Tennessee State Volleyball Camp Report: Alumni Match

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- The Tennessee State volleyball team finished their last day of camp on Saturday afternoon with a scrimmage against alumni Tiger volleyball players.

The 2017 team swept the alumni with a 3-0 run (25-21, 25-18, 25-23), and continued the streak of beating the alumni during the preseason match.

The alumni team consisted of Naomi Wells, Tennessee State’s all-time leader in kills (1,275) and attacks (3,883), Christian Lowe, ranked top 10 in kills, attacks, block assists, total blocks and hitting percentage, Catherine Armwood, all-time leader in digs (1,691), Assistant Coach Vicmari Prospero, the all-time leader in hitting percentage (.266) and letter winners Danielle Howell and Christina Raiford.

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Head Coach Donika Sutton

-On the match

“We started off playing our alumni match, which we do every year. We had a great start, but we had an injury in the middle which slowed us down, but we picked it up and were able to finish it in three.”

Junior Middle Blocker, Rachel Henderson

-On the benefits of scrimmaging alumni

“They are very smart. They know what to do because they’ve been playing for a long time, and they actually played together. So, we have to be smarter and we had to communicate more.”



TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS

Better understanding + better communication = fewer big plays? Southern hopes so in Year 2 under Trei Oliver

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Look no further than the final game of the 2016 season to identify what Southern defensive coordinator Trei Oliver is seeking to improve most in Year 2.

Grambling rolled up a whopping 571 yards against the Jaguars in the Bayou Classic, but that total wasn’t necessarily what bothered Oliver. It was how the Tigers achieved it.

Of those 571 yards, 365 came on 12 "explosive" plays — rushes of 10 or more yards or passes of 20 or more yards. Five of Grambling’s six touchdowns from scrimmage came on these types of plays.

Grambling exposed a weakness in the Southern defense that the Jaguars had been able to cover up all season by forcing a Football Championship Subdivision-best 32 turnovers. But make no mistake, that weakness was there all season, especially in the run game.

Southern allowed 2,143 rushing yards last season, and nearly 75 percent of those yards (1,606) came on 79 "explosive" runs. More than 20 percent of the running plays by Southern opponents went for 10 or more yards.

The Jaguars were a bit better at containing big plays in the passing game, allowing just 28 plays of 20 or more yards, a little more than 2.5 per game.



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Baby, it's hot outside: Southern doing its best to prepare for likelihood of hot weather at season opener

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- It was another scorcher, and Southern coach Dawson Odums had already had his fill.

Last week, wearing his usual practice attire — wide-brimmed hat, sweatshirt and athletic shorts — Odums beckoned reporters to meet him for interviews in the gym, rather than the usual area behind the goalposts at A.W. Mumford Stadium.

“It’s too hot out there,” Odums said once everyone was in the climate-controlled environment.



Southern, like just about every south Louisiana football team this time of year, is feeling the heat. But there’s an added layer to it this season, considering what awaits the Jaguars when they officially kick off 2017.

By taking part in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, Southern will get a rare shot to occupy a spot on the national marquee. Southern will host South Carolina State in a game broadcast on ESPN2 and played on Sunday, Sept. 3. It is unquestionably great exposure.

Now, the downside: The game — which, again, Southern is hosting — will kick off at 1:30 p.m. Exposure to the elements is the kind of exposure Southern is not particularly looking forward to.

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Dawson Odums says first-team offense impressed in Southern's final scrimmage of camp

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Southern’s third and final scrimmage of preseason camp Friday focused on situational football, and coach Dawson Odums came away satisfied with his team’s effort.

“I’m very pleased with where we are as a football team,” he said.

With senior quarterback Austin Howard back in the mix — Howard took part in just one play of last week’s scrimmage — the Jaguars' first-team offense ran smoothly, Odums said. Friday’s scrimmage was closed to reporters and the public.

Odums singled out Howard, running backs Herb Edwards, Devon Benn and Jamarqueza Mims and the first-team offensive line as having solid performances.

The scrimmage was heavily controlled, with an emphasis on simulating game-like conditions. The team practiced its two- and four-minute offenses and third-down situations, as well as punts and field goals.

Odums also wanted to use the scrimmage to pit some of the less experienced players against the first-team offensive and defensive units.

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Harris commits to Bethune-Cookman

SUFFOLK, Virginia -- Senior Lady Bulldog Camary Harris has decided where to play her college basketball.

Bethune-Cookman University will be getting a strong King’s Fork High School guard in Harris. This week, she decided she wanted to end her college recruitment and take her talents down to Dayton Beach, Fla., in the fall of 2018.

Harris was the starting point guard on an all-time historic King’s Fork girls’ basketball team. She orchestrated the offense and made plays for her teammates, which saw them playing for the 4A state championship back in March. What made Harris’ play so impressive last season was that she worked her way from an ACL injury. Because of her solid play at the point guard position, she started to spark the interest of NCAA Division I coaches. She was offered by both BCU and Hampton University and decided to roll with BCU.

“The reason I decided to go ahead and commit to BCU is because it was a very family oriented environment,” the senior Lady Bulldog said. “Everyone was really friendly and respectful to one another. The women’s basketball program is really good, and the coaching staff is wonderful.”

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UH hoops to open season vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff

HONOLULU, Hawaii – The Hawaii basketball team will open its 2017-18 season against a very familiar foe.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff is the first official opponent on the Rainbow Warriors’ schedule Nov. 10, UH announced in revealing the order of its Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic opponents today. It is the second time in four years UH slotted the Golden Lions of the SWAC for its opener (2014-15), and in all it will be the sixth trip in eight years to Manoa for UAPB.

UH follows with games against North Dakota (Nov. 12) of the Big Sky and Troy (Nov. 13) of the Sun Belt in the round-robin tournament format. It hasn’t yet been announced if the last game of the tournament will be a late-night game in the ESPN College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon as in recent seasons.

Troy previously put out the field for the Rainbow Classic as part of its schedule but the order of opponents was unknown.

Pine Bluff went 7-25 last season, but North Dakota and Troy made the NCAA Tournament as 15 seeds. UH beat UAPB 64-44 last season and lost to Troy 65-63 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

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ASU, Tuskegee stars receive national preseason honors

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Head coaches Brian Jenkins and Willie Slater aren’t the only recognizable names competing in the rekindled Tuskegee-Alabama State rivalry game Sept. 2 at ASU Stadium.

Senior Sam Baptiste, Jonah McCutcheon and Osband Thompson made the Black College Football player of the year watch list and landed on the BOXTOROW preseason All-American team this week.

Baptiste earned first-team All-SWAC honors for the Hornets last season after helping clear run lanes for the conference’s top rushing attack led by 1,200-yard rusher Khalid Thomas. The 6-foot-4, 340-pound lineman out of Waycross, Georgia has the look of someone who could join another ASU lineman in the NFL.

The Oakland Raiders drafted Jylan Ware in the seventh round last April. Baptiste is on an early path to get that prized phone call next spring.

Right now, Baptiste and the ASU offense is preparing to find ways to move the ball on a Tuskegee defense led by Thompson and McCutcheon.

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