The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
2006 NCAA Volleyball First Round results: Stephen F. Austin 3, Alabama 2
12.01.2006 | Volleyball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Stephen F. Austin came back from a 2-1 deficit to earn a five-game victory -- 30-24, 23-30, 25-30, 30-22, 15-11 -- over Alabama in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, hosted by The University of Texas at Gregory Gym on Friday evening.
With the victory, SFA (31-3) earned it first-ever NCAA Tournament victory and pushed its overall winning streak to 26 matches. Alabama (17-13) was appearing in the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history.
SFA's Traci Rohde had a team-best 18 kills and had a match-high six aces, while Shelley Swendig recorded a double-double with 17 kills and a career-high 11 digs. Stephanie Figgers collected 34 digs, while Lauren Railey added 25.
Alabama's Brigitte Slack led all players with 22 kills -- and added 17 digs -- to lead a contingent of four from the Crimson Tide with double-figure kills. Brooks Webster added 11 kills, while Crystal Hudson and Rachael Green each had 10. Amy Pauly led all players with 39 digs, while Sarah Snider had 17 and Megan Hudson had 14.
Stephen F. Austin had 11 aces to Bama's four.
In the deciding game five, SFA pulled out to a 5-0 lead behind four errors from the Crimson Tide. SFA increased its lead to six points to 8-2 as the teams traded sides of the court, but Bama scored four points to pull within two, 8-6. After SFA regained a five-point edge at 12-7 on back-to-back Alabama errors, the Crimson Tide twice came back within three points -- at 13-10 and 14-11 -- before Swendig's final kill of the night gave the Ladyjacks the victory and sent them into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Ladyjacks built an 8-2 lead to open the match, but the Crimson Tide rallied to pull within one point at 14-13. The teams then traded the next five points, before Alabama scored three-straight to earn a one-point advantage at 18-17. At 19-19, Rohde swung for her fifth kill of the game to give SFA a one-point edge, and the Ladyjacks then closed the game on a 10-4 run to take a 1-0 lead in games.
Alabama immediately came back in game two and built a five-point lead to 8-3. The Crimson Tide let SFA get no closer than three points until 16-11, when the Ladyjacks pulled out an 8-3 run to pull the game even at 19-19. Bama pulled ahead by two points at 22-20, and the teams fought through ties at 22-22 and 23-23 before Alabama closed the game on a 7-0 run to take a 30-23 victory and pull the match even at 1-1 headed into the intermission.
SFA held a slight advantage in the third game, pulling out to a three point lead at 12-9 and maintaining the advantage through 17-14. However, Alabama connected for five straight points -- courtesy of four Lumberjack errors -- to take a 19-17 lead. SFA rebounded and knotted the score at 19-19 and the teams played through four more ties to 23-23, but Stephen F. Austin committed four errors to close the game, allowing Bama to run off a 7-2 streak to end the game and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Although Stephen F. Austin held a slight advantage in the beginning of game four, the teams were even at 16-16, and again at 17-17. However, from there, SFA used a 6-0 run on back-to-back aces and four Alabama attack errors to pull ahead for good and close the game with a 13-5 spurt to even the match at two games apiece.
Stephen F. Austin will face the winner of the seventh-seeded Texas-Prairie View A&M match on Saturday, Dec. 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Gregory Gym.
POSTGAME NOTES
- SFA improved to 3-1 all-time against Alabama in the squads' first meeting since 1993
- In their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1999, the Ladyjacks earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory and improved their overall NCAA Tournament record to 1-3.
- The Ladyjacks are now two victories shy of setting the SFA record for wins in a season (33).
- With the loss, Alabama saw its two-match winning streak snapped and went 3-4 down the stretch to close the season.
- Despite the loss, Alamaba out-killed (63-60), out-attacked (222-210), out-dug (104-103) and out-blocked (13-9) SFA.
- Alabama made its second-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and is now 1-2 overall in the NCAA Tournament.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Stephen F. Austin Head Coach Debbie Humphreys
General comment: It came down to execution at key times and we were able to do that in games four and five. It's been a great season and it's still going.
On a back-and-forth match: I think game one really let us know that we were capable of playing with (Alabama). We certainly knew that coming in, but it solidified that and it gave us the confidence we needed. In game two and three we were not playing to 30, and the difference in games four and five was that we didn't give up the big runs.
Stephen F. Austin Libero Stephanie Figgers
On coming back after being down 2-1: The difference was we basically just cut down on the errors, played our game, and pushed to the finish.
Alabama Head Coach Judy Green
I'm really proud of our effort tonight. We played a great team and we knew it would be a tough match. We wanted to earn every point we got and we just came up short. I think we got too far behind in the fifth game, and once SFA came out at us, they never stopped coming.
Alabama Middle Blocker Rachel Green
We expected to go a lot further than this, and we certainly didn't expect to go (home) tonight. We tried our hardest and fought hard in that match, and I know we'll be back next year.
