NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team went toe-to-toe against the undefeated No. 1 seed, Stephen F. Austin, falling in straight sets despite holding multiple leads and pushing the final set to extra points at the Southland Conference Tournament.
The Colonels (10-20, 6-11 SLC) defeated McNeese State University in the final regular-season contest to earn a place at the tournament, but faced a dominant Ladyjack squad that had gone 16-0 entering the postseason. SFA (24-7, 17-0 SLC) was a heavy favorite entering Friday's match, but had their hands full with a resilient and determined Nicholls club. With the win the Ladyjacks earned their first match victory and semifinal berth in the conference tournament since 2009.
Nicholls held multiple leads in the first set, stunning SFA out of the gate and pushing the set to a 23-23 tie before the Ladyjacks put together consecutive points to escape with a win. In the second set the Ladyjacks used a .258 hitting percentage to win the set 25-18 as First-Team All-Southland selections Jill Ivy and Jacque Allen combined for eight kills on 16 attempts. Fighting to extend their season, the Colonels pressed SFA to extra points in the third set as the Ladyjacks clinched the match with a tight, 26-24 third set victory.
Kaci Eaton and
Kalynn Egea led the Colonels as they have done all season, but the resolute performance was a team effort for Nicholls on Friday. Eaton finished with a team-high 13 kills and added six digs.
Kalynn Egea, the number one libero in the Southland Conference, had 26 digs in the final match of her career.
Ainsley Marroccoli finished with 25 assists, while
Alyse Barclay added 14.
Kayla Burling was second on the team in kills with 11 and
Emily Weimer paced the squad in blocks with two.
Ivy led the offensive attack for SFA with 14 kills on night. Olson had a team-leading 16 digs and Paige Holland had 33 assists for the Ladyjacks.
"I am proud of my girls," Head Coach
Tommy Harold said. "They came out and competed. We fought through some adversity and made it a match. We couldn't quite get over the hump to seal the set. Stephen F. is a solid team and went 16 and 0 in the conference for a reason. We had opportunities and were not able to close it out. That is a function of both sides of the net. We had to take care of our business and they certainly made that hard. We're happy with the effort and we will take another step forward."
Nicholls loses Egea to graduation, but retains the remainder of their 2014 lineup, including Second-Team All-Southland selection, Eaton. With her final game in the books, Egea holds the all-time program record for digs per set (4.85) and is tenth all-time in career digs despite playing just two seasons as a Colonel. Egea is also first all-time in digs per set for a season, fourth all-time in digs in a season and finished third in the nation in digs per set in 2014.
Losing the preeminent libero in the conference will be a tough challenge for Nicholls moving forward, but the team will look to its 12 returners to fill the void in the 2015 season and seek to build off of a year in which they doubled their overall win total from 2013 and more than doubled last seasons' conference win total.
