PLAYER OF THE WEEK Nevada's Michelle More has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week.
More, a 6-2 junior middle blocker from Torrance, Calif. (South HS), led Nevada to the tournament title at the Sands Regency/Nevada Bell Invitational. The Wolf Pack finished with a 3-0 mark, defeating Saint Mary's (3-0), Weber State (3-0) and CS Fullerton (3-0).
Earning Most Valuable Player honors, More hit .558 (46-3-77), to go along with 12 digs (1.33 dpg), four assists, two service aces and nine total blocks (1.00 bpg) for the week. Against Saint Mary's More recorded 17 kills on 29 attempts and no errors for a .586 hitting percentage. She also added one service ace, six digs and six total blocks. Against Weber State, she hit .462 (15-3-26) to go along with one assist, two digs and two total blocks. Against CS Fullerton, More tallied 14 kills, three assists, one service ace, four digs and one block assist.
More currently ranks third in the WAC in kills (4.09 kpg), sixth in hitting percentage (.333) and 13th in blocks (0.93 bpg).
Other nominees included: Shauna McQuaid, Fresno State; Kim Willoughby, Hawaii; Cristine Sant'Anna, Louisiana Tech; Rebeca Pazo, Rice; Janna Newsom, SMU; Kimberly Noble, San Jose State, Jennifer Abbruzzese; UTEP; and Dana Weddle, Tulsa.
OTHERS NOMINATED Following are statistics and notes of others nominated for Player of the Week: Fresno State's Shauna McQuaid, a senior middle blocker, averaged 4.19 kills, 0.75 digs and hit .431 in four matches. She also added six assists, one service ace and 26 total blocks (1.63 bpg). McQuaid collected double figures in kills in all four matches, including two 20-kill performances (20 vs. UMKC and 20 vs. Arkansas-Little Rock). She also hit .792 against Arkansas-Little Rock and added 10 total blocks. Hawai`i's Kim Willoughby, a sophomore leftside hitter, recorded 61 kills (6.78 kpg) on 129 attempts and 16 errors for a .349 hitting percentage. She added four assists, two service aces, 43 digs (4.78 dpg) and 10 total blocks (1.11 bpg). Against Cincinnati Willoughby notched 22 kills, 14 digs, six blocks and hit .556. Louisiana Tech's Cristine Sant'Anna, a sophomore rightside hitter, hit .330, including 63 kills (4.5 kpg) and 38 digs (2.71 dpg). She also added six assists, six service aces and seven total blocks. Against Northwestern State, she recorded a career-high 22 kills. Rice's Rebeca Pazo, a freshman outside hitter, hit .294 (19-4-51) in two matches. She also added one assist, six service aces, 28 digs (4.67 dpg) and three total blocks. Pazo recorded her fourth double-double of the season against Tennessee with 12 kills and 16 digs. San Jose State's Kimberly Noble, a sophomore outside hitter, hit .308 (61-16-146) in five matches. She added three assists, 16 service aces, 27 digs and eight total blocks. Her best match of the week was against Seton Hall where she totalled 15 kills on 21 attempts and only two errors for a .619 hitting percentage. Noble recorded double digits in kills in four out of five matches. SMU's Janna Newsom, a senior middle blocker, recorded 49 kills (3.50 kpg) on 111 attempts, including 11 errors for a .342 hitting percentage. She added one assist, eight digs and 16 total blocks UTEP's Jennifer Abbruzzese, a sophomore leftside hitter, averaged 3.57 kills and 2.86 digs per game. She also added four service aces and four total blocks. She hit a career-high .556 (11-1-18) against Lamar and recorded a double-double against Stephen F. Austin with 17 kills and 17 digs. Tulsa's Dana Weddle, a freshman outside hitter, recorded 39 kills (3.00 kpg), hit .415 (39-5-82) and added 3.23 digs per game in three matches.
THIS WEEK IN THE WAC There's plenty of action this week. On Tuesday, Sept. 11, Louisiana Tech is at Stephen F. Austin and North Texas travels to SMU. The only other non-conference matches scheduled for the week are Loyola Marymount at Hawai`i on Friday, Sept. 14 and 13th-ranked Brigham Young at Hawai`i on Saturday, Sept. 15. Over the weekend, eight teams will participate in tournaments.
VOLLEYBALL FORMAT There are two divisions for 2001: Western and Eastern. The teams in the West consist of Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai`i, Nevada and San Jose State. The teams in the East consist of Louisiana Tech, Rice, SMU, UTEP and Tulsa. Each team plays each other twice, home and home within each division and plays each team from the other division once.
NATIONAL POLL WATCH Hawai`i is the only WAC team to receive mention in both the USA Today/AVCA and Volleyball Magazine polls. Hawai`i is ranked 12th in the USA Today/AVCA top 25 poll and 16th in the Volleyball Magazine poll. San Jose State also received votes in this week's Volleyball Magazine poll.
TOURNAMENT TALK WAC schools finished with a 19-14 (.576) combined record last week. All 10 schools competed in tournaments and brought home two titles. Fresno State won the Fresno State Invitational, compiling a 4-0 mark, while Nevada won its own Sands Regency Volleyball Invitational with a 3-0 record. Hawai`i, San Jose State and SMU finished in second place in their respective tournaments.
FRESNO STATE WINS THE FRESNO STATE INVITATIONAL Fresno State defeated Arkansas-Little Rock, 26-30, 34-32, 30-23, 30-27, to claim the Fresno State Invitational. It marked the Bulldogs' fifth Fresno State Invitational title in the past eight years. Fresno State, which hit a then season-best .304 against UMKC, topped its performance with a .314 hitting efficiency against Arkansas-Little Rock. The Bulldogs were led by senior middle blocker Shauna McQuaid who put together her second-straight 20-kill match with a match-high 20 kills and .792 hitting performance (20-1-24) against Arkansas-Little Rock. McQuaid collected double figures in blocks with three block solos and seven block assists. Sophomore outside hitter Kara Verwey (18 kills, 16 digs) and freshman outside hitter Kristen Fenton (10 kills, 12 digs) each collected a double-double. As the Most Valuable Player in the invitational, freshman setter Whitney Arena dished out a season-high 60 assists and had five blocks in the tourney finale.
NEVADA WINS OWN TOURNAMENT Hosting the Sands Regency/Nevada Bell Invitational, the University of Nevada Volleyball team captured the title going 3-0. Nevada defeated CS Fullerton 30-20, 30-15, and 30-14 to claim the title. The Wolf Pack did not drop a game in the tournament winning all nine games played. Tournament MVP Michelle More had a match-high 14 kills, while Suzanne Stonebarger who was also named to the all-tournament squad, had 13 kills and 12 digs. Nevada finished the match with a .468 attack percentage compared to CSF's .183.
ALL-STARS Several WAC players were named to all-tournament teams last week. Fresno State - Whitney Arena (MVP), Java Johnson, Shauna McQuaid and Kara Verwey (Fresno State Invitational); Hawai`i - Kim Willoughby (Aston's Imua Wahine Challenge); Nevada - Kellie LaBossiere, Jill Couwenhoven, Michelle More (MVP) and Suzanne Stonebarger (Sands Regency/Nevada Bell Invitational); Rice - Rebeca Pazo (California Tournament); San Jose State - Brianna Blair and Kimberly Noble (San Diego Invitational); SMU - Allison Holder (Tulane Invitational); UTEP - Jennifer Abbruzzese (Texas Tech Classic).
TOP SCHEDULE Hawai`i is off to a 4-4 start, but the Rainbow Wahine have already faced No. 1 Nebraska, No. 5 USC, No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 22 Kansas State. Hawai`i is 1-4 against ranked opponents, and has also defeated Big Ten foe Michigan. The Rainbow Wahine still will face No. 13 Brigham Young and No. 20 Santa Clara.
QUICK HITS Boise State's Megan Tranter, a sophomore outside hitter, led the Broncos in kills in three out of four matches last weekend ... she recorded 17 against both New Mexico State and Oregon ... Fresno State freshman setter Whitney Arena averaged 12.06 assists and 1.81 digs at the Fresno State Invitational ... San Jose State middle blocker Stephanie Pascucci hit .387 for the week ... she had 55 kills on 111 attempts with only 12 errors ... she also added 12 blocks and averaged 3.44 kills per outing.
NEVADA'S STONEBARGER BREAKS SCHOOL RECORD FOR DIGS Nevada senior outside hitter Suzanne Stonebarger broke the all-time school record for digs against Saint Mary's. She now has 1,332 career digs, breaking the previous record of 1,243 held by Tiffany Neumeier.
NOBLE BREAKS SJSU SINGLE-MATCH RECORD FOR SERVICE ACES -San Jose State's Kimberly Noble, a sophomore outside hitter, set a new school record for service aces in a match with nine against Minnesota on Sept. 7. The previous record was eight set by Shane Donnellon on Nov. 8, 1994. The mark also tied the WAC record for assists in a match, also held by UTEP's Catherine Porter (1997) and Fresno State's Andrea Radmilovich (1992). Noble is currently averaging 0.89 service aces per game to lead the WAC. She has 25 service aces to date compared to a total of 21 during the 2000 campaign.
UNDERCLASSMEN MAKING THEIR MARK Several underclassmen are making their mark in the WAC statistics. In the kills department, five of the top 10 leaders are freshmen or sophomores. Hawai`i's Kim Willoughby leads the WAC, averaging 5.81 kills per game. Also ranked are San Jose State sophomore Kimberly Noble (4.25 kpg - 2nd), Rice freshman Rebeca Pazo (4.00 kpg - 5th), Fresno State sophomore Kara Verwey (3.81 kpg - 6th) and Louisiana Tech sophomore Cristine Sant'Anna (3.76 kpg - 7th). In the service ace department, six of the top 10 leaders are underclassmen, including Noble (0.81 sapg - 1st), Tulsa freshman Vanessa Thon (0.64 sapg - 2nd), San Jose State sophomore Liz Hudson (0.56 sapg - 3rd), Tulsa freshman Dana Weddle (0.45 sapg - 4th), Tulsa freshman Kristin Bailey (0.36 sapg - T9th) and Fresno State freshman Kristen Fenton (0.36 sapg - T9th). In the digs category, Boise State sophomore Jacqueline Heler leads the WAC, averaging 4.30 dpg, followed by Willoughby (3.48 dpg - 4th), Thon (3.41 dpg - 5th); Pazo (3.15 dpg - 8th) and Weddle (3.09 dpg - 9th).
SHOJI MOVING UP NCAA LISTS Since taking over the coaching duties at Hawai`i in 1975, head coach Dave Shoji has won 743 matches and boasts an .838 winning percentage, both which rank among the all-time leaders in NCAA coaching history. His overall record stands at 745-143-1, placing him third all-time in winning percentage and fourth in wins among active coaches.
HAWAI`I LEADS THE NATION IN ATTENDANCE Hawai`i is averaging 6,189 fans after its first six home matches. The Rainbow Wahine own the nation's top six attendance figures this season and drew a nation-high 7,723 fans against UCLA on Sept. 2. The Rainbow Wahine drew 153,688 fans in 2000 and is the only program in the country to draw more than 100,000 for six-consecutive years.
WAC EXPANDS TO TEN After just one year as a nine-team league, the WAC expanded to 10 for the 2001-02 season. The Boise State Broncos and Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters joined the conference July 1, 2001, while TCU left for Conference USA.
WAC VOLLEYBALL ON THE WEB The WAC site on the world wide web (www.wacsports.com) includes extensive volleyball information. It includes the latest notes, statistics, standings and Players of the Week.