Related Material
|
10.12.PDF
|
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Nevada middle blocker Salaia Salave`a has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 11. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor of the year for the junior and the first for her career.
The Leone, America Samoa native, averaged 5.88 kills, 2.88 digs in two Wolf Pack wins. She also averaged 1.12 blocks, and 7.12 points with a .301 attack percentage, as Nevada won two matches, which included a WAC victory at Fresno State. Her 22 kills against Utah Valley State and the 25 kills at Fresno State were both match highs. At Fresno State, she posted a double-double finishing with 25 kills and 17 digs to go along with her .463 attack percentage.
The Wolf Pack moved into second place with last week's win. Nevada is now 3-2 in WAC play and 10-6 overall. This week, the Wolf Pack will take on UTEP and Boise State on the road.
Other nominees included: Victoria Prince, Hawai'i; Tessa Kuykendall, Rice; Carrie Nash, San Jose State and Beth Karasek, SMU.
WEEK FOUR OF WAC ACTION The fourth week of WAC play still has two undefeated teams in WAC action. In the West, Hawaii is 4-0. In the East, Rice is 6-0 off to its best WAC start ever. UTEP is the only team without a win in league play this season, standing 0-6 looking for its first WAC win at home this weekend.
SPINE-TINGLING SPARTANS San Jose State has proved to be tough in five-game matches. This season, San Jose State is 4-0 in matches that go the distance. The Spartans have wins over San Francisco, Washington State, Idaho State and Boise State. Last season San Jose State was 2-2 in five-game matches.
AROUND THE COUNTRY There are only four teams ranked in the top 10 that are undefeated, Hawaii, Ohio State, Texas and No. 1 Washington. The Rainbow Wahine moved up to No. 3 this week after defending national champion, USC, fell to California, 3-0. Rice moved up to No. 26 this week after earning its 16th win of the season to lead the WAC in wins.
NCAA LEADERS Tulsas supberb freshman Kassiana Urnau moved up to seventh in the nation service aces per game, averaging 0.76 sapg. Hawaii setter Kanoe Kamana`o is 11th in the country in assists per game (13.61 apg), while SMUs Jessica Mihm is 16th (13.39 apg). Boise States Heather Malaschak is 17th in blocks (1.60 bpg), while Rices Tessa Kuykendall is 21st (1.59 bpg). Hawaii transfer Victoria Prince has had an immediate impact this season. She is 30th in hitting percentage (.386). Nevadas Salaia Salave`a is 24th in kills per game (4.98 kpg).
KARASEK REACHES MORE MILESTONES SMUs Beth Karasek recorded her 1200th career kill and 1200th career dig in the win over Louisiana Tech on Oct. 2. Karasek is the fourth player at SMU to reach 1200 kills (1789 - Erin Pryor, 1456 - Melissa Godwin, 1311 - Kelly Klecka, 1204 - Karasek).
Karasek had 15 digs to become SMUs all-time digs leader as SMU lost ,3-0, to Rice on Oct. 9. Karasek now has 1240 career digs, passing Erin Pryors total of 1238. Karasek also had 10 kills to reach her 10th double-double of the season in 15 matches. She has reached the mark in all five conference matches.
AGAINST THE BEST Hawaii leads the way this season against ranked teams. The Rainbow Wahine are 4-0 against teams that were ranked at the time of the match. Hawaii has wins over No. 17 Arizona, No. 17 Santa Clara, No. 3 UCLA and No. 14 California. The WAC is 4-5 (.444) against non-conference ranked teams. Three teams have losses to teams in the top 10. Rice lost in five games to No. 1 Minnesota, while defeating No. 20 LMU. Nevada also went the distance with then No. 6-Stanford. Boise State lost to then-No. 3 Washington.
ATTENDANCE Hawaii continues to pack the stands this season. The Rainbow Wahine have already drawn 81,740 fans in 12 matches for an average 6,812. Hawaii also has the top 12 attended games, led by the season-high 8,656 that saw Hawaii defeat Pepperdine in three games. There were also 7,954 fans that saw the Rainbow Wahine upset No. 3 UCLA 3-2. There were 6,661 fans that saw Hawaii defeat Arizona on Sept. 5.
WELCOME TO THE WAC Next season, Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State will join the WAC. Both Idaho and New Mexico State advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season. The Vandals lost to Hawaii in Honolulu in the first round. New Mexico State lost to BYU in the first round. The Aggies were a perfect 15-0 in the Sun Belt in 2003.
This season, New Mexico State is 16-2, 6-0 in the Sun Belt Conference. The other Aggies, Utah State, have started the season 4-10, 1-6 in the Big West. The Idaho Vandals are 10-5 so far this season, 4-3 in the Big West Conference. Last week, the Vandals defeated No. 13 UC Santa Barbara.
REGIONAL SITES SET The NCAA Division I Womens Volleyball Committee has announced the following sites for regional competition of the 2004 NCAA Division I Womens Volleyball Championships. The first sight is the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Ky., along with the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis, Minn.; Bank America Arena in Seattle, Wash., and the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis. Louisville, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin-Green Bay are the hosts for regionals, which will be held December 9-12.
RICE NAMES NEW HEAD COACH The WAC welcomes one new coach this season. Genny Volpe, formerly an assistant coach at Texas A&M University, has been named Rices new head volleyball coach. Volpe spent the past three seasons at Texas A&M, where the Aggies were 70-26 and appeared in the NCAA tournament each season. Texas A&M finished the 2003 season ranked 16th in the final AVCA poll and advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals where it lost to eventual national champion Southern California.
This is not Volpes first stint at Rice. She spent the 1995 season as an assistant coach for the Owls under former head coach Henry Chen. She helped direct Rice to its first postseason bid as the Owls were selected to play in the NIVC tournament.
Boise State Broncos (14-5, 3-3 WAC)Boise State looks to break a two-match losing streak this week at home against Fresno State and Nevada ... both the Broncos and the Bulldogs are in the midst of two-match losing streaks ... last week, the Broncos were swept by Hawaii and lost, 3-1 to Nevada ... the losses dropped the Broncos to 3-3 in league play this season ... Boise State has still won more matches this season (14) than the three previous years combined ... senior Heather Malashak is first in the league in blocks, averaging 1.60 dpg ... sophomore Cameron Flunder is also among the leaders ... Flunder is fourth in hitting percentage, hitting .337.
Fresno State Bulldogs (9-8, 2-3 WAC)After opening the year at 3-2, Fresno State is playing .500 ball with a 6-6 record in its last 12 matches ... in preseason play, the Bulldogs were a tournament runner-up twice and finished third once ... of the six losses this fall, 14 of the 35 games played were lost by three points or less ... of the eight losses, five have come to teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago ... while 2-3 on the road, the Bulldogs are 5-1 in sweeps, 3-6 in four-game decisions and 1-1 in five-game contests ... the Bulldogs are showcasing as many as five first-year players on the floor at one time.
Hawaii Rainbow Wahine (14-0, 4-0 WAC)The Rainbow Wahine extended their winning streak against unranked teams to 186 ... Hawaii extended its WAC winning streak to 82 matches ... Hawaii made a move in the latest CSTV/USA Today top 25 coaches poll, taking the No. 3 spot in this weeks poll, up one from last week ... this is Hawaiis highest ranking this season ... this week, the Rainbow Wahine return to the road to face SMU and Louisiana Tech ... the Rainbow Wahine are one of four undefeated teams in the top 10 (Washington, Ohio State and Texas).
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (5-13, 1-4 WAC)Louisiana Tech senior Megan Rush now has 263 career blocks, which is four best all-time at Tech Rush has 68 this season averaging 1.15 per game freshman Rhyann Enny posted her first career double figure dig match with 10 against Rice despite having four seniors on the roster, the Lady Techster are still a very young team while experiencing some growing pains this season with two freshman starters and five freshman or sophomores among their top eight players Louisiana Tech rallied in game three against Tulsa with eight straight points to tie the game at 28-28 only to see Tulsa win the final two points to secure the victory Hawaii makes its second ever trip to Ruston this week on Thursday night Joy Okpa had her seventh double- double of the season at Tulsa on Oct. 9.
Nevada Wolf Pack (10-6, 3-2 WAC)Junior Salaia Salave`a earned her first player of the week honor this week ... Salave`a is first in the league in kills per game, averaging 4.98 kpg ... she is also third in the league in hitting percentage, hitting .338 ... to round out the juniors solid season, she is sixth in blocks, averaging 1.40 bpg.
Rice Owls (16-2, 6-0 WAC)At 16-2, the Owls are off to their best start in program history ... Rice is undefeated at Autry Court this season, winning all eight matches in 3-0 decisions ... the Owls are averaging 18.38 kpg in home matches ... senior outside hitter Rebeca Pazo needs just 37 more kills to become Rices all-time leader ... with 1,794 career kills, Pazo also moved up to fifth all time in the WAC ... sophomore Tessa Kuykendall had a career high 14 kills in Rices win against Louisiana Tech, then followed with 12 kills against SMU to lead the Owls to victory. For the week, she had just one error (when she went 7-1-8 in game two against the Mustangs) and hit .641 (26-1-39).
San Jose State Spartans (11-6, 2-2 WAC)Freshman middle blocker Jennifer Senftleben hit .325 for the week, including .458 against UTEP on Oct. 7 with a team-high 13 kills ... she added a season-high seven blocks (two solo, five block assists) against Boise State on Oct. 10 ... Senftleben had three service aces in both matches ... sophomore Jessie Shull is first in the WAC in digs, averaging 4.98 dpg ... Shull is also eighth in the league in service aces per game, averaging 0.40 sapg.
SMU Mustangs (9-6, 3-2 WAC)All-WAC honoree Jessica Mihm continues her stellar play this season, showing no signs of a sophomore slump ... Mihm is second in the WAC in assists per game, averaging 13.39 apg ... Mihm has a total of 723 assists this season ... senior Beth Karasek moved into first place on SMU's career digs list ... in the Mustangs, 3-2, win over Tulsa, SMU rallied from a 2-0 deficit on the road for the first time ever.
UTEP Miners (6-9, 0-6 WAC)The Miners are in search for their first WAC win in the season ... UTEP has lost eight-straight WAC matches and five-straight matches overall ... sophomore setter Katie Smith is seventh in the league in assists, averaging 11.25 apg.
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (13-5, 2-4 WAC)The Golden Hurricane won their second WAC match last week with a 3-0 win over Louisiana Tech ... Tulsa lost a close 3-2 match with SMU on Oct. 7... Tulsa has one individual leader ... freshman Kassiana Urnau leads the league in service aces per game, averaging 0.76 sapg ... the next highest player, Rices Rebeca Pazo, averages 0.54 sapg ... junior Sam Rutherford is second in hitting percentage, hitting .350 ... this week, the Hurricane look for their third WAC win at home against undeafeated Rice.