WEEK FOUR IN THE WAC ? San Jose State returns home this weekend for four matches. The team hosts No. 8 Santa Clara on Tuesday and the SJSU Hyatt Invitational on Friday and Saturday. The Spartans enter the week with a four-match winning streak after winning the New Hampshire Tournament and defeating UC Davis at home. New Mexico State moved to 11-0 with a win over instate rival New Mexico. The Aggies look improve on that spotless record this week at the South Dakota State Tournament. Hawai?i looks to bounce back this week with two matches against No. 23 Cal Poly. Fresno State looks to break a five-match losing streak, while Idaho looks for its first win of the season. Louisiana Tech looks to break a three-match losing streak at its home tournament, while the Wolf Pack look to get back on track at the Circus Circus/Molten Invitational in Reno. Boise State will face Oreogn and Gonzaga.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? New Mexico State middle hitter Amber Simpson has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 11. This is the third career WAC Player of the Week for the sophomore, having been named player of the week twice last season.
The Quincy, Ill. (Quincy) native, led the Aggies to the Hilton Las Cruces Classic title, Sept. 7-9. Simpson was named tournament most valuable player after a .500 hitting percentage, 53 kills and 27 blocks. The sophomore had a career-high 21 kills and match-high six blocks in the tournament opener against Wyoming, Sept. 7. Simpson recorded nine kills and seven blocks versus Idaho before she posted a season-high eight blocks along with 13 kills in the five-game victory over San Diego, Sept. 8. In the conclusion of the Hilton Las Cruces Classic, Simpson had 10 kills and a career-high five digs against Akron, Sept. 9. Simpson leads the Aggies in hitting percentage (.467) and blocks (55). |
Other nominees included: Cameron Flunder of Boise State was named to the NAU Fiesta Bowl all-tournament team after hitting .400 with 42 kills in three matches ... Sarah Mason of Hawai?i averaged 4.40 kills per game and 1.10 service aces per game at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Challenge ... Erin Curtis of Idaho had 12 kills in two matches along with eight block assists ... Karly Sipherd of Nevada had 45 kills and hit .269 for the Wolf Pack last week... Niki Clement of San Jose State was MVP of the New Hampshire Tournament, averaging 3.54 kpg ... Hailey Johnson of Utah State had 18 kills and nine digs in four matches.
BULLDOGS TAKE ON DEFENDING CHAMPS ? After losing two Pacific-10 matches on the road last weekend, Fresno State is home this week as they search for answers from the youthful squad. Fresno State (1-8) will look to get back on the winning track as it faces the defending national champion and fifth-ranked Washington Huskies (8-1) at the Save Mart Center on Sept. 14, 7:00 p.m. The last time the Bulldogs faced the Huskies was Sept. 11, 1987 with Washington winning the match 3-0 (15-8,9-15,4-15). Fresno State leads the series 4-3.
NEVADA’S SORENSEN REACHES MILESTONE ? Nevada senior Carly Sorensen reached a milestone by recording her 1,000th career kill at the LMU Classic last week. Sorensen became the seventh Wolf Pack player to reach the 1,000 kill mark in a career. Her 1,031 career kills rank seventh all-time at Nevada. She is 141 kills behind Kelly Martin (1991-94). Sorensen has had season of 255, 266, 407 and 103 kills after nine matches this 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 6.70. She is second in total digs with 134 just behind Louisiana Tech’s Brittany Nakamura.
FAMILIAR FACES ? When Utah State faces No. 24 Utah on Sept. 8, the Aggies will see a few familiar faces. Utah assistant coach Burt Fuller spent five years (2001-05) as the head coach at Utah State, leading the Aggies to an 82-70 (.539) record and trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and 2005. Fellow Utah assistant coach, Heather Olmstead, was a four-year starter on Utah State’s volleyball team (1998-2001) and earned first-team all-Big West honors in 2001. Olmstead later served as an assistant coach at Utah State for three years (2003-05). Olmstead’s brother, Shawn, is now an assistant coach at Utah State after playing volleyball at Brigham Young University (2001-2004).
PETERSON HOLDS CAREER DIGS RECORD AT UTAH STATE ? Senior libero Kelsi Peterson is Utah State’s career leader in digs with 1,203. She also holds the school’s single-season record with 510 digs set during the 2005 season. Those 510 digs (3.78 dpg) were the second-most in the Western Athletic Conference in 2005, while 3.78 digs per game average ranked seventh in the league. Thus far this year, Peterson is averaging 4.20 digs per game, which ranks sixth in the WAC.
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
FREQUENT FLIER MILES ? New Mexico State sophomore middle blocker Amber Simpson spent her summer vacation playing volleyball in Argentina as a member of the Bring It Promotions All-Frosh USA Select Team. Simpson joined some of the best collegiate freshman from around the country. Team USA played matches in Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Freyre, Cordoba, Nogoya, Villaguay, Diamante and Ramallo. Simpson had a breakout season for the Aggies, earning WAC Freshman of the Year honors in 2005.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ? Utah State began its 30th season of collegiate volleyball in 2006 with an overall record of 486-577-8 (.458). The Aggies have reached the NCAA Tournament three times in school history (2000, 2001, 2005), advancing to the second round in 2000 and 2001. Utah State has produced nine All-American’s in its history, one academic All-American, and a national championship in 1978, followed by a runner-up finish in 1979. Utah State has also had two players play professionally in Elaine Roque and Karolyn Kirby, who was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2004.
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.
FAMILY AFFAIR? San Jose State’s Jessie Shull is not the only libero in her family. Her younger sister Jenny is in her third season as the libero for the Duke Blue Devils. Jenny, an honorable mention All-American last season, currently has 67 digs, 6.70 dpg and was named the Outstanding Libero of the Duke Invitational last weekend. The two sisters have an older brother, Jimmy, who was drafted and signed by the Oakland Athletics, in the fourth round of the 2005 MLB Draft.
BOISE STATE AND UTAH STATE NAME NEW HEAD COACHES ? The WAC will have two new head coaches this season with the addition of Robin Davis at Boise State and Grayson DuBose at Utah State.
Davis was the associate head coach at a very successful Notre Dame program. A 16-year veteran of the college game, Robin Davis has been a member of the Notre Dame volleyball staff for the past five seasons, and this past season (2005-06) served as associate head coach. In addition to assisting in all aspects of the Irish program, he worked closely with Notre Dame’s middle and outside blockers and was instrumental in building the Irish into one of the top blocking teams in the country.
DuBose was named the new head women’s volleyball coach at Utah State University. DuBose, a former assistant coach at Utah State from 1999-2000, has spent the last four seasons as an assistant on Brigham Young’s men’s volleyball team.
DuBose began his collegiate coaching career at Utah State from 1999-2000 as an assistant to Tom Peterson. During that time, the Aggies won the Eastern Division of the Big West Conference in 1999, and advanced to the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2000. USU finished the 2000 season ranked 22nd in the country, the program’s first-ever top-25 ranking.
2006 PRESEASON ALL-WAC TEAM ANNOUNCED ? The WAC Preseason all-WAC volleyball team was announced today as voted on by the nine coaches. Hawai?i All-American Kanoe Kamana`o was named WAC Preseason Player of the Year. The senior setter was the 2004 and 2005 WAC Player of the Year.
Hawai?i led the way placing five on the 12-player team. Along with Kamana`o, senior Sarah Mason and junior Juliana Sanders earned preseason honors. The three were first-team all-WAC selections in 2005. Also earning honors were junior Tara Hittle and sophomore Jamie Houston, who were both second-team all-WAC honorees in 2005.
New Mexico State placed four players on the preseason team, including 2005 WAC Freshman of the Year, Amber Simpson. The Aggies also had senior Jackie Choi and junior Kim Oguh named to the team. Both were first-team selections last season. Alice Borden was the final Aggie named to the preseason all-WAC squad.
Boise State senior Cameron Flunder was the Broncos’ only honoree. Rounding out the team are San Jose State junior Jennifer Senftleben and Idaho sophomore Haley Larsen. Senftleben was a first-team selection last season, while Larsen was named to the second-team all-WAC and the all-freshman.
Boise State Broncos (5-5, 0-0 WAC)
The Bronco volleyball team (5-5) returns home for only the second time this season to host a final preconference tournament of 2006 ... the Broncos will host Oregon of the Pac-10 and Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference ... Gonzaga will play Oregon on Sept. 15 at 7:00 p.m. in Bronco Gym ... the Broncos will then play Gonzaga Sept. 16 at 12:30 p.m. ... after a short break will return to play Oregon at 5:00 p.m. ... Gonzaga, of the WCC, is 3-7 overall, with wins over Weber State, Gardner-Webb and UMBC ... The Zags’ losses are to Washington State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Connecticut, Portland State and No. 5 Washington.
Fresno State Bulldogs (1-8, 0-0 WAC)
After facing the Oregon Ducks (6-0) last week the Bulldogs fell Saturday night to the Oregon State Beavers (2-6) in three games (18-30, 21-30, 26-30) ... both teams started a total of nine freshman, the Beavers started four and the Bulldogs started five ... the first game looked to be close as the Bulldogs and Beavers were trading points ... the Beavers jumped out to a 10-7 lead and scored three more points until a missed kill by freshman middle blocker Lexi Rathgeber at 13-8 ... Fresno State looked to make a comeback but the Beavers battled and took no remorse as they ran with game one 30-18.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine (5-3, 0-0 WAC)
The Rainbow Wahine defeated Fairfield and Northwestern at the Waikiki Beach Mariott Volleyball Challenge, before falling to No. 8 Stanford in three games ... Hawai?i’s All-American setter Kanoe Kamana`o contines to play sparingly due to injury ... sophomore Jamie Houston is first in the WAC in kills per game, averaging 5.03 kpg ... as a team, the Rainbow Wahine are first in the league in assists (14.86 apg) and second in blocks (2.98 bpg).
Idaho Vandals (0-8, 0-0 WAC)
Idaho looks for its first win of the season this week against Washington State ... the Vandals will take on the Cougars both home and away this week ... last week, Idaho lost to Saint Mary’s and Long Beach State last week in Long Beach ... sophomore Kelsey James is sixth in the WAC in assists per game, averaging 9.32 apg ... Stacy Sode is tied for fourth in digs per game, averaging 4.54 dpg.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (4-9, 0-0 WAC)
The Louisiana Tech Lady Techster volleyball team will return home to play host to the University of Texas-Arlington in the Thomas Assembly Center Sept. 12, at 7:00 p.m. ... Louisiana Tech had its four-match winning streak snapped this past weekend at the Tiger Invitational on the campus of the University of Memphis ... the Lady Techsters won the first match against Lipscomb before losing three consecutive afterward.
Nevada Wolf Pack (5-4, 0-0 WAC)
Senior Carly Sipherd recorded her 1,000th career kill against SMU on Sept. 8 becoming the seventh Nevada player to reach the milestone ... after winning a season high four matches in a row the Pack have lost their last four ... Carly Sorensen has posted five double-doubles on the season, three coming in consecutive matches last week against Sacramento State, SMU and UC Irvine.
New Mexico State Aggies (11-0, 0-0 WAC)
New Mexico State won the Hilton Las Cruces Classic after a 5-0 performance to improve to 10-0 on the year. Sophomore middle hitter Amber Simpson was named the tournament most valuable player while junior middle hitter Kim Oguh was an all-tournament team selection ... the Aggies opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over Wyoming, Sept. 7 ... New Mexico State opened day two of the tournament with a three-game sweep of Idaho State ... senior outside hitter Alice Borden paced the Aggies with 12 kills ... NMSU also won a five-game thriller over San Diego ... to improve to 11-0 the Aggies beat instate rival, New Mexico, in three games on the road.
San Jose State Spartans (7-2, 0-0 WAC)
The annual Rivalry Series between San Jose State and Santa Clara begins this Tuesday evening with the volleyball match at San Jose State ... three points will be up for grabs to the winner of the match ... the Rivalry Series was created in the fall of 2002 to build rivalry between Santa Clara and San Jose State in all sports ... the Rivalry Series brings attention to college sports in the South Bay and to provide a sense of pride between alumni in the Bay Area ... the series hopes to increase attendance at sporting events between the two schools and to build school spirit among each institution’s student body.
Utah State Aggies (5-4, 0-0 WAC)
Utah State will host 16th-ranked Brigham Young (7-1) on Sept. 12 at 6:00 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum ... the Aggies will then travel to Tulsa, Okla., to participate in the 2006 Oral Roberts Classic during the weekend ... Utah State will begin the tournament against Texas-Arlington (7-4) on Sept. 15 at 9:30 a.m., and will then play Arkansas-Little Rock (6-7) at 1:30 p.m. ... Utah State will conclude the tournament with two more matches on Saturday against St. Francis, N.Y., (0-5) at 1:30 p.m. and against host Oral Roberts (5-6) at 6 p.m.