With just a week left until playoffs, the Sam Houston State volleyball team is in a position to be a top seed in the Southland Conference Tournament.
The Bearkats are currently tied for first place with Texas State for the Western Division Conference lead. Sam Houston looks to take a top seed and win the Western Division conference title, something the Bearkats have not accomplished since 1994.
The Sam Houston State volleyball team has come a long way from the beginning of the season and has grown into a solid team with athleticism and attitude. This talented group of both veterans and freshmen looks to win Sam Houston’s first Southland Conference Post-Season Tournament championship since 1996.
“We need to continue to get better,” Head Coach Brenda Gray said. “We need to make sure everyone’s bringing their ‘A’ game. I’ve seen them all play at their best individually, but not at the same time. When they play at the top of their game in the same match, we’re going to be scary.”
The Schedule
The 2009 season began with the Comfort Suites SHSU Invitational at Johnson Coliseum.
The Bearkats hosted Southern Utah, Texas Pan-American, Delaware State, and Louisiana Lafayette. Sam Houston won all four matches en route to winning the tournament and starting off the season 4-0.
SHSU then tailed off four straight road losses to drop them to .500 at 4-4. The Bearkats returned home to defeat Houston in a five-set match, one of their 10 five-set victories. The Bearkats then went on to lose five of their next six matches.
“Every great team hits road bumps,” said Carli Kolbe, Sam Houston’s leader in kills with 424 for the season. “You can either come back from it and act like nothing happened or you can let it end you. We’re the type of team that refuses to lose, so we fought back.”
After losing to conference foe Lamar, the Bearkats stood at 8-10 overall and 1-1 in the Southland Conference. A switch flipped in SHSU as the Bearkats journeyed to a historical win streak.
The Bearkats went on to win their next 11 matches, the longest win streak for Sam Houston volleyball since 1994.
UT-Arlington ended the SHSU 11-game win streak last Thursday with a 3-0 victory in Arlington. The Bearkats went on to lose their next match against Texas State in another 3-0 sweep.
Heading into the end of the season, the Bearkats stand at 19-12 overall and 11-3 in conference with two games left on the road. Ten of their conference victories came in their 11-game win streak. Sam Houston finished the season 15-2 at Johnson Coliseum.
The Young Team
This year’s Bearkat volleyball team is a young unit, with six freshmen and five sophomores on the team.
Senior Anna Ferguson and juniors Kym Loving and Shamira Washington are the only upperclassmen on Sam Houston’s volleyball team this season.
The freshmen have shocked all Bearkat fans over the season by playing beyond their years and looking more like a seasoned squad than an inexperienced one. One of the freshman that have played exceptionally well in the past couple of games is Camille Alfaro. She is fourth on the team in kills and has improved over the length of the season.
“We have some good athletes on this team,” Alfaro said. “We’re young but we have agility and athleticism and that shows on the court. I think we can all step up and contribute to take some pressure off of the veterans on the team.”
Kelli Stewart was another freshman with a promising season ahead of her until an arm injury struck her early in the season.
Freshmen Kaylee Hawkins and Jamie Haas have provided a great defensive presence on the court for the Bearkats. Hawkins, Sam Houston’s leader in digs with 443, and Haas provide depth at the libero position and both play very well.
Stepping in for the injured Kym Loving, freshman Michelle Miller has filled in the setter position very well. She leads the team with 942 assists and has played well throughout the season.
Another freshman that provides depth is Becky Swan. She has provided 57 kills in just 22 matches played and looks to continue to be a presence coming off the bench.
Leadership
Coming into the season, the more experienced players knew that there would be a challenge in leading a group of young players.
Several players shined, but none have shined brighter than senior Anna Ferguson and sophomore Carli Kolbe. The two have combined for 829 kills over the season to make them the best kill duo in the Southland Conference.
Ferguson recently topped the 1000 career-kills mark and has been a great Bearkat over the course of her volleyball tenure at SHSU. Last season she made first-team All-Southland Conference and will almost certainly do so again this season. She leads by example and has been a huge part of the 2009 Bearkats’ success.
“Over the course of the season, this team has become one,” Ferguson said. “Beginning the season we were a bunch of individuals fighting for a spot. As time went on, we really formed into a team.”
The leadership and excellent play of Ferguson and Kolbe have led Sam Houston to one of its best teams in years. The combination of athletic and energetic young players with talented and experienced veterans puts the Bearkats in a good position to go deep into the post-season and win.
Following the final two games of the season on the road at Central Arkansas and at Northwestern, there will be four days of preparation between then and the beginning of the Southland Conference Tournament.
The Bearkats look to bring home their third Southland Conference Tournament title and first since 1996.
