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Game Notes: Volleyball focused entering SSAC Tournament
By Jim O'Hara
Lady Hawks (28-7) @ SSAC Tournament
Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11 and 12 • Biloxi, Miss.
BILOXI, Miss. – In its final match of the regular season, the Shorter University volleyball team proved that it could hold its own in the Gulf South Conference, the league in which the Lady Hawks will compete next year when SU makes the move to NCAA Division II.
This weekend, however, the Lady Hawks hope to extend their season as a member of the NAIA's Southern States Athletic Conference when they open the 2011 SSAC Tournament on Friday in Biloxi, Miss., against the University of Mobile, the beginning of a quest towards a berth in the NAIA Volleyball National Championship.
"I really do feel good going into the tournament," head coach Jon Moseley said as the Lady Hawks (28-7), who are the SSAC West Division's No. 2 seed, focus on the opener against West No. 3 seed Mobile (24-13). "We're healthy and I feel we're prepared."
Moseley's charges will go up against a Mobile squad that he feels is totally different from the one Shorter faced earlier in the season when the Lady Hawks picked up a three-set win.
"They're playing a lot better since then," Moseley said, noting that Mobile enjoyed a run of 11 wins in 12 matches midway through the season, a stretch that included an eight-game win streak. "It'll be almost like playing a new team. They made a lot of changes to help with blocking."
That win streak ended in losses to SSAC foes Loyola (La.) and Spring Hill, the West Division regular season champion that is ranked No. 19 nationally and enters the tournament unbeaten. The Lady Rams got back into the win column last week besting non-conference foe Tougaloo (Miss.).
"I expected [Mobile] to be better at the end of the year," said Moseley. "We're definitely not overlooking them."
The Lady Hawks closed out their regular season last week on a positive note as well when they outlasted NCAA Division II and Gulf South Conference opponent Alabama-Huntsville in a five-set thriller that wound up being Shorter's fifth straight win and its 11th in its last 12 matches.
The victory came via the formula that has led Shorter to a record 28 wins – balance, especially along the net.
Freshman Jasmine Crook gave the team a career-high 22 kills, senior Jessica Cooper had 12 kills and eight blocks and junior Loren Olive added 16 kills. In addition, junior Jordan Corder had 38 assists and 26 digs, and junior Tanequa Whitman finished with a team-high 34 digs.
"We are balanced," Moseley said. "We had five hitters who were capable of doing the job and since we re-aligned the lineup, we now have a sixth hitter in there so we can be even more balanced. Having that sixth hitter really helps us in our blocking."
All told, the balance is quite noticeable in the Lady Hawks' team statistics.
Corder has continued her quest to become the program's all-time leader in assists – former great Kristy Walker holds the title with 3,950 assists – as the native of Hazel Green, Ala., who has been the SSAC's Setter of the Year for the last two years, has compiled 995 helpers this season to put her over the 3,000 mark for her career.
Senior Meghan Weller leads the team with a career-high 50 aces while Olive has 49 and needs just 13 more to become Shorter's career record holder in that department.
Cooper, who hails from Grant, Ala., leads the team with 114 blocks and is ranked No. 5 in the country with a .401 hitting percentage. Junior Leslie Welch of LaFayette has added 107 blocks.
Crook, of Ohatchee, Ala., leads Shorter with 343 kills and fellow freshman Tori Bradley of Florence, Ala., remains on her heels with 341 kills. Cooper is not far behind with 291.
Whitman, a junior out of Huntsville, Ala., has made a quick impact in her first year with Shorter coming up with a team-high 512 digs. Corder has had 337.
The winner of the first-round match between Shorter and Mobile advances to take on the winner of the matchup between Spring Hill and Southern Wesleyan in a Saturday semifinal. The other half of the tourney bracket includes No. 4-ranked Lee, considered the favorite to advance to the championship match Saturday night where the tournament champion will receive an automatic berth to the NAIA playoffs.
Odds are that the SSAC will also receive an at-large bid to the playoffs, something of which Moseley and the Lady Hawks, who are receiving 32 votes to sit just outside the Top 25, are well aware.
"I do hope we can move up [in the final poll] so we have a chance to get an at-large berth if we don't win the tournament," said Moseley, reaffirming that to do that Shorter must reach the final. "We know we have to win two matches to get into that position, but we still want to win the title to get the automatic berth."
