Nov. 4, 2014
This Week:
Thurs., Nov. 6 Boise State Spartan Gym 6:00 p.m. PST
Sat., Nov. 8 Utah State Spartan Gym 6:00 p.m. PST
SPARTANS HOSTS TWO MORE MOUNTAIN WEST MATCHES: The San José State volleyball team continues its four-match homestand this week with the final two matches. The Spartans host Boise State Thursday night and Utah State Saturday night at Spartan Gym. The team brings a winning streak into the week after defeating Fresno State, 3-1, last Thursday.
30-YEAR REUNION - HONORING THE 1984 TEAM: With the 30th anniversary of reaching volleyball's "Final Four," the 1984 team will be honored during Thursday night's match against Boise State. Former head coach Dick Montgomery and the 1984 team will be honored between the second and third sets. For more information, please call the volleyball office at (408) 924-1242.
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 BOISE STATE: The Broncos enter the match with a 13-11 overall record and a 6-6 Mountain West mark. The team won against Air Force (3-0) but fell to New Mexico (3-1) last week. Bronco head coach Shawn Garus has an 89-91 record in six seasons at Boise State Sierra Nobley leads the team with 325 kills, 3.87 per set, while Maddy O'Donnell is the team leader in blocks with 86, 1.15 ps.
San José State holds a 16-11 advantage in the all-time series, but Boise State has won the past eight meetings including a 3-1 win on October 11. In that match, Tyanna Roy led the Spartans with 20 kills and hit a team-best .325 (20-5-46). The Spartans last won in the series during the 2008 season when the team went to Boise and won 3-0, on October 9, 2008.
ABOUT UTAH STATE: The Aggies begin the week with a 10-12 overall record and a 6-6 Mountain West record. The team plays at Nevada Thursday night before making the trip to San Jose. Head coach Grayson DuBose has a 142-122 record at the school in nine years. Rachel Orr leads the team with 279 kills, 3.17 ps, while Kaitlyn VanHoff is the team leader in blocks with 117, 1.33 ps.
San José State leads the all-time series, 19-16-1. Utah State won the earlier meeting this season, 3-1, on October 9. Sara Hibbs led the Spartans with 14 kills and hit .290 for the match, while Nandyala Gama added 11 kills and four blocks (2-2). The Spartans swept the Aggies 3-0 at home on Nov. 10, 2012.
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.
FIRST MOUNTAIN WEST WIN: Nandyala Gama and Tyanna Roy led the Spartan offense to a 3-1 win over Fresno State (25-19, 17-25, 25-20, 25-19) on October 30, for the team's first Mountain West win of the season.
Gama led all hitters with 19 kills and hit .289 for the match with 45 attempts and just six errors. She also had two blocks and an assist. Roy recorded 18 kills on 42 attempts and added three digs, two solo blocks and a block assist.
Allison Meehan recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 38 assists and 12 digs. She also had three kills and a block in the win. Yavianliz Rosado recorded 23 digs, her sixth match with 20 or more digs. She had seven assists and a service ace.
The Spartan servers came strong in the match with nine service aces. McKenzie Palassou had three aces, while Sara Hibbs and Kiely Pieper each had two.
FOUR-SET MATCHES IN MW PLAY: In the 11 Mountain West matches the Spartans have played, the team has played six four-set matches. San José State played four sets with Air Force, at Utah State, at Boise State, at Air Force, at New Mexico and Fresno State. In three matches, the team won the third set - 32-30 vs. Air Force, 25-23 at Utah State and 26-24 at Boise State, while the team won the first set at Air Force (25-23) and at New Mexico (25-23). In the win over Fresno State, the Spartans won the first, third and fourth sets.
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).
GAMA HITS SEASON-BEST AGAINST NEVADA: Nandyala Gama hit a season-best .414 in a 3-0 loss to Nevada on October 28. She led all Spartan hitters with her .414 average. She recorded a team-high 15 kills on 29 attempts and just three errors.
Gama is second on the team in kills with 223, 3.05 per set. She also has 30 blocks on the year.
ROY LEADS THE HITTERS: Tyanna Roy leads the team with 276 kills, 3.21 per set. She has recorded double-digit kills in 13 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 347, 4.03 per set. She recorded 26 digs in the win over South Dakota State and 23 in a win over Fresno State. Rosado has had double-digit digs in 17 matches including 20 or more digs in six matches.
PIEPER CLOSING IN ON TOP-10 IN DIGS: Kiely Pieper begins the week with 967 career digs. She is just 11 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).
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).
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 added 20 kills.
UP NEXT: The Spartans go back on the road for three matches over the next two weeks. The team plays at San Diego State on Thursday, November 13, and at UNLV on Saturday, November 15. Both matches begin at 6 p.m. PST. The team then plays at #10 Colorado State on Wednesday, November 19 at 7 p.m. MST.