Lady Lions Volleyball Update

Three home matches this weekend

Sodich, Taylor honored by RRAC

WAXAHACHIE, Texas  --  Heading into their final week of the regular season the Southwestern Assemblies of God University women’s volleyball team is heading in the right direction.

The Lady Lions will entertain three home matches in less than 24 hours this weekend, all of which will be aired on SAGU TV.

SAGU is sporting a 15-13 overall record, just one win away from their eighth consecutive winning regular season and another berth in the Red River Athletic Conference tournament.

Following a 1-8 start the team has righted their ship with an inspiring 14-5 turnaround.

The team is over .500 in actual games as well, at 53-52. After a number of close losses earlier in the season, SAGU has nearly leveled the scales. In two point losses the Lady Lions have amassed 13 setbacks, against 10 wins by the minimum margin.

In three-point shortcomings they have three while winning six by three. That’s 32 of 105 games decided by three-points or less.

Friday they play host to Wiley College (20-7, 8-1 in RRAC) at 7:00pm. Team Lioness has lost the past two meetings and is 2-7 against the Wildcats dating back to the 2008 season, 12-25 in actual games.

Saturday, November 3, has a pair of matches on tap; 11:00am against Texas College (10-17, 3-6 in RRAC) and 4:00pm versus Jarvis Christian College (1-13, 1-8).

SAGU is enjoying masteries against both the Steers and Bulldogs, taking all 20 matches dating back to 2005. They own an 11-0 mark against TC and are 9-0 when facing Jarvis.

In fact they have swept 19 of the matches, with the 2006 Lady Steers gaining a lone game win in a 3-1 setback.

The top six teams in the RRAC will compete in the conference tournament in Fort Worth during November 8-10.

SAGU is currently tied with Texas Wesleyan University (16-13, 5-3) for fifth place. They will either play St. Thomas (16-14, 7-2) or Our Lady of the Lake University (13-16, 7-2) in the first round of the tourney.

Wiley is in second place, trailing only #1 ranked UT-Brownsville (22-1, 9-0).

The defending national champion Scorpions lost at Concordia University (Irvine, Cal), 3-2, before topping Vanguard University and Biola University 3-1 and 3-0 over the weekend. The loss to the Eagles snapped a 29-match winning streak.

Concordia is 26-0, Vanguard 15-12 and Biola is 23-3.

SAGU will host the Central Regional tournament for the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), Nov. 15-17. The Lady Lions will only participate in the event should they lose before the RRAC tourney finals.

The current power rankings of the 12 teams in the Central Region includes:

Colorado Christian University 20-5
Dallas Baptist University 16-7
McMurry University (Tx) 13-8
Mid-America Christian University (Ok) 16-12
Oklahoma Wesleyan University 13-14
Southern Nazarene University (Ok) 10-18
SAGU 15-14
York College (Neb) 10-18
Crowley’s Ridge College (Ark) 11-8
Central Baptist College (Ark) 9-20
Southwestern Christian University (Ok) 3-28
Central Christian College (Ks) 1-24

MACU, OWU, SAGU, YC, CBC, SCU and CCC are in the NAIA.

The three-day tourney is a single-elimination affair with the winner automatically advancing to the eight-team NCCAA Nationals in Orlando, Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

Red River Players of the Week

The RRAC honored a pair of Lady Lions for the week of October 22-28.

Sophomore outside hitter Jessica Sodich (Arlington, Tx / Ovilla Christian) and junior setter Taylor Calverley (Mansfield, Tx / Grace Prep) were chosen as the Co-Hitter and Co-Setter of the Week.

Sodich shared the award with UTB’s Vanja Joksic, while Calverley was joined by Katarina Bursac, also of UTB.

Sodich averaged 5.1 kills per game, racking up 36 in two matches. She had 12 kills in 24 swings against Southwestern Christian University and 24 in 56 tries in a loss to Southern Nazarene University.

In seven games she hit a combined .325 and also led the team in digs with 28.

Calverley was credited with 87 assists, 50 during the four sets against Southern Nazarene. She also had 21 digs in the two matches and contributed five combo (assisted) blocks.

Her sets led to Sodich piling up 36 kills, Caitlyn Hudson (Mansfield, Tx / Legacy HS) powering 25 and Kassy Cox (Lufkin, Tx / Lufkin HS) getting 24. All three had hitting percentages above their season average last week.

The conference selects a Player of the Week, Hitter of the Week, Setter of the Week and Libero of the Week throughout the twelve week season.

Contact: Mark “Link” Warde, SAGU Sports Information Director, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at 469-658-2847.