? Pre-match notes (.pdf)
Southland Conference Tournament
Convocation Center ? San Antonio, Texas
Match 34: Friday, Nov. 16, No. 2 Stephen F. Austin (25-7), 6:30 p.m.
Match 35: Saturday, Nov. 17, No. 3 Texas-Arlington/No. 6 Northwestern State winner, 2 p.m.
Match 36: Sunday, Nov. 18, Championship Match, 2 p.m.
SLC Tournament coming to town: UTSA (13-20) hosts the 26th annual Southland Conference Tournament for the second year in a row and the fourth time in school history this weekend. The Roadrunners, who previously hosted the annual postseason event in 1992, 2003 and ’06, finished in a fourth-place tie in the SLC West Division at 5-11 and earned the league’s No. 7 seed. UTSA will play second-seeded Stephen F. Austin (25-7) at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The winner of that match will face either No. 3 Texas-Arlington or No. 6 Northwestern State at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The championship match is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday and the winner of that contest will earn the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
On the Web: All UTSA tournament matches will be streamed live on goUTSA.com (video & audio/Rowdy Zone subscription required). Ernest Hernandez will call all the action from courtside.
UTSA and the SLC Tournament: The Roadrunners are making their 13th appearance in the postseason tournament since joining the Southland Conference in 1991. UTSA has an 8-12 mark in its 20 all-time matches and played for the league title two times. The Roadrunners won the 2000 SLC Tournament Championship with a four-game victory against Lamar and were swept by Texas State in the 2005 final. Since 2000, UTSA has won six of 11 tournament matches.
Scouting Stephen F. Austin: Stephen F. Austin, the preseason favorite to defend its 2006 conference title, enters Friday’s match with a 25-7 overall record. The Ladyjacks won the SLC West Division with a 15-1 mark and shared the league championship with Lamar, but the Lady Cardinals clinched the top seed by virtue of their five-game win on Oct. 27. SFA has won four contests in a row and eight of nine overall. All eight of those victories have been sweeps. UTSA has lost 15 contests in a row to the Ladyjacks, including three-game losses on Sept. 28 and Nov. 1, and Stephen F. Austin holds a commanding 29-8 edge in the all-time series that dates back to Sept. 22, 1984.
Prior, Rowland earn ALL-SLC honors: Junior middle hitter Victoria Prior, a preseason first-team All-SLC selection, lived up to the billing, as she was one of 12 players named to the league’s top team on Thursday. Prior became the 12th Roadrunner in school history to be named to the conference’s first team and it marks the fifth year in a row that a UTSA student-athlete has represented the program on the SLC’s top squad. The Roadrunners other honoree was freshman outside hitter Kendra Rowland, who was a second-team selection.
Team leaderboard: Junior middle hitter Victoria Prior leads the Roadrunners with an SLC-best 440 kills (3.8 pg), a .304 hitting percentage and 108 total blocks (40 solos/68 assists) this season. Meanwhile, freshman outside hitter Kendra Rowland has a team-high 28 service aces, junior setter Rebecca Hrapmann owns a squad-best 852 assists (7.9 pg) and junior libero Audrey Hiser has a team-leading 507 digs (4.8 pg).
Record watch: Junior middle hitter Victoria Prior’s 40 solo blocks this year rank in a fifth-place tie on the school’s single-season chart. Meanwhile, junior libero Audrey Hiser, who has 507 digs this season, stands in fifth place on the program’s single-season ledger.
SLC rankings: Junior middle hitter Victoria Prior currently leads the Southland Conference with 440 kills (3.9 pg/second) and she also ranks fifth with a .304 hitting percentage. Meanwhile, freshman outside hitter Kendra Rowland stands fourth in the league with 427 winners (3.8 pg/fourth). Junior libero Audrey Hiser ranks seventh in digs per contest (4.8 pg) and junior setter Rebecca Hrapmann stands ninth in assists per game (7.9 pg).
Prior leading the way: Junior middle hitter Victoria Prior has been a force in her third season as a Roadrunner. Prior, who earned first-team All-SLC honors on Thursday, leads the squad with an SLC-best 440 kills (3.9 pg/second SLC), a .304 hitting percentage (fifth SLC) and 108 total blocks (40 solo/68 assists). Her 40 solo blocks rank in a fifth-place tie on UTSA’s single-season chart and her 440 winners stand in a 10th-place tie. She was named to three consecutive all-tournament teams at the Lady Panther Invitational (68 kills, .400 pct, 15 blocks), UTSA Classic (46 kills, .389 pct, 8 blocks) and North Florida Labor Day Classic (36 kills, .275 pct, 4 blocks). The Galveston native had a season-high 25 winners against Texas-Pan American on Sept. 15, which was one short of her career high, and she has been in double figures 25 times this year, including four 20-plus performances.
Rowland having stellar freshman campaign: Freshman outside hitter Kendra Rowland has shown she is no ordinary first-year player. A second-team All-SLC selection, Rowland leads the squad with 28 service aces, ranks second with 427 kills (3.8 pg/fourth SLC) and 371 digs (3.3 pg) and stands third with 38 total blocks (7 solo/31 assists). She has recorded at least 10 winners in 25 contests and also has 17 double-doubles this season. On Sept. 6 against Houston, the Antioch, Calif., native slammed home a career-high 29 kills, which was the most by a Roadrunner since Meagan Daniel had 29 on Nov. 11, 2005 (at Northwestern State). She matched that performance on Oct. 24 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Rowland collected a career-high 30 digs on Nov. 3 against Sam Houston State, the most by a Roadrunner this season. She opened her career by being named to back-to-back all-tournament teams at the Bronco Invitational (28 kills, 2 aces, 13 digs) and North Florida Labor Day Classic (34 kills, 3 aces, 36 digs, 3 blocks).
Hiser controlling back row: After a slow start to her junior season, defensive specialist Audrey Hiser has stepped her game up the past two months. Hiser was named SLC Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 15 after recording 48 digs in two matches, including a career-high 29 against Texas-Arlington on Oct. 13. She had a then-career-high 27 on Sept. 6 against Houston, which was her second career best in as many matches (she had 26 on Sept. 1 vs. Southeast Missouri State). The San Antonio native went on to record 25 digs against Texas A&M on Sept. 8, 26 more three days later at SMU, 22 on Sept. 20 at Texas State, 28 on Oct. 24 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and 23 on Nov. 3 against Sam Houston State. She has eight 20-plus performances this year, leads the team with 507 digs (4.8 pg/seventh SLC) and has been in double figures in 25 of the past 27 matches. Her season digs total ranks fifth on UTSA’s single-season chart.
Mighty Mecke: Freshman Dana Mecke has been quite busy this season. In addition to her duties on the court, the first-year defensive specialist ran for the UTSA cross country squad for the second season in a row. The Bulverde native has played in 30 matches along the back row this year and collected 194 digs (2.1 pg). Mecke has run meets and played matches on the same weekend five times this season. She won her first career meet at the Ricardo Romo/Six Flags Fiesta Texas Classic on Sept. 21 and earned all-league honors three weeks ago with her sixth-place effort at the Southland Conference Championships in Corpus Christi. Mecke did not accompany the squad last weekend, as she ran at the NCAA South Central Regional in Fayetteville, Ark. She finished in 65th place, which was the best performance by a Roadrunners female since 2005.
Head Coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff: Laura Neugebauer-Groff is in her sixth season at the helm of UTSA?s volleyball program. She led the Roadrunners to a 19-13 record, a 10-3 mark at the Convocation Center and a berth in the Southland Conference Tournament a year ago. Her career ledger stands at 349-160 (.686), including a 93-98 mark at UTSA. She coached the 500th match of her career on Oct. 13 against Texas-Arlington. In five-plus years as the Roadrunners’ head coach, Neugebauer-Groff has tutored 13 All-SLC players and 11 all-academic honorees, including 2005 SLC Student-Athlete of the Year Meagan Daniel.
