PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Nevada outside hitter Teal Ericson has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 4. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week for the junior.
The Tahoe City, Calif. (North Tahoe) native, was named MVP of the AT&T Invitational after leading Nevada to a 2-0 record and tournament title. She opened the invitational with 22 kills against Montana and followed with 21 versus Pacific. She averaged 6.14 kills and 6.43 points per game. Her attack percentage for the weekend was .432.
Other nominees included: Tara Hittle of Hawai?i averaged 3.44 kills per game and 3.33 digs per game at the Hawaiian Airline Classic ... Erin Curtis of Idaho had 33 kills in three matches at the Shamrock Invitational ... Shannon Phillips of Louisiana Tech had four double-doubles as the Lady Techsters earned their first wins of the season ... Amber Simpson of New Mexico State had 21 kills in two sweeps of Florida A&M, as the Aggies’ start the season 6-0 ... Jessie Shull of San Jose State broke her own WAC record with 47 digs against Santa Clara ... Amanda Nielson of Utah State had 18 kills and nine digs in two matches.
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).
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.
LADY TECHSTERS LOOK FOR THIRD-STRAIGHT ? The Lady Techsters are looking to extend their winning streak to three matches after a rocky start of 0-6. At the Sam Houston State tournament, the Lady Techsters bounced back and were the only team to beat the winner of the tournament North Texas. Junior middle blocker Shannon Phillips has also extended her streak of double-doubles to seven in a row out of eight matches.
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.
AGGIES LOOK TOUGH ? Utah State had two players named to the 2006 Fremont Loans & Investment Invitational all-tournament team in junior opposite side hitters Monarisa Ale and Amanda Nielson. Ale hit .412 in the tournament and averaged 1.14 kills and 1.29 blocks per game, while Nielson hit .098 and averaged 2.57 kills, 1.43 blocks, 1.29 digs, and 0.53 service aces per game. Ale also recorded a career-high nine blocks against the Matadors, while Nielson recorded a career-high five service aces.
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.
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.
Boise State Broncos (3-4, 0-0 WAC)
Boise State senior Jackie Stroud was named to the Washington State Invitational all-Tournament team ... Stroud tallied 56 digs in the Broncos’ three matches in Pullman where Boise State defeated UC Davis but dropped matches to Washington State and UNLV ... Stroud has more than 1,000 digs now in her career at Boise State ... she is the second Bronco to be named to a preseason all-tournament team in as many weeks ... last week, sophomore setter Mandy Klein was named to the TCU all-tournament Team
Fresno State Bulldogs (1-6, 0-0 WAC)
After going 0-3 last week at the LMU Tournament, the Bulldogs have a 1-6 record with two more road games to play ... Fresno State begins a swing of Pac-10 matches, heading north for two matches on the road against Oregon and Oregon State next weekend before a meeting with defending national champion Washington at home in the Save Mart Center on Sept. 14 ... that match will be the first of the season for the Bulldogs in the 15,596-seat arena, but certainly not the last as the team makes a permanent move into the facility beginning with that game.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine (3-2, 0-0 WAC)
With a sweep of Colorado on Sept. 2, UH head coach Dave Shoji earned his 900th career victory in 32 years at the helm of the program ... the Rainbow Wahine suffered losses to No. 3 Florida and No. 3 UCLA at home last week ... Hawai?i continues its tough stretch of matches against ranked teams, facing No. 29 Northwestern (RichKern.com Preseason) and No. 8 Stanford (CSTV/AVCA) on Sept. 9 ... this season, the Rainbow Wahine is 2-2 against ranked teams ... in the first week of the season, Hawai?i captured two wins against then-No. 19 Pepperdine.
Idaho Vandals (0-6, 0-0 WAC)
Idaho looks for its first win of the season this week at the Long Beach Tournament ... last week, the Vandals lost to No. 13 Missouri, No. 21 Notre Dame and Valaparasio ... Stacy Sode is fourth in the WAC in digs per game, averaging 4.77 ... she has a total of 105 digs this season ... sophomore Kelsey James is fifth in the WAC in assists, averaging 10.41.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (0-6, 0-0 WAC)
Louisiana Tech junior middle blocker Shannon Phillips has earned all-tournament honors after her four match performance in the Sam Houston State Tournament ...
Phillips finished with four double-doubles averaging 16.5 kills and 18 digs per game ... she has totaled seven double-doubles so far this year in eight matches ... Phillips and the Lady Techsters return to action Sept. 5 for their home debut against Northwestern State at 7:00 p.m.
Nevada Wolf Pack (4-1, 0-0 WAC)
Senior setter Tristin Johnson dished out 51 assists and moved past Monica Petrilli (1993-96) for second place all-time on the Nevada list ... Johnson has 3,487 assists, 20 more than Petrilli ... outside hitter Teal Ericson was named MVP of the AT&T Invitational after leading the Wolf Pack to a pair of wins ... Ericson is fourth in the WAC in hitting percentage (.347) and second in kills per game (4.94) ... this week, Nevada will host Sacramento State before traveling to the LMU Tournament ... the Wolf Pack will take on former WAC team SMU on Sept. 8 and UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount on Sept. 9.
New Mexico State Aggies (6-0, 0-0 WAC)
New Mexico State moved to 6-0 with two sweeps of Florida A&M at home ... sophomore Amber Simpson leads the WAC in hitting percentage, hitting .444 ... she is the only player in the league hitting over .400 ... junior Kim Oguh is second in the WAC in hitting percentage (.376) ... senior Alice Borden is fourth in the WAC in kills per game, averaging 3.90 kpg ... as a team, the Aggies are first in the WAC in both hitting percentage (.283) and opponent hitting percentage (.088) ... last season, the Aggies started the season 5-0.
San Jose State Spartans (3-2, 0-0 WAC)
Senior libero Jessie Shull re-set her own school match record for digs with 47, but the Spartans lost another five-game match, 30-27, 31-33, 24-30, 30-27, 15-11, to UC Santa Barbara at the USF Powerade/Asics Classic ... Shull originally set the school match record for digs with 42 against Fresno State on November 3, 2004 ... she is the only person in school history to record 40 or more digs in a match ... Shull entered the season as the Spartans’ all-time career dig leader and now has 1,718 digs for her career.
Utah State Aggies (3-2, 0-0 WAC)
Utah State finished in second-place at the 2006 Fremont Loans & Investment Invitational hosted by Cal State Northridge as the Aggies defeated the Matadors in four games and lost to Oregon in three games ... against Oregon, Utah State was led by Hailey Jeppson who had nine kills ... versus Cal State Northridge, Jeppson added a season-high 14 kills, while Beth Hodge also had 14 kills ... Utah State will play four matches during the week as it hosts Weber State in its home opener on Sept. 5 ... the Aggies will then travel to Salt Lake City and play Missouri State and 24th-ranked Utah on Friday, and Temple on Saturday in the 2006 Utah Classic hosted by Utah.