PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Louisiana Tech outside hitter Shannon Phillips has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Aug. 27-Sept. 2. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week for the senior.
The Rowlett, Texas, (Rowlett) native, ended a weekend tournament hosted by Louisiana Tech with a 30-kill, 18-dig performance in the final match. She led the Lady Techsters to a 3-1 record over the weekend. Phillips is averaging 5.59 kills per game this season for Louisiana Tech after averaging 5.50 kills per game over the weekend. The senior ended the tournament with 77 kills and 47 digs. She also added three blocks and hit .331, including hitting a weekend-high .381 against Southeastern Louisiana.
Other nominees included: Sadie Maughan of Boise State led the offensive front for Boise State at the Gonzaga Tournament, averaging a hitting-percentage of .373 (24-5-51), tallying with just five errors ... Angela Wiggins of Fresno State led the Bulldogs with 26 kills and 15 digs in three matches ... Teal Ericson of Nevada had 47 kills and 10 digs in three matches last week ... Amber Simpson of New Mexico State had 21 kills in two matches as the Aggies went 2-1 ... Colleen Burke of San Jose State had 34 kills, while hitting .457 last week as the Spartans captured a tournament win ... Amanda Nielson of Utah State was named to the Montana State-Holiday Inn Classic all-tournament team after leading the Aggies to a third place finish, finishing the tournament with 37 kills and 16 digs.
WEEK THREE IN THE WAC ? This week, all WAC schools continue in tournament action. Hawai?i will host its third-straight tournament when Wichita State, Eastern Washington and No. 19 Santa Clara travel to Honolulu. New Mexico State has another tough week after facing No. 6 Texas last week. The Aggies will travel to Lincoln, Neb. for the Ameritas Players Challenge on Friday, Sept. 7 and Saturday, Sept. 8. They will take on Louisville on Friday and depending on the outcome of that game, will face either No. 1 Nebraska or No. 11 Duke.
Louisiana Tech will travel to the UTSA Tournament, while Nevada is at the AT&T Invitational. Both Boise State and Idaho will travel to the UC Davis Tournament. Fresno State will take on Manhattan, traveling to the Kansas State Tournament. Utah State will make the trek to Berkeley for the Golden Bear Invitational. San Jose State switches places with Utah State, heading to Orem, Utah for the UVU/La Quinta Inn &Suites Invitational.
FAST STARTS ? New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech are the first teams to get to five wins. The Lady Techsters are one win away from matching last season’s win total of six. Louisiana Tech, behind the strong play of Shannon Phillips, is 5-4 after a sweep of Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 4. The Aggies are 6-1 after a 3-1 win over instate rival New Mexico on Sept. 4. New Mexico State’s only loss came against No. 7 Texas.
CONGRATULATIONS COACH JORDAN! ? NMSU head coach Mike Jordan got win No. 200 when the Aggies defeated Houston 3-1 at the Houston Tournament in Houston, Texas on Sunday, Sept. 2 2007. He is now 200-92 with NMSU. His first victory with the program came against Hofstra in the Las Cruces Hilton Classic in Las Cruces, N.M. on Sept. 4, 1998.
UTAH STATE’S RECRUITING CLASS AMONG BEST IN THE NATION ? According to PrepVolleyball.com, Utah State had the second-best recruiting class in the WAC in 2007, behind only Hawai’i who had the 19th-best class in the nation. USU welcomed 10 newcomers to the program this fall, including six freshmen, and that class ranked as one of the top-95 in the nation.
HAWAI?I RANKED IN PRESEASON POLL ? Defending Western Athletic Conference volleyball champion Hawai?i has been selected in a poll by the league’s coaches to defend its crown in 2007 and take home its 12th-straight regular-season title.
The Rainbow Wahine received eight of the nine first-place votes with San Jose State earning the other first-place vote. Hawai?i earned 64 total points followed by New Mexico State with 55. San Jose State under the direction of new head coach Oscar Crespo finished tied for third with Idaho with 44 points. Nevada was picked fifth with 36, while Boise State was picked sixth with 30. Utah State finished in seventh place with 22 points with Fresno State earning 20 points, good for eighth. Louisiana Tech was picked ninth with nine points.
Hawai?i is coming off a 29-6 season in 2006 that saw the Rainbow Wahine earn their 11th-consecutive WAC regular-season title with a 15-1 record. Hawai?i also captured its seventh WAC Tournament title. The Rainbow Wahine advanced to the NCAA Regional Finals before losing to UCLA. New Mexico State also advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2006.
The 2007 WAC season begins August 24 with all nine teams in action. After five seasons in Reno, the WAC Volleyball Tournament moves to Las Cruces, N.M. on the campus of New Mexico State. The nine-team tournament will be held November 15-17.
SAN JOSE STATE CAPTURES TOURNAMENT TITLE ? With a 2-1 tournament record, the San Jose State volleyball team won the ASU/Bancorp South Classic despite a 26-30, 30-23, 26-30, 24-30 loss to host Arkansas State.
Junior middle blocker Colleen Burke was selected as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. She had 10 kills against Arkansas State and hit .457 for the weekend with only two hitting errors in 11 games played. Keri Anglin had two blocks against Arkansas State and led the team over the weekend with nine blocks. Jennifer Senftleben recorded 10 kills Saturday night and averaged 3.55 kills per game over the weekend.
NIELSON NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM, TIES SCHOOL RECORD WITH ACES ? Utah State opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson was named to the 2007 Four Points University Plaza Wildcat Classic all-tournament team after leading the Aggies to a third-place finish with a 1-2 record during the weekend. Nielson averaged 5.60 points, 4.30 kills, 2.30 digs, 0.90 service aces and 0.70 blocks per game during the tournament.
Her best match of the weekend was against Eastern Washington as she recorded her first double-double of the year with 21 kills and 13 digs, both of which are season-highs. She also hit .319 (21-6-47) in the match and tied a school record with six service aces in the four-game win against EWU.
BULLDOGS EARN FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON ? Fresno State earned its first win of the season with a 3-0 sweep of UC Davis on Aug. 31. The Bulldogs had a season-high hitting percentage of .286, led by senior Angela Wiggins with a .333 percentage. In the home opener, the Bulldogs fell to Idaho State 3-1, as freshman Tairyn Rasmussen had her first career double-double with 12 kills and 14 digs. Freshman setter Kasey Van Grouw led the Bulldogs with her third-career double-double with 16 assists and 10 digs. With a .286 hitting percentage, sophomore Kelly Leonardo led Fresno State with five kills in 14 attempts.
VOLLEYBALL FORMAT ? For the third-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.
2007 WAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
November 15 (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 16 (Semifinals)
Match 6 - Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4
Match 7 - Winner Match 2 vs. Winner Match 5
November 17 (Championship)
Match 8 - Winner Match 6 vs. Winner Match 7
NEW MEXICO STATE TO HOST WAC VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT - The Western Athletic Conference announced, that pending board approval, New Mexico State University will host the 2007 WAC Volleyball Tournament, Nov. 15-17 at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces.
The 2007 Volleyball Tournament marks the third time New Mexico State has hosted a WAC Championship in the past nine months. In March, the Aggies hosted the 2007 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships and this April, the University Golf Course hosted the 2007 WAC Women’s Golf Championships.
Throughout the week, WAC teams and fans were treated to a variety of cultural events that showcased what the state of New Mexico and the city of Las Cruces are all about, including Native American and Hispanic Culture Days. Fans also had the chance to experience the newly-renovated Pan American Center first hand, including new concourses, concession stands, restrooms and a brand new center-hung scoreboard, which hangs above Lou Henson Court.
SAN JOSE STATE NAMES CRESPO HEAD COACH - San Jose State University has named Oscar Crespo as its new women’s volleyball head coach. Crespo, a 1990 graduate of San Jose State, becomes the sixth head coach in the program’s history.
Crespo spent the past seven years as a member of the University of Nevada volleyball coaching staff. From 2000-01, he was the Wolf Pack’s assistant head coach before being promoted to associate head coach prior to the start of the 2002 season.
His primary areas of focus at Nevada were athlete training and development; opponent scouting and evaluation; recruiting; setter development; drill development and individual and team skill evaluation; development of defensive and offensive systems, and statistical analysis of individual and team play.
His recruiting expertise helped the Wolf Pack sign the 23rd-ranked volleyball recruiting class for 2006 according to PrepVolleyball.com. Crespo was instrumental in Nevada’s recent success of participating in four of the last six NCAA Tournaments.
REGIONAL SITES SELECTED - The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee has announced the following sites for regional competition of the 2007 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships.
Regionals (4) December 7-8, 2007
Host: University of Florida
Stephen C. O’Connell Center
Gainesville, Florida
Host: Pennsylvania State University
Rec Hall
University Park, Pennsylvania
Host: Stanford University
Maples Pavilion
Stanford, California
Host: University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin Field House
Madison, Wisconsin
Boise State Broncos (3-3, 0-0 WAC)
Sophomore Arlee Tamietti’s outstanding play during the three-match round-robin invite earned her a spot on the Gonzaga Tournament all-tournament team after she led the Broncos with 10 kills against the Bulldogs ... this marks the second-straight tournament in which she was named to the all-tournament team ... last week, Sadie Maughan, hit .400 (8-0-20) in her inaugural Bronco match, posting the Broncos’ fifth-most attempts without an error since 1993 ... junior Mandy Klein is first in the WAC in assists, averaging 11.89 apg .. Klein has a total of 214 assists during this young season ... Arlee Tamietti is ninth in the WAC in kills per game, averaging 3.78 kpg.
Fresno State Bulldogs (1-5, 0-0 WAC)
Fresno State as a team leads the WAC in blocks with 2.86 per game and is second in digs with 17.55 per game ... the Bulldogs are looking for their first win of the season after a tough showing at the Husky Tournament hosted by the University of Washington ... this week, Fresno State has three matches at home against Idaho State, UC Davis and Saint Mary’s.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine (1-2, 0-0 WAC)
No. 16 Hawai?i (3-3) took second in their Wahine Classic this past week, defeating No. 25 Kansas State and Louisville, while falling to No. 5 UCLA. UH will now host Eastern Washington, Wichita State and No. 19 Santa Clara in the Waikiki Beach Marriott Volleyball Challenge from Sept. 6-8, at the Stan Sheriff Center ... the Rainbow Wahine will take on yet another ranked team when they face No. 19 Santa Clara on Sept. 8 ... Hawai?i has faced at least one ranked team every week this season ... Hawai?i setter Stephanie Brandt is second in the WAC in assists, averaging 11.78 ... Brandt follows in the footsteps of All-American Kanoe Kamana`o.
Idaho Vandals (1-6, 0-0 WAC)
The 2007 Hallmark Inn Aggie Tournament is the third tournament the Vandals will participate in during the non-conference season ... of their seven matches only one has been outside of a tournament format ... Haley Larsen has 10+ kills in all seven matches this season ... her season-high is 23 kills at Washington State (Aug. 28) ... Sarah Loney earned her first career all-Tournament honor at the Idaho Classic Tournament ... Anna McKinney missed the match against Oklahoma due to illness ... Haley Larsen earned her first career all-tournament honor at the Cal Molten Classic Tournament.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (5-4, 0-0 WAC)
The Lady Techsters moved above .500 with a sweep over Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 4 ... senior Shannon Phillips earned WAC Player of the Week honors after averaging over 5.00 kpg ... Phillips is first in the WAC in kills per game, averaging 5.59 kpg ... the outside hitter also leads the WAC in total kills with 151 ... Louisiana Tech setter Jillann Walker is fourth in the conference in assists, averaging 11.41 apg ... Walker leads the WAC in total assists with 308 ... this week, the Lady Techsters will hit the road and play at the UT-San Antonio Tournament.
Nevada Wolf Pack (2-2, 0-0 WAC)
Nevada captured wins against Pepperdine and Lipscomb last week to even its record to 2-2 ... the Wolf Pack looks to increase their win total this week at the AT&T Invitational ... freshman Lindsay Baldwin is off to a fast start ... Baldwin is first in the WAC in blocks, averaging 1.21 bpg ... she has a total of 17 blocks this season in 14 games ... senior Karly Sipherd is third in the conference in blocks, averaging 1.14 bpg ... as a team, the Wolf Pack are third in service aces, averaging 1.71 sapg.
New Mexico State Aggies (6-1, 0-0 WAC)
The Aggies picked up their first loss of the season at the hands of then No. 6 Texas, who fell one spot this week to No. 7 ... the Aggies continue to follow the lead of Lindsey Yon, who had the most kills on the team with 71 ... she also has 35 digs and four aces on the year ... New Mexico State is 39-25 against the Lobos before Sept. 4 and will look to get win No. 40 ... the Aggies have won the last eight matches against UNM dating back to Sept. 22, 2003. NMSU swept the Lobos in both meetings last year.
San Jose State Spartans (4-2, 0-0 WAC)
With a 2-1 tournament record, the San Jose State volleyball team won the ASU/Bancorp South Classic despite a 3-1 loss to host Arkansas State ... middle blocker Colleen Burke was selected as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player ... she had 10 kills against Arkansas State and hit .457 for the weekend with only two hitting errors in 11 games played ... Keri Anglin had two blocks against Arkansas State and led the team over the weekend with nine blocks ... Jennifer Senftleben recorded 10 kills on Sept. 1 against Murray State and averaged 3.55 kills per game over the weekend ... both Anglin and Senftleben were named to the all-tournament team.
Utah State Aggies (2-4, 0-0 WAC)
Utah State is 2-4 on the season after finishing in third-place at the 2007 Holiday Inn Classic in Bozeman, Mont., last weekend ... USU began the tournament with a three- game loss to Texas A&M, then defeated Montana State in three games before losing to Washington State in three games. USU is led by senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson who is averaging 5.18 points, 4.21 kills, 2.05 digs, 0.63 service aces and 0.63 blocks per game, while junior Melissa Osterloh is averaging 4.53 points, 3.95 kills, 3.16 digs and 0.53 blocks per game ... as a team, Utah State is hitting .108 on the season as compared to a .206 hitting percentage for its opponents.