Oct. 14, 2014
This Week:
Thurs., Oct. 16 UNLV Spartan Gym 6:00 p.m. PDT
Sat., Oct. 18 San Diego State Spartan Gym 6:00 p.m. PDT
SPARTANS RETURN HOME TO FACE REBELS, AZTECS: The San José State volleyball team returns home this week for two Mountain West matches. The team hosts UNLV on Thursday and San Diego State on Saturday. Both matches begin at 6 p.m., inside of Spartan Gym. San José State is looking for its first conference win of 2014.
MOUNTAIN WEST DIGITAL NETWORK: This week's matches 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 UNLV: The Rebels enter Thursday night's match with a 15-5 overall record and 3-2 MW mark,tying for fourth place in the conference standings. The team defeated New Mexico (3-0) and Air Force (3-1) last week. Head coach Cindy Fredrick is in her fourth season at the school. Alyssa Wing and Daryn Glenn each has 181 kills to lead the team. Bree Hammel leads the Mountain West in total blocks with 100 and is second in blocks per set at 1.49. Allison Davies leads the MW in digs with 303, 4.46 per set.
San José State leads the overall series, 6-1. The two teams won on their home courts in 2013, the Rebels winning 3-1 at Cox Pavilion and the Spartans winning 3-2 at The Event Center.
ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE: The Aztecs begin the week with a 7-8 overall record and a 3-2 MW record, tied for fourth place in the standings with UNLV. The Aztecs play at Nevada Thursday night before arriving in San Jose. Head coach Deitre Collins-Parker is in her sixth year at the helm of the program. Ciara Brown leads the team in kills with 135, 2.87 ps, while Kaja Sandberg has a team-best 54 blocks, 1.00 ps.
San Diego State holds a 16-8 advantage in the all-time series. The two teams split the meetings last year as San Diego State won 3-0 at home, but the Spartans needed five sets to win 3-2 at The Event Center.
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: Mountain West play begins its third week. #7 Colorado State is the only undefeated team left with a 5-0 record.
FOUR-SET MATCHES IN MW PLAY: In the five Mountain West matches the Spartans have played, the team has played three four-set matches. San Jose State played four sets with Air Force (1-3), at Utah State (1-3) and at Boise State (1-3). In all three matches, the team won the third set - 32-30 vs. Air Force, 25-23 at Utah State and 26-24 at Boise State.
SPARTANS GO 3-1 IN CHICAGO: San José State picked up its first wins of the season at the Chicago State Tournament. 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).
ROY LEADS THE HITTERS: Tyanna Roy leads the team with 212 kills, 3.26 per set. She has recorded double-digit kills in 10 matches including 23 in a home match against Air Force and 20 at Boise State.
DIGGIN' THE BALL: Yavianliz Rosado leads the Spartans in digs with 256, 3.94 per set. She recorded 26 digs in the win over South Dakota State and has had double-digit digs in 13 matches including 20 or more digs in four matches. She is also second on the team with 13 service aces.
PIEPER CLOSING IN ON TOP-10 IN DIGS: Kiely Pieper begins the week with 941 career digs. She is just 37 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).
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.
On September 27, Tyanna Roy had a career-best 23 kills against Air Force, and Gama again added 20 kills.
UP NEXT: The Spartans go back on the road to face Air Force and New Mexico for the second time this season. The teams plays at the Falcons on Thursday, October 23, and at the Lobos on Saturday, October 25. Both matches begin at 6 p.m. MDT.