MATCHES 12 & 13
San José State (5-6, 0-0) at San Diego State (7-4, 0-0)
Aztec Court at Peterson Gym, San Diego, Calif.
Thursday, September 26
6:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats - http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=270988
Live video - https://watchstadium.com/live/san-jose-state-at-san-diego-state/
Fresno State (7-5, 0-0) at San José State (5-6, 0-0)
Spartan Gym, San Jose, Calif.
Saturday, September 28
2:00 p.m. PT
First 100 fans get Mini Volleyballs.
Wear Blue & Gold for Discounted Admission.
Live stats - http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=270694
Live video - https://watchstadium.com/live/fresno-state-at-san-jose-state/
SPARTANS START MOUNTAIN WEST PLAY THIS WEEK: This week marks the beginning of Mountain West play, and San José State will face two teams for the only time this season. The Spartans travel to San Diego State for a Thursday night match before hosting Fresno State Saturday afternoon.
The Spartans enter the week with an 5-6 overall record after going 1-1 last week at the Big Apple Tournament. The team swept LIU but fell to Columbia 3-2. San José State enters the 2019 MW portion of the schedule with a four MW match winning streak. The team finished the 2018 season with four MW wins over Nevada, Air Force, Fresno State and San Diego State.
LIVE STATS: Live stat links for all matches are available on the San José State website at https://sjsuspartans.com/schedule.aspx?path=wvball.
LIVE VIDEO: Both home matches will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network this week. Fans can access the stream on the Spartan website at www.sjsuspartans.com/watch and select "Mountain West Network."
ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE: The Aztecs enter Thursday's match with a 7-4 overall record after splitting a pair of matches last week, defeating Long Beach State 3-1 before falling at San Diego 3-0. Head coach Deitre Collins-Parker is in her 11th year at the helm of the program.
San Diego State Leaders
Hit % .394 Tamia Reeves
Kills 147, 3.50 ps Victoria O'Sullivan
Assists 446, 10.62 ps Camryn Machado
Aces 8, .019 ps Camryn Machado
Digs 152, 3.62 ps Loren Teter
Blocks 37, 0.97 ps Lexie Hamrick
Series Record - San Diego State leads 21-12.
First Meeting - L, 2-1, October 22, 1977, Malibu, Calif.
Last Meeting - W, 3-2, November 17, 2018, Peterson Gym
Last SJSU Win - 3-2, November 17, 2018, Peterson Gym
Current Streak - W2
Last 10 meetings - 5-5
2018 meeting: The Spartans needed five sets to defeat the Aztecs twice in the 2018 season.
ABOUT FRESNO STATE: The Bulldogs begin the week with a 7-5 record and host Nevada on Thursday before making the bus ride to Silicon Valley. The team went 2-1 last weekend at the Roadrunner Classic, falling to UC Davis 3-1 before sweeping San Francisco and CSU Bakersfield. Head coach Jonathan Winder is in his second year at the helm of the program.
Fresno State Leaders
Hit % .264 Grace Doyle
Kills 185, 4.30 ps Desiree Sukhov
Assists 441, 10.26 ps Madelyn Halteman
Aces 13, 0.34 ps Jocelyn Rodriguez
Digs 180, 4.19 ps Reagan Leonard
Blocks 42, 1.02 ps Grace Doyle
Series Record - San José State leads 51-32.
First Meeting - W, 2-0, 1977
Last Meeting - W, 3-1, November 15, 2018, Save Mart Center
Last SJSU Win - 3-1, November 15, 2018, Save Mart Center
Current Streak - W1
Last 10 meetings - 6-4
2018 meetings: The teams split the season series, winning 3-1 on each other's home court.
HEAD COACH JOLENE SHEPARDSON: San José State head coach Jolene Shepardson is in her sixth season at the helm of the program and ninth as a head coach. She has a 66-91 record in six seasons at SJSU, and a 109-138 coaching record in nine seasons. She recorded her 50th win at San José State with a 3-2 win over Pacific on September 8, 2018.
MOUNTAIN WEST OPENERS: Since joining the Mountain West in 2013, San Jose State is 1-5 in MW-opening matches. The only win came at Fresno State in 2015.
2018 L, vs. Wyoming 3-0
2017 L, at Nevada 3-1
2016 L, at Wyoming 3-0
2015 W, at Fresno State 3-2
2014 L, vs. New Mexico 3-0
2013 L, vs. Boise State 3-2
SERVING IT UP SINCE 2002: The Spartans went 17 years between 14+ service aces in a match. This year's team recorded 14 aces in a 3-0 win over Marist on, ironically, September 14. Thaliana Grajeda tied her career-high with five. Makayla Lewis served up four aces, while Sarah Smevog added three.Mamie Garard and Haylee Nelson each had one.
The team had not recorded at least 14 aces in a match since September 7, 2002, when SJSU had 18 aces in a 3-1 win over Cal Poly at the Stanford Tournament. In that match, Liz Hudson led the team with six aces, while Christina Lukens and Fran Pozzi recorded four aces and Stephanie Pascucci and Kimberly Noble recorded two aces a piece.
2019 MW PRESEASON COACHES POLL: Coming off the school's most successful volleyball season since joining the Mountain West in 2013, the San José State volleyball team was picked fifth in the 2019 MW Preseason Coaches poll.
The Spartans finished the conference season with an 11-7 record last year, good for fourth place. The team recorded the most MW wins in school history and had the highest conference since the team tied for fourth place in the 2006 Western Athletic Conference standings.
Defending champion Colorado State was selected first by the 10 other coaches to repeat. Wyoming was picked second by one point over UNLV, followed by Boise State, who garnered the other first-place vote.
2019 Mountain West Preseason Poll
1. Colorado State (10) 100
2. Wyoming 79
3. UNLV 78
4. Boise State (1) 73
5. San José State 66
6. Fresno State 56
7. New Mexico 50
8. San Diego State 41
9. Air Force 28
10. Utah State 19
11. Nevada 15
RETURNING ALL-MW PLAYERS: The Spartans return two All-Mountain West honorees from 2018. Redshirt junior Latahevai Lousi was an All-MW selection after leading the team with 207 kills in MW play (3.23 ps). She recorded double-digit kills in 13 of her 16 MW matches played. Lousi also had 46 blocks in MW play. For 2018, she led the Spartans with 239 kills, 3.10 ps.
Thaliana Grajeda was an honorable mention All-MW pick as led the Spartan team in blocking during MW play with 67, 0.94 per set. She had a team-high 11 solo blocks and 56 block assists in those 18 matches. Overall, she hit .323 for the season and led San José State with 84 blocks, 0.82 ps.
GRAJEDA CLIMBING SJSU CAREER BLOCKING LISTS: Senior Thaliana Grajeda begins the week in the top-10 on two San José State career blocking lists. She entered both lists at the ShareSLO Mustang Challenge. Grajeda is tied for ninth all-time in block assists with 279, tying with Kim Hicks and needs just two to move into eighth place..
Grajeda is 10th on the all-time blocking list with 300 and needs eight blocks to move into ninth place with Colleen Burke.
BLOCK ASSISTS TOTAL YEARS
1. Joslynn Gallop 391 1997-00
2. Melissa Myers 370 1995-98
3. Barbara Higgins 340 1984-87
4. Liz Hudson 337 2000-02
5. Nandyala Gama 325 2014-17
6. Cristin Rossman 291 1991-94
7. Stephanie Pascucci 287 1999-02
8. Colleen Burke 281 2005-08
9. Thaliana Grajeda 279 2016-C
9. Kim Hicks 279 1985-88
TOTAL BLOCKS TOTAL YEARS
1. Joslynn Gallop 456 1997-00
2. Barbara Higgins 447 1984-87
3. Melissa Myers 445 1995-98
4. Nandyala Gama 366 2014-17
5. Liz Hudson 365 2000-02
6. Cristin Rossman 357 1991-94
7. Kim Hicks 324 1985-88
8. Stephanie Pascucci 314 1999-02
9. Colleen Burke 308 2005-08
10. Thaliana Grajeda 300 2016-C
BACK-TO-BACK WINNING SEASONS: The Spartans are looking to make it three in row in winning seasons after recording winning records each of the past two years. The team was 17-12 in 2017 and 16-11 in 2018. The last time SJSU had at least three consecutive winning seasons was 1997-2001, all under former head coach Craig Choate.
Year Overall Pct Conf. Conference Finish
1997 17-14 .548 7-7 4th WAC Pacific Division
1998 21-12 .636 7-7 4th WAC Pacific Division
1999 25-6 .806 11-3 2nd WAC
2000 22-10 .688 13-3 2nd WAC
2001 25-8 .758 9-4 2nd WAC
UP NEXT: The Spartans go back on the road for three matches, at Utah State on October 3rd, at Boise State on the 5th and at Nevada on the 8th.