PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Boise State libero Jackie Stroud has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 13. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week for the senior.
The Amarillo, Texas (Amarillo) native, broke the WAC record for digs in a conference match with 41 digs in a five-game win over Fresno State. The record was held by San Jose State’s Jessie Shull who had 39 against Idaho last season. Stroud also set two Bronco records, reaching a career milestone against San Jose State, Thursday, and shattering a 10-year-old school record against Fresno State, Saturday.
The senior needed just 16 digs to move into first place on the Bronco all-time list for career digs. With 28 digs against the Spartans, one off her previous career high set earlier this season against Idaho, Stroud became the Broncos’ career leader in the statistical category.
After breaking one Bronco record, Stroud recorded 41 digs against the Bulldogs, shattering another. The previous Bronco mark for digs in a single-game was 33, set by Rebecca Richards on Oct. 4, 1986. The record, which stood for 10 years, one month and seven days, was the second Boise State record broken in three days by the senior libero. With 69 digs in two matches, Stroud, who began this week ranked ninth on the WAC’s all-time list for career digs, increased her career total to 1,403. She currently ranks sixth in conference history. Stroud also broke the Bronco single-season dig record with 433 this season.
Other nominees included: Lacey Gera of Fresno State had 33 kills in two matches last week ... Sarah Mason of Hawai?i had 28 kills, as the Rainbow Wahine defeated Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State last week ... Shannon Phillips of Louisiana Tech had 20 kills and 10 digs for the Lady Techsters ... Teal Ericson of Nevada had 36 kills and nine digs for the Wolf Pack, as Nevada went 0-2 ... Jessie Shull of San Jose State broke her own single-season WAC record with 596 digs. Her previous record was 561 in 2004 ... Beth Hodge of Utah State had 20 kills and 10 digs, as the Aggies went 1-1 last week.
HAWAI?I TAKES SLIM LEAD HEADING INTO FINAL WEEK ? With one week remaining, Hawai?i took a slim lead over New Mexico State with a four-game win over the Aggies on Nov. 12. With a win on Wednesday, the Rainbow Wahine will win at least a share of the WAC regular season title. In the final week of WAC play, No. 13 Hawai?i will travel to Boise State and Idaho. No. 21 New Mexico State ends the WAC season at home against Fresno State and San Jose State.Third-place Nevada will travel to Idaho, which is currently in fourth-place. This match can be seen live on College Sports Television on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7:00 p.m. PT.
SAN JOSE STATE’S SHULL SETS ANOTHER RECORD ? San Jose State senior libero Jessie Shull broke her own San Jose State and WAC single-season dig record in the match against Boise State. She had 20 digs in the match and broke the single season record in game one. She broke her own record of 561 that she set in 2004. She added 19 digs in the sweep of Idaho and helped the Spartans to a 2-0 week. Shull begins the week with 596 digs this season and will become the first player in WAC history to record 600 digs in a season. She now has 2,180 career digs and ranks among the top-10 all-time NCAA players.
KAMANA`O PASSES 6,000 ASSISTS ? Kanoe Kamana?o posted her 6,000th career assist in the match vs. New Mexico State (Nov. 12), becoming just the 21st player in NCAA history to reach the milestone. The three-time All-American is the school and conference career assists leader, while ranking 21st on the NCAA list at 6,003. But Kamana?o is not only getting in the record books in the category of assists. Kamana?o also moved to third in the UH record book in career digs, with 1,150. The senior is also ranked sixth with 363 block assists and eighth in career blocks (386), making Kamana?o the only player in UH history in the top 10 for career assists, digs and blocks. She also has the possibility of making the top 10 for career aces, as she is now four short of 10th on the career aces list. A full listing of where the senior ranks in all categories is on page seven.
VANDALS END SEASON STRONG ? Last season Idaho finished strong at home winning three in a row at Memorial Gym to close their regular season. In that three game home stand Idaho defeated Boise State, Fresno State and San Jose State. Idaho also had a strong finish to their regular season in 2003 winning six straight to close the regular season, before a loss to Hawai’i in the NCAA tournament. Idaho is 24-24 in the month of November under Buchanan and is 2-2 so far this season.
ERICSON RECORDS 1,000TH CAREER KILLS ? Nevada junior Teal Ericson recorded her 1,000th career kill in the Pack’s match at BYU last week and her total of 1,034 ranks eighth in school history. Ericson became the eighth player in school history to reach the plateau and joined senior Carly Sorensen as the second player to reach 1,000 career kills this season. In the Wolf Pack’s 3-2 win over Boise State on Oct. 19 she posted a career and match-high 26 kills. Her 420 kills this season ranks as the eighth best single season and is four back of Tiffany Neumeier (1994) for seventh and eight behind Jennifer White’s (1993) 428 for sixth. Her 1,032 attacks this year is the ninth most in a season leaving her eight back of White’s 1993 total of 1,044. She has amassed 446.5 points this season which ranks as the sixth best total in Pack history. In two plus seasons she has 1,109 points which ranks third at Nevada.
DID YOU KNOW??? ? When No. 24 New Mexico State hosted No. 11 Hawai?i on Oct. 13, it was the first time that two ranked teams had a faced each other since the WAC Championship match in 1998 when Hawai?i defeated BYU.
ON THE TUBE ? Nevada’s match with Hawai?i last week was carried on CSTV at 7:30 p.m. Nevada will appear on CSTV again on Nov. 15 when the Wolf Pack travel to Idaho to take on the Vandals in Moscow, Idaho. CSTV will return to Reno on Nov. 24 to air the championship match of the WAC tournament from Lawlor Events Center at 7:30 p.m.
WAC IN THE NCAA STATS ? Several WAC players earned a spot in the top 15 in the most recent NCAA stats. Hawai?i’s Jamie Houston is still fifth in the nation in kills per game, averaging 5.48 kpg. San Jose State’s Jessie Shull is 14th in digs per game (6.02 dpg). Hawai?i’s Kanoe Kamana`o is 12th in assists (13.49 apg). New Mexico State’s Amber Simpson is 15th in hitting percentage (.397), while Kim Oguh is 18th in hitting percentage (.394)
HOME SWEET HOME ? A crowd of 2,803 watched New Mexico State defeat Hawai?i, giving the Aggies their largest crowd of the season. Currently, New Mexico State is No. 16 in the nation for home attendance, averaging 1,702 fans.
Hawai?i once again leads the nation in attendance, averaging 6,966. The Rainbow Wahine have eight of the top 10 attendances in the nation this season, including the 8,213 that saw Hawai?i host Stanford. There were 8,138 people when the Gators took on the Rainbow Wahine, while 7,878 packed the Stan Sheriff Center to see Pepperdine Hawai?i is looking to lead the nation for the 13th-straight season.
SAN JOSE STATE’S SHULL BREAKS WAC RECORD ? San Jose State senior libero Jessie Shull broke her own WAC record with 47 digs in a five-game loss to Santa Clara on Sept. 2. Shull initially set the record again on Nov. 3, 2004 with 42 against Fresno State. Shull is first in the WAC in digs per game, averaging 5.88 dpg.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME ? Due to multi-million dollar renovations to the Pan American Center, New Mexico State will be displaced for its home matches this season. With the Pan American Center still undergoing renovations, the Aggies are playing their home matches at Las Cruces High School.
VOLLEYBALL FORMAT ? For the second-straight year the WAC will not compete in divisions. This season’s format will be a double-round robin. Each team will face the other eight at home and on the road. All nine teams will compete in the WAC Volleyball Tournament.
2006 WAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
November 22 (Quarterfinals)
Match 1 - No. 8 vs. No. 9
Match 2 - No. 4 vs. No. 5
Match 3 - No. 3 vs. No. 6
Match 4 - No. 2 vs. No. 7
Match 5 - Winner Match 1 vs. No. 1
November 23 (Semifinals)
Match 6 - Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4
Match 7 - Winner Match 2 vs. Winner Match 5
November 24 (Championship)
Match 8 - Winner Match 6 vs. Winner Match 7
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO LAWLOR ? For the second-straight season, the WAC Volleyball Tournament will be played at the Lawlor Events Center on the campus of the University of Nevada. This is the fifth-straight year that the WAC Tournament has been played in Reno. Before playing in the Lawlor Events Center, the tournament was played in the regular season home of the Wolf Pack, Viriginia Street Gym.
HAWAI?I TO HOST VOLLEYBALL REGIONAL ? Hawai?i will host one of the four 2006 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Regionals, on Dec. 8 and 9. The other three sites will be Seattle, Wash. (University of Washington), Austin, Texas (University of Texas), and Gainesville, Fla. (University of Florida).
Hawai?i will be hosting a regional for the second time since the NCAA switched to predetermined regional sites in 2003, and the eighth time overall. UH last hosted a regional in 2003, when the Rainbow Wahine defeated Illinois and Georgia Tech to advance to the NCAA Championships.|
UH has hosted at least one NCAA match in 16 of the 24 NCAA tournaments they have qualified for, but haven’t had an NCAA match in Honolulu in the past two seasons. Hawai?i has led the country in attendance every year since moving into the Stan Sheriff Center in 1994, averaging over 7,000 fans a match in the 11 years at the facility. In the 2003 Honolulu Regional, each session drew crowds in excess of 9,000.
Boise State Broncos (8-12, 2-6 WAC)
Last week senior Jackie Stroud broke two Bronco records and shattered another ... with 28 digs against San Jose State, the libero became Boise State’s all-time leader in digs (1,403) ... Stroud then posted 41 digs on Fresno State, shattering the Broncos’ single game mark of 33, set on Oct. 4, 1986 ... the mark also broke the WAC record for digs in a single match (39) ... the effort also increased Stroud’s season total to 433, breaking the single season mark of 428 set by Linda Clemens in 1984 ... Stroud has moved into sixth place on the WAC digs career list.
Fresno State Bulldogs (4-22, 2-12 WAC)
The Bulldogs currently sit in seventh place in the WAC in front of Utah State and Louisiana Tech with 800 kills for a .155 hitting percentage ... Fresno State is averaging 13.32 assists, 1.89 blocks, 1.21 service aces and 16.77 digs in the conference ... the Bulldogs currently have four players that are Top 10 in the WAC individual statistics ... Tiffany Hess who has played in 56 conference games is 10th in the conference with 344 assists averaging 6.14 assists per game ... Lisa Gera is right behind Hess playing in 54 conference games and is 11th with 289 assists averagaging 5.35 a game ... Angela Wiggins is 10th in the conference averaging 3.54 kills per game.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine (21-5, 13-1 WAC)
The No. 13 University of Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team defeated Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State this past week to seize the top spot in the conference standings by themselves ... the win over the Aggies on senior night also gave UH their fourth win over a ranked opponent this season while avenging the loss in Las Cruces, N.M., that ended the Rainbow Wahine’s 114-match conference winning streak ... in this week’s NCAA statistics, Jamie Houston is fifth in kills per game (5.48 kpg) ... Kanoe Kamana`o is 12th in the nation in assists per game, averaging 13.49 apg.
Idaho Vandals (9-16, 8-5 WAC)
Idaho has never had a season with less than 11 wins under head coach Debbie Buchanan ... the Vandals will need to win three of their last five matches to cross the 11 win plateau this season ... two of their final three matches come at home against the two teams directly ahead of them in the WAC, Nevada and Hawai’i ... senior Libero Stacy Sode is on pace to shatter the Vandal single-season digs per game record ... Sode currently is averaging 5.04 a game ... the current record is held by Meghan Brown (4.68) ... Sode currently has 469 digs on the season already good for fifth place on the all-time single-season list, she is 51 digs away from setting the record.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (6-25, 0-14 WAC)
Junior Shannon Phillips continues to lead the conference in double-doubles with 21... senior Ambra Hayes is second tied for second with Hawai?i’s Sarah Mason with 12 ... in the final week of WAC play, the Lady Techsters are in search of their first conference win ... the last team to now record a WAC win was Boise State in 2002 (0-13) ... in their first year in the WAC in 2001, the Lady Techsters were 0-13 ... if Louisiana Tech finishes 0-16 that would be the most WAC losses in a season in conference history.
Nevada Wolf Pack (15-12, 9-5 WAC)
Nevada was 5-0 in five-game WAC matches until falling at Utah State last Saturday ... the Wolf Pack led 2-0 but the Aggies won the next three games to take the match 3-2 ... the Pack are now 5-1 in WAC play in five-game matches and 5-2 on the season ... four of the five wins have come at home and three times the Pack rallied from 2-1 deficits at home to win the five-game WAC matches ... Nevada has finished with a .500 or better record every year that it has been in the WAC except its first in 2000 ... last year’s fourth place finish was its lowest WAC finish since joining the league.
New Mexico State Aggies (29-2, 12-2 WAC)
With one more win, New Mexico State will become the first WAC team that is not Hawai?i to record 30 wins ... the last time the Rainbow Wahine had 30 wins was in 2004 when Hawai?i finished the season 30-1 ... last season, the Aggies were 20-7 and 11-5 in conference action ... the 2006 New Mexico State team has already past last season’s squad in overall and conference wins ... New Mexico State holds the top two spots in hitting percentage in the WAC ... Amber Simpson is first, hitting .397 ... Kim Oguh is second, hitting .394.
San Jose State Spartans (17-10, 8-6 WAC)
Kristina Conrad recorded her seventh and eighth double-doubles of the season in the Spartans two wins ... she had 51 assists and 11 digs against Boise State and 48 assists and 12 digs against Idaho ... San Jose State improves to 17-10 overall and 8-6 in the WAC and has a three-match winning streak to start the week ... with 17 wins, the Spartans have the most wins since the 2001 season when the team finished 25-8 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament ... the eight conference wins is also the most since the 2001 season when that team finished the WAC schedule 9-4.
Utah State Aggies (13-16, 6-8 WAC)
For the first time this year, Utah State rallied for a five-game win after losing the first two games of a match as it defeated Nevada Saturday night at home ... the last time Utah State won a match after losing the first two games was against Idaho at home during the 2005 season ... as of Nov. 12, Utah State ranks third in the WAC in opponents hitting percentage (.192), third in blocks per game (2.76), seventh in kills per game (13.90), seventh in service aces per game (1.22), seventh in assists per game (12.69), eighth in digs per game (14.99), and eighth in hitting percentage (.156).