Oct. 4, 2016
SPARTANS STAY IN PACIFIC TIME ZONE FOR TWO MW MATCHES THIS WEEK: The San José State volleyball team goes back on the road for two Mountain West matches in the Pacific time zone. The team plays at Nevada Thursday night, and at San Diego State Saturday afternoon. Both opponents are tied for fourth in the MW standings at 2-1, while the Spartans are tied for ninth at 1-3.
LIVE STATS: Live stat links for the matches are available on the San José State website at www.SJSUSpartans.com.
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.
ABOUT NEVADA: The Wolf Pack enter Thursday night's match with an 11-4 overall record and 2-1 conference mark and are tied for fourth in the MW standings. The team swept a pair of road matches last week, winning at Air Force, 3-1, last Thursday, and at Boise State, 3-1, this past Saturday afternoon. Madison Morell leads the team in kills with 249, 4.22 per set, while Shayla Hoeft is the team's top blocker with 56, 0.95 ps.
Series Record - San José State leads 27-19.
First Meeting -W, 2-0, October 7, 1978, Berkeley, Calif.
Last Meeting - L, 3-0, November 18, 2015, Virginia Street Gym, Reno, Nev.
Last SJSU Win - 3-0, November 2, 2016, Reno, Nev.
Current Streak - L3
Last 10 meetings - 4-6
ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE: The Aztecs begin the week with a 10-7 overall record and 2-1 MW record and are tied for fourth with Nevada in the conference standings. SDSU hosts Fresno State Thursday night before hosting the Spartans on Saturday. San Diego State split a pair of road matches last week, falling at Boise State, 3-0, last Thursday, before winning 3-0 at Air Force on Saturday. Alexandra Psoma leads the team in kills with 196, 3.16 ps, while Deja Harris has a team-best 60 blocks.
Series Record - San Diego State leads 19-8.
First Meeting - L, 2-1, October 22, 1977, Malibu, Calif.
Last Meeting - L, 3-0, November 21, 2015, Spartan Gym
Last SJSU Win - 3-2, November 7, 2013, The Event Center
Current Streak - L3
Last 10 meetings - 3-7
HEAD COACH Jolene Shepardson: San José State head coach Jolene Shepardson is in her third season at the helm of the program. She has a 25-51 record in three seasons at SJSU, and a 68-98 coaching record in six seasons.
ROBINSON PASSES 1,000 CAREER ASSISTS: Setter Breann Robinson surpassed the 1,000 career assists mark last week when she posted 111 in the matches against New Mexico and UNLV. She had 56 assists against the Lobos to enter the 1,000-assist realm. Robinson begins the week with 1,109 assists in her Spartan career.
FIVE HITTERS, 10+ KILLS IN ONE MATCH, TIMES TWO: Five San José State hitters recorded 10 or more kills in the same match on September 30. In a 3-2 win over New Mexico, Hana Tresnáková led the team with 16 kills. Nandyala Gama had 15 kills, followed by Latahevai Lousi and Giulia Gávio with 14 kills each and Thaliana Grajeda with 11.
TOP SINGLE-MATCH MARKS AMONG NATION'S BEST: Four San Jose State players ranks among the top-20 nationally in single-match performances this season.
Nandyala Gama - 13 blocks - T4th in 5-set match
Luiza Andrade - 37 digs - T6th in 5-set match
Giulia Gávio - 32 kills - T8th in 5-set match
Breann Robinson - 63 assists - T17th in 5-set match
VOLLEYBALL RALLIES FOR FIRST MW WIN OF SEASON: San José State volleyball hit over .300 and rallied from an 0-2 deficit to defeat New Mexico, 3-2 (21-25, 24-26, 25-19, 29-27, 15-13) on September 29 at Spartan Gym.
In the win, the Spartans outhit the Lobos, .311 to .219. For the first time this season, five Spartans recorded double-digit kills in a match. Hana Tresnáková led the team with 16 kills, followed by Nandyala Gama at 15, Latahevai Lousi and Giulia Gávio at 14 and Thaliana Grajeda at 11.
Gama had her best hitting match of the season at .483. Her 15 kills came on 29 attempts and only one error. Lousi and Grajeda also had great hitting nights, Lousi at .357 (14-4-28) and Grajeda at .321 (11-2-28).
Breann Robinson recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 56 assists and a career and team-best 19 digs. She also had two blocks and four kills in the win.
Luiza Andrade was one assist short of her second double-double of the year with 17 digs and nine assists. She also had three of the team's six service aces.
ALUMNI WEEKEND OCTOBER 13-15: Attention all San José State volleyball alums, please join us for Alumni Weekend, October 13-15 with matches against Boise State (13) and Air Force (15) as well as the football game on the 15th against Nevada. All alumni will be honored on the 15th with special mention to the 2001 NCAA Tournament team that defeated Santa Clara in the first round at Stanford. Check the San José State Volleyball Facebook page for all the details or email Heather Cooper at heather.n.cooper@sjsu.edu.
GAMA NEARLY BLOCKS HER WAY INTO A MATCH RECORD: Against Cal State Fullerton on September 16, Nandyala Gama recorded 13 block assists, one shy of tying the San José State records for block assists in a match and total blocks in a match. She is also the only Spartan in school history to record 13 blocks in a match. Gama has the top blocking performance this season in the Mountain West.
ANDRADE MOVES UP SINGLE-MATCH DIGGING LIST: Luiza Andrade keeps moving up the single-match dig list with two 30+ dig matches in September. She joined the 30-dig club on September 3, when she recored 30 digs in a match at Utah Valley. Then, against Cal State Fullerton on September 16, Andrade recorded 37 digs in a match, the fifth-highest total in school history and the only player at SJSU to record 37 digs in a match. She is the 13th Spartan in school history to record 30 or more digs in a match.
HOME SWEET OCTOBER: The Spartans play nine MW matches in the month of October, five in Spartan Gym that began last Saturday with MW leader UNLV. San José State plays four consecutive home matches in the middle of the month - Boise State (13th), Air Force (15th), Colorado State (20th) and Wyoming (22nd).
GÃVIO KILLS MOVE HER INTO SJSU HISTORY: Giulia Gávio recorded a career-best 32 kills against Southern Utah on September 2, and moved herself into the Spartan record books. She is just one of five Spartan players to record 32 kills in a match. The 32 kills are the third-highest total number of kills in match in San José State history.
KEEP THE BLOCKS COMING: Freshman Thaliana Grajeda is making her mark on the San Jose State blocking lists after her performance against Southern Utah. She recorded 11 blocks assists in the match to become the ninth player in school history to accomplish the feat.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE BY WHOM??!!: In the five-set loss to Long BeachState, libero Luiza Andrade accomplished a rare feat for a libero, recording a double-double. In the first one accomplished at San Jose State, Andrade had a career-best 11 assists and 13 digs. Three times this season, she was within one assist of a double-double.
GAVIO PUTS UP BIG NUMBERS AT WOLVERINE INVITATIONAL: Giulia Gávio was one of the team's top contributors at the Wolverine Invitational (Sept. 2-3). She averaged 5.38 kills, 3.62 digs and 0.62 aces per set. Gávio recorded a double-double in all three matches including a career-best 32 kills against Southern Utah. She had five service aces against North Texas and led the team in kills in all three matches.
BEST START TO SEASON SINCE 2006: The Spartans began the season 3-0 for the first time since 2006 when the team won the Hilton Garden Inn/NAU Invitational with wins over Fordham, Central Arkansas and Northern Arizona. This year's team won the Spartan Invitational (Aug. 26-27) with wins over Providence, UMass Lowell and Manhattan.
UP NEXT: The Spartans return home for four matches over the next two weeks. The team hosts Boise State on October 13, Air Force on October 15, Colorado State on October 20 and Wyoming on October 22.