Oct. 3, 2017
MATCHES 16 & 17UNLV at San José StateSpartan Gym, San Jose, Calif.Thursday, October 56:00 p.m. PDTMountain West NetworkNew Mexico at San José StateSpartan Gym, San Jose, Calif.Saturday, October 712:00 p.m. PDTMountain West NetworkLive stats - www.sjsuspartans.comLive video - Links available at www.sjsuspartans.com/videos
HOME SWEET HOME: After playing four consecutive Mountain West matches on the road, the San José State volleyball team returns to Spartan Gym this week with match against UNLV on Thursday and New Mexico on Saturday. The Spartans will play three of the four weeks in October at Spartan Gym, the only road matches next week at Colorado State and Wyoming.
San José State begins the week with an 11-4 overall record and 3-1 mark in the Mountain West. The Spartans are tied for third in the Mountain West standings at 3-1 with Utah State. Colorado State and Boise State are atop the standings with a 4-0 MW record.
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 with Jess Knaster on the call. Links are available at www.sjsuspartans.com/videos.
MW DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior libero Luiza Andrade is the Mountain West Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week on October 2 after SJSU went 2-0 last week with wins at San Diego State (3-2) and Fresno State (3-1).
Andrade, from Rio de Janiero, Brazil, compiled 39 digs over the nine sets last week for a 4.33 per set average in the two wins. She had a reception percentage of .980 after making just one error in 49 attempts. Andrade had 20 digs in the come-from-behind win at San Diego State, her fourth 20+ dig match this season. She added 19 digs at Fresno State this past Saturday.
ABOUT UNLV: The Rebels enter Thursday's match with a 4-13 overall record and tied for 10th in the MW standings with a 0-4 conference mark. The team lost to Utah State (3-1) and Boise State (3-0) last week. Head coach Cindy Fredrick is in her seventh season at the school and led the team to an NCAA Tournament berth last year. Mariena Hayden is the team leader in kills with 181, 2.78 per set, while Ashley Owens has a team-best 82 kills, 1.28 ps.
Series Record - UNLV leads 7-6.
First Meeting - W, 3-1, October 11, 1996, The Event Center
Last Meeting - L, 3-0, October 27, 2016, Cox Pavilion
Last SJSU Win - 3-2, November 9, 2013, The Event Center
Current Streak - L6
Last 10 meetings - 3-7
ABOUT NEW MEXICO: The Lobos begin the week with a 10-6 overall record and are tied for fifth in the MW standings at 2-2. The team plays at Nevada Thursday before making the trip to San Jose. Head coach Jeff Nelson is in his 12th year at the school. Lauren Twitty leads the team in kills with 204, 3.92 ps. Victoria Spragg has a team-best 48 blocks, 0.91 ps.
Series Record - New Mexico leads 14-4.
First Meeting - L, 2-0, September 26, 1981, San Jose, Calif.
Last Meeting - L, 3-0, October 29, 2016, Johnson Center
Last SJSU Win - 3-2, September 29, 2016, Spartan Gym
Current Streak - L1
Last 10 meetings -1-9
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 40-65 record in four seasons at SJSU, and a 83-112 coaching record in seven seasons.
NATIONAL RANKINGS (as of 9/25): Listed below are the Spartans among national leaders as a team and individually.
Team Rankings (Top 100)
Winning Percentage 54th, .733
Aces Per Set 66th, 1.50 ps
Team Service Aces 68th, 90
Kills Per Set 73rd, 13.55 ps
Hitting Percentage 79th, .232
Assists Per Set 79th, 12.53 ps
Team Kills 87th, 813
Team Assists 93rd, 752
Individual Rankings (Top 100)
Service Aces Luiza Andrade, 67th 23
Attacks Per Set Fernanda Vido, 68th 10.69 ps
Assists Per Set Breann Robinson, 82nd 10.07 ps
Aces Per Set Luiza Andrade, 90th 0.38 ps
Total Assists Breann Robinson, 98th 554
HOME SWEET OCTOBER: After starting the Mountain West season with four straight road matches, San José State will be in the confines of Spartan Gym most of October. The Spartans play six of the eight matches scheduled this month at home. It all starts this week with UNLV and New Mexico. After a 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. She begins the week with 2,014 assists, good for 12th all-time at San José State.
1,000 COUNTDOWN: Two Spartans are nearing the 1,000 career milestone while at San José State. Nandyala Gama begins the week with 954 kills, needing 46 to become the 14th player in school history to record 1,000 career kills.
Luiza Andrade currently has 972 career digs and needs 28 digs to become the eighth player in San José State history to record 1,000 career digs.
PARTS HITS OFF THE CHART: Redshirt freshman Laura Parts is making an impact on the Spartan team with her hitting. She begins the week with a .305 hitting percentage in all matches and averaged 1.77 kills per set. In Mountain West play, she is fifth in the league in hitting at .315. At Fresno State, she hit .407 in the match with 16 kills on 27 attempts and only five errors.
GAMA BLOCKING UP THE CAREER LISTS: Nandyala Gama continues to climb up the San José State career blocking categories this past weekend. She moved up to seventh place on the career block assists list with 283 block assists. She needs four to move into sixth and eight block assists for fifth place.
Gama also jumped two spots in the San José State career total blocks list last week. She is now seventh in total blocks with 323 and needs just one block for sixth place and 34 to reach fifth.
VIDO MAKING IMPACT: Redshirt sophomore transfer Fernanda Vido has made an immediate impact on the Spartan team after transferring from Eastern Washington. She currently has 177 kills, 3.47 ps, and 113 digs, 2.22 ps. In the 13 matches played this season, Vido has recorded double-doubles in five of them. She had a season-best 24 kills in the win at San Francisco.
ANDRADE DIGGIN' AND SERVIN' THE BALL: Spartan libero Luiza Andrade leads the team with 257 digs, 4.28 ps, and is Mountain West leader in service aces with 23, 0.38 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 has recorded four service aces against UC Riverside and Howard.
UP NEXT: The Spartan team takes their only road trip in the month of October next week with matches at Colorado State on October 12, at 7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT, and at Wyoming on Saturday, October 14, at 1 p.m. MT/12 p.m. PT.