Nov. 10, 2015
This Week:
Thurs., Nov. 12 #13 Colorado State (21-3, 14-0) Moby Arena Fort Collins, Colo. 7:00 p.m. MST
Sat., Nov. 14 Wyoming (20-6, 10-4) UniWyo Sports Complex Laramie, Wyo. 6:30 p.m. MST
VOLLEYBALL FACES TOP MW TEAMS THIS WEEK: The San José State volleyball team takes to the road for two of the final three road matches of the season. The Spartans play at #13 Colorado State on Thursday with a share of the Mountain West title on the line for the Rams. A win for the Rams gives them at least a share of the 2015 title. San José State then travels to Wyoming for a match on Saturday night. The Cowgirls are just a half game out of second place in the MW standings and have won five their last six matches.
The Spartans begin the week with an 13-14 overall record and a 5-9 MW mark. The team split a pair of home matches last week, sweeping Utah State, 3-0, but falling to Boise State, 3-0 San José State is tied for ninth in the MW standings with Air Force.
MOUNTAIN WEST DIGITAL NETWORK: This week's matches will be streamed live on the Mountain West Digital Network at www.SJSUSpartans.com/videos and http://campusinsiders.com/network/mw/live.
LIVE STATS: Live stat links for the matches are available on the San José State website at www.SJSUSpartans.com.
ABOUT #13 COLORADO STATE: The Rams enter Thursday night's match with a 21-3 overall record and a 14-0 MW mark. The team has a 15-match winning streak and can clinch a share of the MW title with a win on Thursday. Head coach Tom Hilbert is in his 19th year at the school with a 483-113 record and a 657-185 coaching record in 27 years. Alex Reid leads the team in kills with 254, 3.26 per set, while Acacia Andrews is the conference's top hitter at .429.
Colorado State holds a 10-4 lead in the all-time series and have won the past four meetings. The Rams won 3-1 in San Jose on October 17, as Ram Adrianna Culbert recorded the first quadruple-double in the NCAA in five years with 10 kills, 20 assists, 13 digs and 11 blocks. The Spartans last win came in the quarterfinal match of the 1998 Western Athletic Conference Tournament at the MGM Grand Garden. The Spartans came back from 0-2 to win the match 3-2.
ABOUT WYOMING: The Cowgirls enter Saturday night's match with a 20-6 overall record and a 10-4 MW record. The team currently sits in thirdd place in the conference standings and won at New Mexico (3-2) and at Air Force (3-2) last week. Head coach Chad Callihan is in his third year at the school with a 64-27 record and has a 291-162 coaching record in 14 seasons. Kayla Slofkiss leads the team with 256 kills, 2.75 ps, while Reed Copeland leads the MW with 154 blocks, 1.60 ps.
Wyoming leads the all-time series 5-4, but San José State won the meeting earlier this season, 3-2, at Spartan Gym on October 15.
HEAD COACH Jolene Shepardson: San José State head coach Jolene Shepardson is in her second season at the helm of the program. She has a 17-39 record in two seasons at SJSU, and a 60-88 coaching record in five seasons.
BEST HITTING MATCHES OF SEASON: San José State recorded its best hitting match of the season in a 3-0 sweep (25-16, 25-23, 25-16) of Utah State on November 5.
The Spartans hit a season-high .411 with 52 kills on107 attempts and only eight hitting errors. Tyanna Roy led all hitters with 17 kills and hit .395 with 38 attempts and only two errors. Nandyala Gama had her best hitting night to lead the team at .529 with 11 kills on 17 attempts and only two errors.
The Spartans recorded the next three top-hitting matches of the season in the middle of September. The team hit .298 (55-18-124) in a 3-1 win over Omaha on September 18, .284 (43-18-88) in a 3-0 win at UMass Lowell on September 11, and .281 (40-13-96) at Central Michigan on September 19.
FRESNO STATE SERIES SWEEP: For the first time since the 2008 season, the San Jose State volleyball team swept a season series from Fresno State. The Spartans won 3-2 in Fresno on September 24, and 3-1 in Spartan Gym on October 24.
FIVE-SET WIN OVER WYOMING: Five Spartan volleyball players recorded double-digit kills, one recorded a double-double and another had 30 digs, the San José State volleyball team used a total-team effort to upset Wyoming, 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-14, 16-14) on October 15 at Spartan Gym.
Giulia Gávio led all hitters with 16 kills and hit .389 for the match (16-2-36). Tyanna Roy had 14 kills including the match winner. Hana Tresnáková recorded a season-best 13 kills, while Sara Hibbs and Nandayala Gama each had 11 kills.
Allison Meehan recorded her fourth double-double of the season and ninth of her career with a season-high 49 assists and a career-high 18 digs.
Yavianliz Rosado recorded a career-best 30 digs in the match and was just three assists shy of a rare double-double for a libero with her seven assists.
SPARTANS STOP RAMS 17-SET STREAK: With a 25-23 set-one win over #21 Colorado State on October 17, San José State broke the Rams streak of 17 consecutive sets won. CSU had not lost a set since a 3-2 win over Boise State on September 26. The two teams battled back-and-forth in the set with five lead changes and 14 tied scores. The Spartans took the final lead at 23-22 on a Sara Hibbs kill and won on a Ram service error.
ROSADO JOINS 30+ DIG CLUB: With 30 digs in the Spartans 3-2 win over Wyoming, Yavianliz Rosado is just the third Spartan to record 30 digs in a match (Kristal Tsukano and Jessie Shull) and is the 11th player in school history to record 30 or more digs in a match.
MOST NON-CONFERENCE WINS SINCE 2006: San José State finished the non-conference portion of the schedule with an 8-5 record, the most wins in the non-conference season since 2006 when the team won 10 non-conference matches. The Spartans are also 6-0 in neutral-site matches played this season.
MOST WINS SINCE 2012: With 13 wins this season, the Spartans are in double-digit wins for the first time since 2012. That team finished the season with a 14-16 record.
CONFERENCE MATCH SWEEP: With a 3-0 win over Air Force on October 1, San José State swept a conference opponent for the first time since the 2013 season when the team won 3-0 at Nevada on November 2, 2013. The home sweep of a conference opponent is the first since the 2012 season when SJSU was in the Western Athletic Conference. That team swept Utah State in Spartan Gym on November 12, 2012.
UP NEXT: San José State plays its final road match of the season at Nevada on the 18th at 6:30 p.m. PST. The Spartans host the final match of the 2015 season on the 21st against San Diego State at 1 p.m. Seniors Allison Meehan and Tyanna Roy will be honored that day.