Sept. 24, 2013
This Week:
Thurs. Sept. 26 Boise State The Event Center 7:00 p.m. PDT
Sat. Sept. 28 Utah State The Event Center 7:00 p.m. PDT
SPARTANS OPEN MOUNTAIN WEST PLAY AT HOME: San José State begins a new era this week as the team begins plays in the Mountain West. The Spartans host the first two conference matches - Boise State on Thursday and Utah State on Saturday at The Event Center. Thursday night's match is the first Mountain West contest for a San José State athletics team since joining the conference this past July 1.
MOUNTAIN WEST NETWORK: A free live stream of both San José State matches will be available on the Mountain West Network at www.TheMW.com and on www.SJSUSpartans.com.
LIVE AUDIO: KSJS, 90.5 FM, will be broadcasting Saturday night's match against Utah State. Fans can listen online at www.ksjs.org.
LIVE STATS: Both matches this week will have live stats with links available on the Spartan website at www.SJSUSpartans.com.
ABOUT BOISE STATE: The Broncos enter Thursday night's match with a 5-6 overall record and an 0-2 Mountain West record after losing two matches to Utah State last week. Head coach Shawn Garus is in his fifth season at the helm of the program with a 67-70 record. Taylor Murphey leads the team wit 102 kills, 2.55 per set, while Brittany Reardon is the team's best blocker with 33, 0.85 ps.
San José State leads the overall series, 16-8, but he Broncos have won the past five meetings, dating back to 2009.
ABOUT UTAH STATE: The Aggies begin the week with an 8-4 overall record and atop the Mountain West standings at 2-0. The team won two matches against Boise State last week. Head coach Grayson DuBose is in his eighth year at the school. Rachel Orr leads the team in kills with 163, 3.40 per set, while Alyssa Everett is the team leader in blocks with 57, 1.21 ps.
San José State leads the overall series, 19-13-1. Utah State won the two meetings last season, 3-0. The Spartans won 3-1 in 2011 at Spartan Gym.
SAN JOSÉ STATE HEAD COACH: Oscar Crespo is in his seventh season as head coach with a 65-122 coaching record. A 1990 San José State graduate, Crespo was named head coach in March of 2007 as the program's sixth head coach.
A NEW YEAR, A NEW ERA BEGINS: The 2013-14 school year begins a new era in San José State Athletics history as the school begins play in the Mountain West after spending the past 17 years in the Western Athletic Conference. The Spartans are part of the 11-team league that features Air Force, Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Wyoming and the Spartans. The volleyball team is the first San José State team to play in a Mountain West contest when the Spartans host Boise State Thursday.
NEW HOME COURT: This year marks the first time since 2004 that volleyball team has called The Event Center home. All 11 matches will be played in the 5,000-seat venue, located on the corner of 7th and San Carlos Streets. Parking for all spectators is available in the Seventh Street Garage. The move was necessitated by the construction surrounding Spartan Gym and Yosh Uchida Hall. San José State has a 79-51 record in 15 seasons of playing matches there.
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': After opening the season in Virginia, the Spartans play the entire month of September in the state of California. The team played in tournaments hosted by Sacramento State and the University of the Pacific. San José State played Eastern Washington in the team's home opener. The volleyball team is also the first San José State team to participate in a Mountain West contest when SJSU hosts Boise State on September 26.
The Spartans make a trip to the state of Nevada for an October 3 match at UNLV. After that, the team remains in California until a match at Wyoming on October 24. In that time period, the Spartans will play 15 of its 16 matches in the state of California.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM SELECTIONS: Two Spartans were named all-tournament selections at the three tournaments the team played at this year. Hanah Blume was named to the Tribe Invitational, Sacramento State Invitational and Bankers Classic All-Tournament teams.
Mary Alice O'Reilly was selected to the Sacramento State Invitational and Bankers Classic All-Tournament teams.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Three Spartans rank among national leaders in matches through September 22. Michaela Leonard is 33rd in assists at 10.97 ps. Mary Alice O'Reilly is 40th in blocks at 1.29 ps. Hanah Blume is 79th in digs at 3.68 ps and 108th in points at 4.05 ps.
20/20 DOUBLE: Hanah Blume recorded 21 kills and 20 digs against Winthrop to become the 21st San José State player to record a 20/20 double-double. The last 20/20 double-double came during the 2011 season when Caitlin Andrade had 51 assists and 21 digs at Pacific.
JACOBSEN TIES EVENT CENTER RECORD: In her first home match of her Spartan career, Lauren Jacobsen tied the Event Center record for service aces in match by a San José State player. She recorded five aces in the five-set win over Eastern Washington on September 11.
TREMENDOUS HITTING NIGHT: San José State hit a season-high .374 in a win over Sacramento State. The team had 50 kills on 107 attempts and only 10 errors.
Two Spartans did not commit a hitting error in the match. Hanah Blume hit .517 with a season-best 15 kills on 29 attempts, while Tyanna Roy hit a team-high .588 with 10 kills on 10 attempts.
FRESHMAN MAKES IMPACT: Lauren Jacobsen made an immediate impact on the Spartan team at the Tribe Invitational. She led the team in kills in her first match in a Spartan uniform with 19 kills at William & Mary and hit .311 for the match (19-5-45). Jacobsen also led team in kills against Campbell as she recorded her first collegiate double-double with 17 kills and 12 digs.
DIGGIN' THE BALL: Hanah Blume recorded 35 digs in a five-set loss to Campbell. Blume's 35 digs is just the fourth time in school history that a player has dug that many balls in a match and is the sixth-highest number of digs in a match in school history. The last Spartan player to record 30 or more digs in a match was Courtney Zellmer who had 35 against Gonzaga on August 28, 2010.
DIGGIN' THE BALL, PART 2: Against Campbell, San José State recorded 107 digs as a team. It was the most digs by a Spartan team since the 2007 season when the team had 111 against Boise State (10-25-07). The team recorded 100 or more digs in one other match during that time - 106 against Sacramento State on October 13, 2009.
The 107 digs is the fourth-highest total in Mountain West history. Only four other times has a team recorded more than 107 digs in a match
115 Fresno State vs. Sacramento State 9/7/12
113 UNLV at Washington State 9/1/06
108 San Diego State vs. UC Irvine 9/11/10
108 Utah at Wyoming 10/14/06
107 San José State vs. Campbell 8/31/13
107 San Diego State vs. UNLV 9/21/07
UP NEXT: The Spartans start the month of October with a match at UNLV on Thursday, October 4, followed by a match at San Diego State on Saturday, October 6.