USA Volleyball Drops Match To Troy On Saturday
The Jaguar volleyball team has dropped it’s last two matches at home after starting 6-0 on the season at home.
The two teams battled for second place in the Sun Belt’s Eastern Division. Melissa Waelter led the Jags with her eighth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 10 digs. Seniors Olivia Mohler and Lindsay Schwartz also were in double digits in the match offensively. Both also had solid defensive play with six and five block assists respectively. Jenna Hassell and Savannah Stewart both had 14 digs.
Troy had three players in double digits for the match.
The Jags (13-13, 6-5 SBC) will close out the home portion of its regular season when they welcome Middle Tennessee State on Friday at 7pm and then #19 Western Kentucky at noon on Sunday.
Jaguar Men’s Basketball Team Public Scrimmage Today At 4pm
The South Alabama Jaguar Men’s Basketball team will hold a public intrasquad scrimmage on Tuesday afternoon at the Striplin Practice Facility.
The scrimmage is open to the public and will begin at 4pm.
Then on Wednesday evening fans will be able to meet head coaches Ronnie Arrow and Rick Pietri as well as the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
The meet and greet will be held on the main floor of the Mitchell Center and will include an autograph session with the coaches and players. Bring your memorabilia to be signed and cameras for photos with your favorite Jaguar players.
This even is also free to the public as is parking for the event. The meet and greet will run from 5pm to 7pm.
Following the meet and greet, fans are encouraged to go to Jag Gym to support the Jaguar Volleyball team as they take on Jackson State at 7pm.
Jaguar Volleyball Team Stays Perfect At Home
The South Alabama Volleyball team posted their 13th win of the season on Sunday when they defeated Louisiana-Lafayette at Jag Gym. En route to the win, Savannah Stewart, Melissa Waelter and Torlandria Jones all recorded double-digit kills in the 3-1 win.
Stewart led the team with 17 kills while adding seven digs and an ace. Waelter had 16 kills and 18 digs for her fourth consecutive double-double and her seventh of the season. Jones had 10 kills and led the team with four total blocks, one solo and three assists.
Senior setter Katariina Kananen also had a double-double in the match, her ninth of the season and 24th of her career, with 36 assists and 18 digs.
The Jags (13-11, 6-4 SBC) are just one win away from matching the most wins since the 1995 season. Also the six conference wins are tied for the program record, matching the total amount of conference wins during the 2010 season. They are a perfect 6-0 at home.
UL-Lafayette falls to 14-12 overall and 5-5 in the Sun Belt and breaking their four-match winning streak.
Jaguar Volleyball Downs FIU In Straight Sets
The South Alabama Jaguar Volleyball team are 3-1 in the Sun Belt after back-to-back straight set wins over Florida Atlantic and Florida International. This is the best start by the Jags since 2010.
Sophomore outside hitter Melissa Waelter recorded her third double-double of the season with 15 kills and 13 digs against Florida International on Sunday.
The Jags next travel to Arkansas for matches against Arkansas-Little Rock and Arkansas State. UALR is the Western Division leader as they are 4-0 in conference play.
Savannah Stewart also recorded her 10th double-figure kill match with 11. Lindsay Schwartz added 8 kills while Olivia Mohler and Torlandria Jones both had five kills each. Mohler also added four block assists.
True freshman Emily Hundt had 11 digs and career high four service aces.
Jaguar Volleyball Prepares To Open Sun Belt Play This Week
The South Alabama Lady Jaguar volleyball team will begin their Sun Belt Conference schedule this week when they play against Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky.
The Jags enter Sun Belt play with a 7-7 record after going 2-2 this past weekend at the Springhill Suites Invitational. They defeated Jacksonville State and Savannah State in straight sets. But lost two matches to tournament host Georgia State and Wisconsin both 3-1.
Both MTSU and WKU were chosen to finish at the top of the Eastern Division of the Sun Belt Conference in a preseason poll. On Thursday the Jags will open up against MTSU at 7pm at Alumni Memorial Gym then they will play WKU at 1pm on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena against WKU.
Web streaming of the MTSU match will be available online while live stats for both matches will be available at the Jaguars official website www.usajaguars.com.
The Jags are led by three very talented players in Senior Olivia Mohler and Junior Jenna Hassell, who ranks fourth in the lead in digs, along with freshman outside hitter Savannah Stewart who has stepped up her game since the beginning of September.
Head coach Amy Hendrichovsky said that, “Starting off the Sun Belt schedule playing Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky will be a great opportunity to immediately show us where we stand against those teams that are typically competing for the championship each year. I fully expect our team to walk in both gyms looking to compete at a high level.”
“We are excited and ready to compete,” Hendirchovsky continued. “The team has worked hard through the preseason tournaments to improve and grow. We have learned many things about our team and my hope is we continue to improve throughout conference play leading into the conference tournament.”
Jag Volleyball Starts Season Well
The South Alabama Volleyball team had a great start to the season over the weekend. After an opening loss to Central Arkansas, they rebounded and defeated Southern Miss (straight sets) and Louisiana Tech to start the season 2-1.
Jenna Hassell and Olivia Mohler were both named to the Southern Miss Invitational All-Tournament team for their efforts. This win over La. Tech was the Jags first since the 2000 season.
Mohler let the Jags on both sides of the net for the last two matches in a row. In the win over La. Tech, Mohler had 14 kills, five block assists, and hit .423. Melissa Waelter added 12 kills while Lindsay Schwartz added 10. Jaguar setter Katariina Kananen had 39 assists and 16 digs for her 15th career double-double. Junior libero added 15 digs of her own.
The Jags will head to St. Louis, Mo. for the Active Ankle Challenge hosted by St. Louis. They will open against Southern Illinois at 4:30pm on Friday.
Jaguar Volleyball Opens Season This Weekend In Hattisburg
The South Alabama Jaguar volleyball team is set to open the 2012 season this weekend in Hattisburg, Mississippi when they compete in the Southern Miss Invitational. It’s a two day, three-match tournament that begins on Friday with two matches. The Jags will face Central Arkansas at 11am then turn around to face the USM Golden Eagles at 7pm. Then on Saturday they will face Louisiana Tech at 3pm.
This will be head coach Amy Hendrichosky’s first season as the Jaguars volleyball coach. Hendrichovsky believes that success lies early in the non-conference schedule by minimizing errors. “First-and-foremost, I would say that it’s going to be about minimizing unforced errors. Leading into the first weekend any year, it’s about the team that’s making the least amount of errors that’s going to win the match.”
“Something we’ve also been focusing on during the spring and the summer is just about competing for each point,” she continued. “I think our team’s excited and ready to go and start this year’s new journey.”
Hendrichovsky came to USA in December from Middle Tennessee State, one of the top programs in the Sun Belt. As an assistant at MTSU, she was primarily focused on player development, game preparation, planning and scouting opponents and recruiting. While with MTSU, she helped the team go to six-consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, four Sun Belt tournament titles (’06, ’07, ’09 and ’10) in addition to three regular-season championships (’06, ’07, ’10). During that time MTSU had 24 players honored as All-Sun Belt, eight SBC All-Tournament selections and nine AVCA All-Region and All-American selections. She also coached two Sun Belt Players of the Year (’07 and ’10).
Hendrichovsky played at the University of North Alabama in Florence, Alabama and was a four-year starter for the perennial power as they were routinely one of the Top 10 programs in NCAA Division II. She graduated from UNA in 2001 and is a native of Boca Raton Florida.
There are eight letterwinners and three starters returning from last years team. Katariina Kananen is one of the returnees, she ranked third in the Sun Belt in assists per match with just under 9.9.
Sophomore outside hitter Melissa Maelter and junior libero Jenna Hassell are also returning for the Jags. Waelter was the top defensive threat with 244 kills and averaged just under 2.6 per set. Hassell anchored the back court with an average of 3.8 digs per set, seventh in the Sun Belt.
Olivia Mohler, who started all 28 matches and competed in every set for the Jags in 2011. As a junior, she moved from middle blocker to outside hitter and had her best offensive season at South Alabama. She finished third on the team with 232 kills and kills per set with 2.34. She led the team in solo blocks (7), block assists (76) and blocks per set (0.84). Additionally she ranked fourth on the team in service aces with 22. She was named to UCF Classic and Colonel Classic All-Tournament teams.
Redshirt sophomore Torlandria Jones returns from missing the 2011 season with a knee injury. As a freshman she tallied 74 blocks. Lindsay Schwartz, who returns after two seasons away to focus on track. She ranks among Jaguar career leaders in both block assists and blocks per set. While focusing on track, she won All-America honors and several Sun Belt Championships in multiple events.
South Alabama Sports Update 2009-10-04
Football
The Jags next opponent, Georgia Military Junior College is 3-2 on the season with wins over Ellsworth Community College, Arkansas Baptist College and North Carolina Tech. They had an open date this weekend before traveling to Mobile for the game on October 10.
Also, starting this week, multi-year season ticket renewals begin. The USA Ticket Office announced on Friday that they will be offering Jags season ticket holders the chance to lock in their 2009 rates for the 2010 season over the course of the next month. Starting on Monday, renewal letters will be sent out to all fans who chose to sign up for the three-year season ticket plan. This plan allows fans to guarantee the same price for their seats next fall by paying 50% of their balance by November 2.
Fans with season tickets who have not yet signed up for this plan are still able to if they contact the ticket sales office before November 2.
The Jags will kickoff Saturday at 11:30am against NJCAA #17 ranked Georgia Military JC at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday, October 10.
Sun Belt Football:
Arkansas State traveled to #13 Iowa and came close to having an upset. Scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter Arkansas State tried to rally, but a field goal by Iowa in the same quarter was the difference as the Hawkeyes stay undefeated 24-21.
In a high scoring game, Florida International traveled to UL-Monroe but could not get their first win of the season and lost 48-35.
Also winless Florida Atlantic hosted Wyoming but could not notch their first win either as Wyoming bested them in a close 30-28 game.
Currently the Sun Belt standings: UL-Monroe (3-2, 2-0), MTSU (3-1, 1-0), Troy (2-2, 1-0), UL-Lafayette (2-2, 0-0), Western Kentucky (0-4, 0-0), Arkansas State (1-3, 0-1), North Texas (1-3, 0-1), Florida Atlantic 0-4, 0-1) and Florida International (0-4, 0-0).
Soccer
On Friday the Jags played their first home conference game of the season when they hosted Western Kentucky in The Cage. However the Jags fell 2-0 to the lady Hilltoppers. The loss dropped the Jags to 2-8-1 on the season and are still winless in the Sun Belt at 0-2-1, while the Hilltoppers improve to 7-3-1 on the season and 2-1-0 in the Sun Belt.
Coach Vargas said the the team had problems with sickness this week. “We had eight players at practice this week, because of the flu and sickness. I told the team I didn’t want that to be an excuse or used as a crutch. We just didn’t do the little things we needed to do to be successful today.”
The Jaguars are scheduled to play Middle Tennessee at 1pm today. The Jags will be on the road next weekend to play North Texas at 7pm on Friday and Denver at noon on Sunday.
Volleyball
The Jags dropped three matches this week. On Monday the Jags dropped their match in Troy in straight sets (18-25, 23-25, 20-25). Then on Friday the Jags lost again in straight sets at Arkansas State (19-25, 14-25, 10-25). On Saturday the Jags lost 3-1 against University of Arkansas-Little Rock (16-25, 17-25, 25-16, 16-25).
With the three losses, the Jags fall to 9-9 overall but stay winless in the Sun Belt at 0-5.
Next weekend the Jags will host three opponents in three days. On Friday they play UL-Lafayette at 5pm, then University of New Orleans at 5pm on Saturday, then UL-Monroe at 1pm on Sunday.
South Alabama Sports Update 2009-09-28
Basketball
The 2009 Coors Classic schedule was released on Monday. The December 19 matchup will be a doubleheader on CSS the University and the GMAC Bowl announced Monday.
The first game will tip-off at 5:30pm with South Alabama taking on UAB which will be followed by Kansas State facing the University of Alabama 30 minutes after game one concludes.
Soccer
On Friday night the Lady Jaguar soccer team dropped its first Sun Belt Conference game 4-3 in Jonesboro, Arkansas to Arkansas State in overtime. However Katie Berry, USA’s goalkeeper, broke the teams single-game saves record with 18 saves against Arkansas State.
USA fell to 2-7-0 (0-1-0 in the SBC) after the loss. The Jags took and early 1-0 lead in just the sixth minute of the match on a Landi Wilson goal. But ASU would score two goals before the end of the first half to take a 2-1 lead. The Jags would answer back and tie the game 2-2 with a Wilson assist to Brandi Smith’s goal in the 49th minute.
ASU would score again to regain the lead 3-2 in the 66th minute before a second goal by Smith in the 75th minute to tie the game again at 3-3.
In overtime, ASU would score the game-winner off of a corner kick in the 96th minute.
On Sunday the Jags played the University of Arkansas-Little Rock to a tie in Little Rock, Arkansas. UALR who is 3-6-1 for the season and 0-1-1 in the Sun Belt gained a two goal advantage into halftime leading the Jags 2-0. The first goal happened in the first minute of the game with the second coming in the 36th minute.
However the Jags scored to tie the game in the second half with a goal in the 82nd minute and again in the 84th minute by Liz Clark and Brandi Smith respectively. But neither team could pull out a win and thus the match ended in a tie, 2-2.
The Lady Jags (2-7-1, 0-1-1 in the SBC) will return to Mobile to take on fellow Sun Belt opponent Western Kentucky on October 2nd with kickoff scheduled for 7pm at The Cage.
Volleyball
On Friday, the Jaguars volleyball team also opened their Sun Belt schedule against Florida Atlantic in Jag Gym. However the Jags would fall in straight sets (22-25, 20-25, 24-26).
Then on Sunday hosted Florida International at Jag Gym and fell for the second straight match, again in straight sets (15-25, 15-25, 17-25).
After these two losses, the Jags fell to 9-6 on the season and 0-2 in the Sun Belt after opening conference play.
The Jags will travel to Troy for a 7pm match.
South Alabama Sports Update 2009-09-21
Soccer
USA drops two games over the weekend. First the Jags traveled to Atlanta to play Georgia State. The weather forced a venue change and an early kickoff. At halftime, the Jags were only down 1-0 after a goal in the 41st minute. Then GSU added two goals in the second half to round out the final score of 3-0 to the Panthers.
From there the Jags traveled to Columbia, South Carolina for a match against the #12 ranked USC Gamecocks. The undefeated gamecocks took a 3-0 lead into halftime then scored another three goals in the second half. The Jags scored their lone goal of the weekend in the 85th minute of the match and was the first goal allowed by South Carolina this season. The final score was 6-1.
Volleyball
The Jags volleyball team traveled to Prairie View, Texas for a weekend tournament at Prairie View A&M. On Friday they had a rematch against Nicolls State that they won in straight sets 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-20).
On Saturday the lady Jags first match was against Arkansas-Pine Bluff which they won in straight sets again 3-0 (25-12, 25-11, 25-11). They then took on the tournament host for the tournament title and won in straight sets once again 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-23) to win the Lady Panther Invitational title.
Football
The Jaguars enjoyed another weekend off before beginning game-week preparation for this Saturday’s matchup against Army Prep at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
However the weekend was not very good to Sun Belt teams. North Texas traveled to Tuscaloosa to take on the #4 ranked Crimson Tide but were demolished 53-7. LSU hosted Louisiana-Lafayette but the Ragin’ Cajuns could only muster a field goal to lose 31-3. Western Kentucky hosted Central Arkansas but could only punch it into the end zone once in the first half and lost 28-7.
Louisiana-Monroe traveled to Arizona State and managed to score two touchdowns but still fell short against the Sun Devils 38-14. Florida International took on Rutgers and lost 23-15. Troy hosted in-state rival UAB and took a 10 point lead into halftime but ended up with a 27-14 win.
Then the most exciting game of the weekend saw Middle Tennessee State travel to Maryland. The game stayed close then with two seconds remaining, down 31-29 MTSU made a 32 yard field goal to win the game 32-31.
Other action: Arkansas State had an off week but are 0-2 to begin the season after losing to Mississippi Valley State and Nebraska. They will host Troy this Saturday. Florida Atlantic traveled to South Carolina but lost to the Gamecocks 38-16.
