Hammond, La. -- SFA Volleyball was bounced from the 2024 Southland Conference Tournament earlier today, but a roster that began the season as the youngest among the Division 1 ranks represented the program well. SFA had nine primary players on the floor for each of the two contests here in Louisiana and six of them were freshman. Of the final three, two were second year athletes and of course, the last being junior setter Jayden Flynn. With the loss today, SFA stands at 23-8 and will have to wait late into the night on Sunday, December 1 for their NIVC fate.
If Southeastern Louisiana wins the tournament championship tomorrow, then SFA is the NIVC automatic qualifier for the Southland by way of finishing in second place in the regular season standings. Even if Texas A&M - Corpus Christi were to win tomorrow, it is likely that SFA would be placed in the NIVC field, so the real issue is if we'll get to have bonus volleyball in Shelton Gym as one of the 8 host sites for the first two rounds. Toward that point, SFA has hosted before in 2021 and would seem to have a least a coin flip chance at gaining that honor again. But, we'll have one very long week before we see the NIVC bracket revealed because that does not happen until the NCAA Tournament matchups are completely set.
Personally, I felt like there were four individual performances that stood out to me over the two days effort and I'll highlight them here:
Kyanna Creecy probably played the most consistent of any Ladyjack across the two matches. She hit .439 (22-4-41) and blocked nine balls in our nine sets. Her kill per set tally of 2.44 was above her normal season output. If I had a vote, she'd be our all-tournament representative for her consistency. She and Katherine Holtman were the only two Ladyjacks with double figure kills in both games and Ky hit .600 on Friday and .346 on Saturday.
Jayden Flynn had one of the best matches I've seen her play this year on Friday during the quarterfinals against HCU. I thought her decision making in that particular match was outstanding as she racked up 34 assists. All together, Flynn posted 59 assists (6.46 a/s) and also tallied 27 digs equivalent to an even 3.00 digs/set. Both the assist and dig per set numbers were above her season norms. She also passed the 2000 career assist plateau in the win against the Huskies.
Kennedy Jones had seven blocks in the semifinal loss against Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. As far as moments where one athlete "took over", Jones gets that nod for us with three of her blocks all close together in time during a middle set against the Islanders. All told, Kennedy tallied 23 kills (.191, 2.56 k/s) and blocked 10 balls in nine sets to lead SFA in blocks per set for the tournament. She's been a steady contributor in her starting role the back half of 2024.
Last, but not least, what about Harley Krause? Krause has done some great things in her limited action throughout the year, but with Camryn Hill out and Humphreys shifting Cravens to the middle, Krause filled the vacant slot like a pro here this weekend in her FIRST collegiate starts. Her Friday match was astounding: 17 kills, hitting .412. Combined, she got 23 total kills, hit .263 for the tournament and chipped in two aces, three blocks and 12 digs. She had the University Center buzzing as I answered "who dat?" questions all afternoon after she burst onto the scene.
Again, I think Creecy was our most steady performer over all, but Krause's game 1 and Jones' block party in game 2 were more than memorable. Flynn looked like an absolute ace at times in the first matchup as well. Worth throwing in are the facts that Kathrine Holtman's 26 kills led the team despite a few more errors than normal for her and Natalie Guerrero was solid with 4.56 digs per set across the two days. Sophia Wilson served up two aces against HCU and handed out 42 assists (4.67 a/s).
Time to start our lobbying, hoping, praying, encouraging and what ever other-ing we can for an NIVC host site! It would only seem fitting for the home crowd to get a chance to honor this super young squad a few more times in Shelton Gym before the semester ends.
As of this writing, SFA's Futures RPI rank is 80. That will change up or down across the week as more matches are played around the country. But, however you slice it, having an RPI among the top quarter of all NCAA Division 1 programs when you are finishing your year with an active roster consisting of only one upperclassman is quite an accomplishment.
As always, I'm proud to rep SFA Volleyball. It has only happened to me a few times, but it is ALWAYS tough to watch the coaches and team go while I stay at a conference tournament. But, I have a job to do, and I have this opportunity because of them and because of the SFA Volleyball family. They have represented SFA well - I can only try and follow.
Watch the final between #2 seed Texas A&M - Corpus Christi and #1 seed host Southeastern Louisiana at 3:00 PM CT on Sunday. Tyler Thomas (SLU PxP) and yours truly will be on the headsets for the final on ESPN+.