Oct. 1, 2014
This Week:
Sat., Oct. 4 Fresno State Fresno, Calif. 4:00 p.m. PDT
SPARTANS TRAVEL TO CENTRAL VALLEY FOR MATCH: The San José State volleyball travels to the Central Valley of California this weekend for a Mountain West match at Fresno State Saturday afternoon. The Spartans are looking for the first Mountain West win of the season after falling to New Mexico (0-3) and Air Force (1-3) last week.
MOUNTAIN WEST DIGITAL NETWORK: This week's match will be streamed live on the Mountain West Digital Network at
www.SJSUSpartans.com/videos and www.TheMW.com.
LIVE STATS: Live stats for both matches are available on the San José State website at www.SJSUSpartans.com.
ABOUT FRESNO STATE: The Bulldogs begin the week with a 5-11 overall record and an 0-2 Mountain West mark. The team fell to UNLV (3-0) and San Diego State (3-1) last week and hosts Nevada Thursday night before the Spartans come to town on Saturday. Head coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell is in her seventh year at the school and ninth as a head coach. Zana Bowens lead the team in kills iwht 190, 3.22 ps, while Maci Murdock is the team leader with 42 blocks, 0.98 ps.
San José State holds a 45-29 lead in the all-time series, but Fresno State has won the last eight meetings in the series. The Spartans have not won since a 3-0 sweep on October 30, 2008, in Spartan Gym.
HEAD COACH Jolene Shepardson: Spartan head coach Jolene Shepardson is in her first season at the helm of the program. She came to San José State from Bakersfield where she turned a 0-31 team in 2010 to a 21-12 team in 2013.
MOUNTAIN WEST SEASON UNDERWAY: Last week, Mountain West play began with all 11 teams playing at least one conference match. Colorado State, New Mexico, Air Force, UNLV and San Diego State are all undefeated after the first week.
San José State fell in its first two conference matches of the season. The Spartans lost to New Mexico, 0-3, and Air Force, 1-3.
SPARTANS GO 3-1 IN CHICAGO: San José State picked up its first wins of the season at the Chicago State Tournament last weekend. The team defeated South Dakota State in five sets, Chicago State in four sets and swept UMass Lowell.
ROY'S BEST HITTING MATCH: Tyanna Roy had her best hitting match of her Spartan career against Air Force on September 27. She lead all hitters with a career-best 23 kills, her first 20+ kill match. Roy hit a career-best .408 (23-3-49).
HIBBS MAKES IMPACT IN WINDY CITY: Freshman Sara Hibbs helped lead the Spartans to a 3-1 record at the Chicago State Tournament on Sept. 19-20. She led the team in kills in three of the four matches played and was named to the all-tournament team.
For the weekend, Hibbs averaged 3.60 kills and 0.53 blocks per set. She had a season-best 21 kills in the five-set win over South Dakota State. She hit .324 for the weekend including .393 against Chicago State (15-4-28).
PIEPER CLOSING IN ON TOP-10 IN DIGS: Kiely Pieper begins the week with 927 career digs. She is just 51 digs short of entering the top-10 all-time at San José State. Jessie Shull is the all-time leader with 2,260 digs during her four years (2003-06).
ROY LEADS THE HITTERS: Tyanna Roy leads the team with 175 kills, 3.24 per set. She has recorded double-digit kills in nine matches including 23 in a home match against Air Force.
DIGGIN' THE BALL: Yavianliz Rosado leads the Spartans in digs with206, 3.81 per set. She recorded 26 digs in the win over South Dakota State and has had double-digit digs in nine matches. She is also second on the team with 12 service aces.
TWO HITTERS, 20+ KILLS IN SAME MATCH: Twice this season, two San José State hitters have recorded 20 or more digs in a match. Against South Dakota State on September 19, Sara Hibbs had 21 kills, while Nandyala Gama recorded 20 kills in the win.
Last weekend, Tyanna Roy had a career-best 23 kills against Air Force, and Gama again added 20 kills.
UP NEXT: The Spartans continue on the road with two matches in the Mountain Time Zone. The team plays at Utah State on Thursday, October 9, at 7 p.m. MDT, and at Boise State on Saturday, October 11, at 2 p.m. MDT. Both matches will be streamed live on the Mountain West Digital Network.