MATCHES 14 & 15
San José State (5-8, 0-2) at Utah State (0-14, 0-2)
Kirby Court at Wayne Estes Center, Logan, Utah
Thursday, October 3
7:00 p.m. MT/6:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats - https://utahstateaggies.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Live video - https://watchstadium.com/live/san-jose-state-at-utah-state/
San José State (5-8, 0-2) at Boise State (10-3, 2-0)
Bronco Gym, Boise, Idaho
Saturday, October 5
2:00 p.m. MT/1:00 p.m. PT
Live stats - http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=268851&vislive=sjsu
Live video - https://watchstadium.com/live/san-jose-state-at-boise-state/
ON THE ROAD AGAIN FOR MW PLAY: The Spartans play the first two of three consecutive road Mountain West matches this week as the team travels to Utah State and Boise State. San José State started MW play last week with a tough 3-2 loss at San Diego State before coming home Saturday and lost to Fresno State 3-0. The team begins the week looking to stop a three-match losing streak.
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 UTAH STATE: The Aggies enter Thursday night's match with an 0-14 record and 0-2 MW mark. Head coach Grayson DuBose is in his 14th year at the school with a 188-218 coaching record.
Utah State Leaders
Hit % .195 Corinne Larsen
Kills 77, 2.33 ps Madi Brunatti
Assists 333, 7.09 ps Heidi Carpenter
Aces 14, 0.30 ps Heidi Carpenter
Digs 158, 3.10 ps Grace Dubay
Blocks 58, 1.14 ps Bailey Downing
Series Record - The series is tied at the series 21-21-1.
First Meeting -T, 1-1, November 3, 1979, Los Angeles, Calif.
Last Meeting - W, 3-1, October 25, 2018, Logan, Utah
Last SJSU Win - 3-1, October 25, 2018, Logan, Utah
Current Streak - W1
Last 10 meetings - 2-8
Record in Logan: 7-12, won last year 3-1 in Logan (3-1), breaking a six-match losing streak in Logan.
2018 meetings: The teams split the meetings last season, winning on each others home court. Utah State won 3-2 in San Jose, while the Spartans won 3-1 in Logan.
ABOUT BOISE STATE: The Broncos begin the week with a 10-3 overall record and 2-0 MW mark. The team hosts Nevada before SJSU visits on Saturday. Boise State has won the past four matches, sweeping three of those four opponents. Head coach Shawn Garus has a 188-135 record in 11 years at the school and 296-254 in 19th years coaching.
Boise State Leaders
Hit % .409 Janell Walley
Kills 173, 3.84 Janell Walley
Assists 483, 10.73 ps Danielle Boss
Aces 13, 0.29 ps Lauren Ohlinger, Danielle Boss
Digs 134, 3.35 ps Allison Casillas
Blocks 60, 1.40 ps Jessica Donahue
Series Record - Boise State leads the series 18-17.
First Meeting -L, 3-1, September 20, 1997, Moraga, Calif.
Last Meeting - W, 3-0, October 27, 2018, Bronco Gym, Boise
Last SJSU Win - W, 3-0, October 27, 2018, Bronco Gym, Boise
Current Streak - W2
Last 10 meetings - 2-8
Record in Boise: 8-9, last win in Boise was 3-0 in 2018, had lost seven consecutive in Boise before then.
2018 meetings: The Spartans swept the Broncos, 3-0, in the two meetings last year.
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 67-94 record in six seasons at SJSU, and a 110-141 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.
HELLO OLD FRIEND: Thursday night's match up in Logan pits the Spartans against former SJSU head coach Craig Choate. Choate currently serves as an assistant coach for the Aggies. He was the San José State head coach from 1993-2006, and recorded the most wins as a Spartan head coach with a 244-191 coaching record in 14 seasons.
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.
COMEBACK KIDS #1: Most volleyball teams down 0-2 may fold in the third set, but San José State rallied for a 3-2 win over North Texas at the ShareSLO Mustang Challenge. Haylee Nelson recorded a career-high 22 kills.
After losing the first set 25-16, the Spartans rallied in the second set and tied the match at 20-20 before North Texas scored five of the final eight points to win 25-23.
San José State then rallied like true Spartans to win the final three sets. The Spartans jumped out to a 9-3 lead, but the Mean Green would not go away, tied the set at 20-20, but never took the lead. SJSU needed six set points to finally win 29-27.
Set four belong to the Spartans from the opening set in a 25-18 win. The team hit .483 for the set (15-1-29) as Thaliana Grajeda smashed a set from Kaitlynn Zdroik for the set winner.
The Spartans started the fifth set on the same side they won the fourth set. North Texas jumped out to an early 6-3 lead, causing San José State head coach Jolene Shepardson to take a timeout. SJSU slowly chipped away at the lead, tying the match at 10-10, 12-12 and 13-13, before back-to-back kills from Latahevai Lousi and Caitlin Bettenay gave San José State a 15-13 set-five win and the match.
COMEBACK KIDS #2 (ALMOST): The comeback Spartans fell just short on September 26 as San José State lost 3-2 at San Diego State in the Mountain West opener for both schools.
For the second time this season, San José State fell behind 0-2 in a match and came back to force a fifth set. Unlike the win against North Texas, the Spartans were unable to close out the fifth set as the Aztecs won 16-14. When SDSU thought they won the match at 15-13, Spartan head coach Jolene Shepardson challenged the play and got the call overturned to extend the set at 14-14. A Spartan service error and an Aztec kill closed out the match.
Latahevai Lousi led the Spartan hitting attack with 12 kills and hit .333 for the match (12-3-27). Haylee Nelson and Tabea Schwarz each had nine kills in the loss.
The hitting woes for the Spartans were very obvious in the three sets lost Thursday night. The team hit .053 in those three sets (26-21-94), but were at .328 in the two sets won (26-6-61). SJSU also had 17 service errors but just four service aces.
The team started the match losing the first two sets 25-14 and 25-23, never possessing the lead in either set. In the third set, SJSU had an 8-4 lead and then had to battle with the Aztecs to win 25-21.
The fourth set featured eight lead changes and 14 tie scores. The Spartans had set point at 24-23 and 25-24, and SDSU had match point at 26-25. San José State tied the set at 26-26 on an Aztec service error, took the lead on a block by Grajeda and Nelson and won 28-26 on an Aztec hitting error.
The fifth set was just as competitive with four lead changes and nine ties. The biggest lead by either team was three points before San Diego State won 16-14. The Spartans fought off match points at 14-11, 14-12 and 14-13 before tying the set at 14-14.
SMEVOG DIGGIN' THE BALL: In just her fifth match as the Spartans' libero, Sarah Smevog recorded 34 digs in win over North Texas, a career-best and the eighth-best total in school history. She is third Spartan to record 34 digs in a match, joining Jessie Shull (9/16/06) and Barbara Higgs (9/26/87). Smevog is now the 10th player in school history to record 34 or more digs in a match.
34 Sarah Smevog, vs. North Texas, 9/6/19
Jessie Shull, vs. CS Northridge, 9/16/06
Barbara Higgins, vs. UC Santa Barbara, 9/26/87
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 play at Nevada next Tuesday, October 8, at 6 p.m. The team then returns home on Saturday the 12th to face Air Force at 2 p.m.