The Sam Houston State Bearkats came away with a huge Southland Conference victory in a nail-biter against rival Stephen F. Austin last night, extending their win streak to eight games in a row.

Sam Houston won in five sets, 24-26 25-22 22-25 27-25 15-11, to increase their conference record to 8-1 and their overall record to 16-10. The victory increases their West Division Southland Conference lead on Lamar to one and a half games.

Carli Kolbe and Anna Ferguson led the team with 26 kills each. Camille Alfaro added 10 kills in the victory. The Bearkats were able to overcome 43 errors with 71 kills, two service aces, and 12 blocks to win their twelfth home game of the year in front of a roaring Sam Houston crowd.

“We just refused to lose,” Ferguson said. “SFA’s really good and they’re a big rival, so it was a great win. We overcame a lot of errors and it shows that as long as we pick the rest of our game up, we can still win.”

The match went back and forth between with 44 ties and 17 lead changes.

Down two sets to one, the Bearkats trailed 23-24 with momentum on their side. They scored four out of the next five points en route to a 27-25 victory, tying the match at 2-2.

“This team just doesn’t panic,” said Head Coach Brenda Gray. “We don’t panic. This is one of the best teams I’ve ever coached. I’ve been here 26 years. That speaks a lot.”

The fifth set was all Sam Houston. Kolbe and Ferguson took over the match and dominated the Lumberjacks en route to a 15-11 set victory.

“We were very up and down tonight but everyone picked each other up,” Kolbe said. “Everyone played so hard tonight. We weren’t going to lose.”

The Bearkats look to increase their winng streak to nine games this Saturday when they host conference foe McNeese State for Senior Day. The Bearkats look to increase their record to 9-1 in the conference and their overall record to 17-10 this weekend at the Johnson Coliseum.