Oct. 10, 2017
MATCHES 18 & 19San José State at #21 Colorado StateMoby Arena, Fort Collins, ColoThursday, October 127:00 p.m. MDT/6:00 p.m. PDTMountain West NetworkSan José State at WyomingUniWyo Sports Complex, Laramie, Wyo.Saturday, October 141:00 p.m. MDT/12:00 p.m. PDTMountain West NetworkLive stats - www.sjsuspartans.comLive video - Links available at www.sjsuspartans.com/videos
FINAL ROAD MATCHES OF OCTOBER: The San José State volleyball teams plays its only road matches for the month of October this week as the team heads back to the Rocky Mountains for matches at Colorado State on Thursday and at Wyoming on Saturday.
San José State begins the week with an 12-5 overall record and 4-2 mark in the Mountain West. The Spartans are tied for second in the Mountain West standings at 4-2 with Boise State and Wyoming, two matches behind leader Colorado State who is 6-0.
LIVE STATS: Live stat links for the matches are available on the San José State website at www.sjsuspartans.com.
LIVE VIDEO: Both matches will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network this week. Links are available at www.sjsuspartans.com/videos.
ABOUT #21 COLORADO STATE: The Rams enter Thursday night's match with a 16-2 overall record and 6-0 Mountain West record. The team has a two-match lead in the conference standings over the Spartans, Boise State and Wyoming. The Rams won a five-set match at Boise State last Thursday and swept Utah State last Saturday. Head coach Tom Hilbert is in his 21st season at the school. Breana Runnels leads the team with 199 kills, 3.16 per set. Kirstie Hillyer leads the MW in blocks at 1.54 ps (60), while Paulina Hougaard-Jensen is the conference leader in hitting at .418 and has a team-best 80 blocks on the year, 1.29 ps.
The Spartans won the last meeting between the two teams, 3-2, a year ago in Spartan. The Spartans ended the Rams 31-MW match winning streak that night.
Series Record - Colorado State leads 12-5.
First Meeting -W, 3-1, September 20, 1984, Spartan Gym
Last Meeting - W, 3-2, October 20, 2016, Spartan Gym
Last SJSU Win - 3-2, October 20, 2016, Spartan Gym
Current Streak - W1
Last 10 meetings -2-8
ABOUT WYOMING: The Cowgirls begin the week with a 9-9 overall record and 4-2 mark in the MW. The team hosts Nevada on Thursday before the Spartans visit on Saturday. Wyoming went 2-0 last week with wins at Utah State (3-0) last Thursday and at Boise State (3-2) last Saturday. Head coach Chad Callihan is in his fifth season at Wyoming. Emily Lewis leads the team with 180 kills, 2.95 ps, while Reed Copeland second in the MW in blocking with 71, 1.34 ps.
Series Record - Wyoming leads 8-4.
First Meeting - W, 3-0, October 1, 1983, Berkeley, Calif.
Last Meeting - L, 3-0, October 22, 2016, Spartan Gym
Last SJSU Win - 3-2, October 1, 2015, Spartan Gym
Current Streak - L3
Last 10 meetings -2-8
HEAD COACH Jolene Shepardson: San José State head coach Jolene Shepardson is in her fourth season at the helm of the program. She has a 41-66 record in four seasons at SJSU, and a 84-113 coaching record in seven seasons.
NATIONAL RANKINGS (as of 10/9): Listed below are the Spartans among national leaders as a team and individually.
Team Rankings (Top 100)
Team Service Aces 50th, 104
Team Kills 53rd, 946
Team Assists 55th, 876
Winning Percentage 60th, .706
Aces Per Set 65th, 1.49 ps
Kills Per Set 73rd, 13.51 ps
Hitting Percentage 73rd, .235
Assists Per Set 79th, 12.51 ps
Individual Rankings (Top 100)
Service Aces Luiza Andrade, 57th 26
Attacks Per Set Fernanda Vido, 68th 10.69 ps
Total Assists Breann Robinson, 75th 655
Points Nandyala Gama, 87th 286.5
Assists Per Set Breann Robinson, 90th 10.08 ps
Points Per Set Giulia Gavio, 99th 4.13 ps
Aces Per Set Luiza Andrade, 100th 0.37 ps
HOME SWEET OCTOBER: After starting the Mountain West season with four straight road matches in September, San José State plays six of its eight conference matches in the confines of Spartan Gym in October. The month started last week with matches against UNLV (L, 3-2) and New Mexico (W, 3-2). After this week on the road at Colorado State and Wyoming, the Spartans play the next four matches at home - Nevada (17th), Air Force (19th), Fresno State (26th) and San Diego State (28th).
BEST START SINCE 2001: The Spartans finished September with an 11-4 overall record, the most wins for the program through that month since the 2001 team finished September with an 11-2 record. That team was the last to receive an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the second round.
2,000 ASSISTS ACHIEVED: Setter Breann Robinson became the 12 Spartan to record 2,000 assists in her career. Robinson did it in the fourth set of a 3-1 win at Fresno State on September 30. Last week, she moved into the top-10 list at San José State for career assists. She begins the week with 2,115 assists, good for 10th on the list. Robinson needs 215 assists to move into ninth place with Susie Laymon.
1,000 COUNTDOWN: Two Spartans are on the cusp of reaching 1,000 career milestone while at San José State. Nandyala Gama needs just three kills to become the 14th player in school history to record 1,000 career kills.
Luiza Andrade currently has 995 career digs and needs only five digs to become the eighth player in San José State history to record 1,000 career digs. She jumped onto the San José State career digs list last week and is eighth on the list.
ANDRADE DIGGIN' AND SERVIN' THE BALL: Spartan libero Luiza Andrade leads the team with 280 digs, 4.00 ps, and is Mountain West leader in service aces with 26, 0.37 per set. This season, she has recored 20+ digs in four matches - 25 at Drake, 24 versus Santa Clara, 23 against Kansas and 20 at San Diego State. Andrade recorded four service aces against UC Riverside and Howard.
GAMA BLOCKING UP THE CAREER LISTS: Nandyala Gama continues to cement herself on the San José State career block assists and total blocks list. She is fifth in career block assists at 304 and would need 33 more to jump into fourth place. Gama is sixth in total blocks with 344 and needs 13 to move into fifth.
UP NEXT: The Spartan team spends the rest of October at home with four matches. The team starts the home stand next Tuesday, the 17th, with Nevada at 6 p.m. That game will be shown on Stadium. The Spartans then host Air Force on the 19th at 6 p.m. The next week, San José State welcomes Fresno State on the 26th at 6 p.m., and San Diego State on the 28th at 2 p.m.