Bearkat volleyball team falls in five sets to SFA

The Sam Houston State volleyball team fell in five sets to Southland Conference rival Stephen F. Austin Tuesday night in Nacogdoches, despite the Bearkats’ valiant efforts to get in the win column against their arch rivals.

The last time the Bearkats traveled to Nacogdoches, they won in five sets.

The Lumberjacks really had to earn the victory as they snuck past the Bearkats 25-20 15-25 25-23 23-25 15-6. SHSU is now 5-9 on the year, and 1-2 in conference action. SFA has a season record of 11-3, and are 2-0 in Southland Conference play.

There were a total of 26 ties and 10 lead changes in the first four sets, but in the fifth set, SFA jumped to a 5-1 lead that the Kats simply could not bounce back from. SFA’s Jill Ivy scored the winning attack on match point.

Deveney Wells-Gibson led the Kats with 22 kills and Haley Neisler followed with 14. Neisler also had five blocks in the game, and Tayler Gray assisted 39 of the 50 total kills for Sam Houston. Both Gray and Wells-Gibson had 15 digs. Kendall Cleveland also contributed with eight kills in the game.

The Bearkats will be back in action this Saturday against conference rivals Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The last two times these two teams met up, both games went to five sets and each team won on their home court.

Action will start at 1 p.m. in Corpus Christi. For more information on the Sam Houston Volleyball team, including schedule and statistics, visit gobearkats.com.