From week to week, whichever combination of these players is producing is the lineup we see rolled out there on game day. The end result is that it has worked. SFA is 14-5 and other than a blip in Oklahoma and a tough loss to Southeastern Louisiana in El Paso, the ‘Jacks have been excellent despite the youth and the mixing and matching.
One freshman that has been a constant and really the head of the class so far is right side Katherine Holtman. Kat enters this week as the team’s second leading scorer and tied for first in kills having tallied 171 terminations. Her efficiency has continued to improve as she now has her attack percentage all the way up to .316. That’s good for Top 10 in the Southland Conference. From Day 1, Katherine was inserted as one of the club’s two right side attackers. Other than having to sit because of having a penchant for getting hit in the head with the ball – and having to follow mild concussion protocols – she’s been in there ever since. She absolutely toyed with the UIW block last Saturday racking up kill after monster kill. When it was all done, Holtman had thrown down 20 kills on .385 hitting and mixed in five blocks and five digs to boot.
Holtman is unbelievably deceiving. I am still trying to figure out where all this power is coming from given her tall and wiry frame. But one thing is for sure: she is technically sound and can spray the ball all over the back row zones. One of the most impressive attacks I’ve seen all year long – from any player – was a kill Kat had against Texas A&M Corpus Christi where she was facing the “one zone” with her body as she jumped, but swung inside out and pounded the line corner in the “five zone”. It was an unbelievable display of body control to swing against her momentum while also showcasing that she had full vision of the floor to know that spot was open. It’s one thing to think about making that shot in the moment. Holtman executed it to perfection. So far, the freshman MVP is obvious – Holtman has been a revelation.
As the match last Saturday wore on, it wasn’t just Holtman that was leading the way. When things got rough going into Set 4 after UIW had cut our set lead in half, junior middle blocker Bella Ortiz tried to put the whole team on her back and carry us to victory. Part of the game plan that was discussed in advance of the UIW match was to have the ‘Jacks setters force the middle attack in transition. Flynn and Saul did that with both Ortiz and fellow middle blocker Kyanna Creecy to near perfection. Ortiz was flat out dominant in the latter sets against the Cardinals. Several times Ortiz’ attacks literally knocked Cardinal back row players down or left them staggering – the ball flying off their shoulders or in one case forehead. It was an intimidating and powerful display.
I love what Ortiz has done and what she has become these last three years. She asks questions and she studies opponents well. She sets goals for herself match by match and checks on them every week. She rises when the team needs a leader to take over. After her numbers lagged just a bit early on during the season, all of her marks now are in line or exceed her career standards. With Holtman, she is tied for the team lead in kills. She is back to blocking over a ball per set and even more impressively, her attack percentage is now above .330 where a month ago it was sitting in the mid .200’s.
While calling the match on Saturday, I could almost feel Ortiz’ aggression from way up at the top of the McDermott Center in my little broadcast “perch”. No one in purple and white wanted to lose that match. Bella Ortiz would have HATED to have lost that match – and you could feel it all during Sets 4 and 5. Ortiz blew past her previous career high in kills and matched Holtman with 20 coupled with four blocks and an ace – just barely topping the freshman with 23.5 total points scored in the match. Ortiz is better now physically and mentally than at any point previously in her career. I’ve witnessed the mental strength and smarts while on the road in study/film sessions a lot more this year. I’m beyond impressed and the rest of conference should be scared stiff.
But, as much as Holtman and Ortiz played well last Saturday it was the brilliance of head coach Debbie Humphreys midway through the match that really deserves the most mention. Humphreys put on an absolute masterclass session of how to utilize her teams’ strengths to solve immediate problems at the end of Set 3 and into Set 4.
Freshman libero Shelton struggled to pass against UIW. It’s going to happen. Again, minus Holtman, pretty much every freshman on the club has had moments where they haven’t been all there. Brooklyn has played well during late September and October and has been steady enough to carve out a decent amount of playing time as of late. But last Saturday was not her day. SFA’s liberos have been serving to start rotation three. At the time of the move about to be discussed the serving order was Flynn (S), Hill (OH), Libero, Saul (S), Jones (OH), Ortiz (serving MB). With the ‘Jacks struggling to pass in Set 3 they found themselves down 11-17. Something needed to be done. The momentum had seriously shifted and for the first time all day, the modest UIW home crowd had piped up a bit.
After a Holtman kill brought the set score to 12-17, Humphreys subbed Kahle straight for non-serving middle Creecy. Kahle was effectively the second middle blocker at that point. But, liberos don’t HAVE to serve, so Kahle served in the third slot upon entering because Hill was our most recent server. The move was brilliant – and it almost ended the match in three sets. A Jones kill, a UIW error, and two kills from the Ortiz machine made it 16-17 before Kahle’s own service error ended the rally. Kahle now rightfully stays on the floor to play defense but since she is in for Creecy, she can be replaced by the libero. This allows Humphreys to still use one back row player in serve receive (Kahle) and another while we are serving (Guerrero). To me, that’s the genius in this move. It effectively allows Kahle to function as a libero while formally being in the middle blocker back row spot.
Saul and Jones take their turns serving while Kahle’s spot is back row and by the time when UIW gets a side out on Jones we are still within one at 19-20. Kahle is now one spot from coming front row and UIW had their own serving specialist Victoria Hall coming back into the match. The teams traded points and SFA was again down just one at 20-21 when the Creecy/Kahle/libero spot comes front row and Creecy returns. Soon after, Humphreys sends in Harley Krause for Molly Cravens. All of this is happening as we moved to rotation six – just one spot away from our best server Flynn coming to the line late in the set. Krause immediately makes an impact with a block assist paired with Creecy and we were tied at 21. At that point, UIW rattles off three straight points before Flynn tried to bring us all the way back from behind the service line. We fell short losing Set 3 by the minimum two points, 23-25.
Despite losing that third set, enough happened with Kahle serving and playing back row to make the next Humphreys’ move far more predictable. She had effectively used her substitution patterns to create the ability for Kahle to function as a libero in place of Shelton. So, to start Set 4, such a thought becomes a formality as Kahle has now donned a libero jersey and Shelton has changed back into a traditional white jersey like the rest of her teammates. Humphreys submits the lineup card for Set 4 with Guerrero and Kahle listed as the liberos. It still takes SFA an extra set to get it done, but the Ladyjacks play the remaining two sets with Guerrero and Kahle tag teaming at the libero spot. Kahle continues to serve and came to the line with an ace late in Set 4 to tie the set at 24-24. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done as the set ended with one of the UIW liberos, Audrey Patton, serving up an ace for a Cardinal set win.
Amidst all the back row scheming remember that Krause had subbed for Cravens. Krause stayed in the match for sets four and five getting a total of four kills on six swings and two blocks. Not bad for limited action in a tight match.
So, we know Holtman and Ortiz presence is solidified going forward. But now coming out of a match where Humphreys put on a clinic regarding how to use bench pieces, liberos and substitutions what will it mean for THIS week? What will it mean for the match against New Orleans and maybe more importantly, what will it mean for the rematch against Southeastern Louisiana? Suddenly there are many questions and combinations that SFA could flow in and out of during the week:
·
Does Krause temporarily give Cravens a breather
at the second right side slot?
·
Does Kahle function as formal libero going
forward pairing with Guerrero?
·
Do we go back to Guerrero full time at libero
(which happened some in the UIW match) and have Kahle ready if Guerrero needs a
partner in that spot?
·
We really haven’t mentioned Cambry Saul in all
this. But it would appear that she has
earned the second setter position for now.
She had 22 assists (career high) and seven digs vs. UIW. So, it would seem Saul would stay in the
starting rotation. Will that hold?
·
Do the liberos serve or not going forward?
Some of these questions are related of course, but they are just some of the many things that make this week so interesting. While we can’t look past anyone, it is clear that our opponents this week are of different strengths. Does the fact that we play New Orleans first give Humphreys the chance to get a little more extended look at Krause again and Kahle in a different role?
One last thought before I end this and just ramp up my anticipation of seeing how this plays out: What about Kahle just taking the libero position outright? THAT hasn’t been tried yet during the Fall. But, when I think back to the off-season, Kahle was the sensible choice to fill the libero role with who we had left from 2023. Coming into this season, it was either going to be a new player (freshman) at libero or Kahle. The team wanted to try Kahle as a six-rotation outside hitter. For that matter, Kahle theoretically could return to that role, but for now Kennedy Jones has continued to earn court time. So, I’m just throwing it out there – don’t 100% completely rule out Kahle just becoming a libero for a short – or a long – amount of time.
Whatever happens it’s clear that Holtman’s emergence, Ortiz dominance and support from steady contributors like Flynn and Camryn Hill have us well positioned in the standings. What should we do with all the other moving parts?
Well, NOW we are back to obvious: Trust Humphreys to figure it out.