These Kats are crazy good

Coach compares West Division leaders to SHSU’s best teams of past

Sam Houston State head volleyball coach Brenda Gray has had some awfully good teams over the years.

There was the 1984-85 group that won back-to-back Gulf Star Conference championships with a combined record of 92-16. The ’84 team made it to the NCAA Division II tournament semifinals.

Don’t forget about the Bearkat squad that rolled to two straight Southland Conference titles in 1993-94 and went to the NCAA Division I playoffs in ’93 for the first time in school history.

Those were some salty teams, and Gray feels like this year’s team has what it takes to be just as good as those squads. That’s because the Bearkats are smack in the middle of a nine-match winning streak, the program’s best streak since 1994.

Sam Houston (17-10) is also in first place in the Southland Conference’s West Division at 9-1 and could clinch a spot in the league’s postseason tournament with a win over Texas-San Antonio tonight at Johnson Coliseum.

“This team is very receptive to coaching,” Gray said. “Sometimes in practice they lack, but they pick it back up. Sometimes when you get to this point in the season, teams just drag along. But not this group. They are very team-oriented.

“For them to do what they have done, considering what they have gone through, this could be one of my best teams I have ever coached. I’ve had some great ones. The ’83-84 team was sick. They were very good. You also have that ’90s group, and that group was crazy, too.

“This group has that same thing.”

The Bearkats have been through a lot this season. Several players off last year’s team transferred in the offseason. Sam Houston also lost starting setter Kym Loving and outside hitter Kelli Stewart to injuries early in the year.

There was also a difficult stretch before conference play began when the Bearkats went 2-8, including an 0-6 combined performance at the Southern Mississippi and Nevada Invitationals and a 1-3 showing at the Comfort Suites Bearkat Classic.

Suddenly, something started to click. Sam Houston rolled to wins over Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern to jump-start a roll which has seen the Bearkats win 11 of their last 12 matches.

The Kats have also found a way to pull out the close matches this year. Sam Houston has gone five sets in 10 matches this season and the Kats have won eight of them.

“I feel like everyone this year has the fire and we want to win,” senior Anna Ferguson said. “We want to win so much that we can be at match point twice in a row for the other team and we don’t let them win. We are just real relentless. I can’t explain it.”

One of the reasons this Bearkat squad has been so good this season has been the play of the newcomers mixed with the talent that was already at Sam Houston.

Ferguson and sophomore Carli Kolbe are the conference’s top two scoring threats. Kolbe has 382 kills and Ferguson is close behind with 349. Senior Katie Phillips and sophomore Kim Black have also contributed.

But it has been the play of the freshmen that has really gotten this team over the hump.

Setter Michelle Miller has filled in nicely for Loving, and libero Kaylee Hawkins, who set a league and school record with 44 digs in a win over McNeese State last Saturday, is one of the best defensive players in the SLC.

Outside hitter Camille Alfaro and defensive specialist Jamie Haas have also made an impact this season.

“When we first got here, at first we were really nervous,” said Hawkins, who ranks third in the SLC with 367 digs. “But once we started, we kept up with the upperclassmen and felt like we could do this. That was when it started and we took off. We felt like we could hang with anybody. The upperclassmen made us feel so comfortable, so we weren’t nevrous anymore.”

The Bearkats have six matches left in the regular season, beginning with today’s 7 p.m. tilt with the Roadrunners. Sam Houston has one final home match Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, then closes at Texas-Arlington (Nov. 5), Texas State (Nov. 7), Central Arkansas (Nov. 12) and Northwestern State (Nov. 14).