Volleyball Regular Season OVC Champs

The Volleyball team has had a dominant regular season and won the OVC title. Sorry we haven't been able to provide more coverage of this awesome team. Here is a story from the JSU website on the win against Austin Peay which clinched the title.

JACKSONVILLE – Despite dropping the first two sets on Friday night, the Jacksonville State volleyball team rallied to win the final three and claim a 3-2 (21-25, 11-25, 28-26, 25-16, 15-13) win over Austin Peay and clinch the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference regular season title.

The Gamecocks (22-5, 15-0 OVC) were able to overcome an 0-2 deficit for the second-straight match and extend their winning streak to 16 matches. Despite being picked to finish sixth in the OVC’s preseason poll, JSU finished off the season sweep of the Lady Govs (19-8, 12-3 OVC) to secure its fourth OVC Trophy in the past five seasons and the right to host the conference tournament in two weeks.

“Obviously we were being judged in the preseason on what we did last year, bue we had high expectations for ourselves going into the year,” JSU head coach Rick Nold said. “We knew we made some big improvements. You don’t know if it’s going to turn into a championship, but we knew we at least had a team that could compete for that. We’ve played confident all year so far, but we’re making sure we keep making steps to give ourselves a chance to win the conference tournament.”

Sophomore Lauren Harkins led a JSU defensive effort that made a turnaround after dropping a lopsided second set. The Louisville, Ky., native had 21 digs in the match, 16 of which came over the final three sets. She increased her career total to 1,000 digs, making her just the eighth player in school history to reach that mark.

Harkins also moved her season total to 518, just eight digs shy of Kisha West’s single season record that was set in 2005. Senior Brittney Whitten, who is second on the school’s career digs list, recorded a double-double with 17 kills and a match-high 26 digs. The Boonville, Ind., native amassed 13 kills and 18 digs over the final three sets.

Two other JSU players, freshman Alyx Schulte and sophomore Allie Schleisman, contributed to the defensive effort with 12 digs apiece. The Gamecocks’ front row defense was also a big turning point. They knocked down just three blocks but got a hand on a lot of APSU attacks at the nets, helping the back row set up the offense with solid passes.

“I thought the biggest difference for us was in blocking, although it doesn’t show up in the blocking numbers,” Nold said. “It just made defense a little easier for our back row people. It took away a bigger part of the court, and when we do that I think our back row defense is a s good as anybody’s.”

Whitten was one of five JSU players with 10 or more kills on the offensive end, with freshman Jen Meyer adding 16 on a .483 attack percentage. The Maineville, Ohio, native was a bright spot on a team that hit just .208 through the first two sets in the match. Junior Caitlin Vorbeck added 15 kills in the win, while Schulte and junior Kara Slater each pitched in 10 kills.

Austin Peay, who hit .382 over the first two sets before hitting less than .200 in each of the last three, were led by Stephanie Champine’s 18 kills and 15 digs. Paige Economos led the Lady Govs’ defense with 23 digs, while Kirstin Distler notched a double-double with 12 digs and 10 kills.

“They came out playing very well, but we weren’t ready to play out of the gate,” Nold added. “When that happens, a team is going to beat up on you and that’s what they did in those first two games. We’ve shown all year that we are very resilient. We’ve gotten in some tough situations and battled back, and once again we pulled through tonight.”

The tournament, which will consist of the league’s top six teams, will be in Jacksonville for the third time in the past four seasons. It will span three days, and full details will be released next week.

The Gamecocks will wrap up their regular season home schedule on Saturday, when they take on Tennessee State at 2 p.m. at Pete Mathews Coliseum. It will be Senior Day for the Gamecocks, and the team’s two seniors, Whitten and Paige Beasley, will be honored prior to the match. Admission is free for all fans.