Hawai‘i 3, Fresno State 0
The No. 3 University of Hawai‘i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (24-1, 13-0 WAC) swept the Fresno State Bulldogs (11-15, 5-9) 25-20, 25-18 and 25-22 at the Save Mart Center Thursday, extending their nation-long streaks in sets won, at 50, and conference matches won, at 38.
Kanani Danielson led the way for Hawai‘i, posting 16 kills while hitting .308. Chanteal Satele added eight kills and four blocks while Brittany Hewitt had six kills and five blocks. Emily Hartong hit .500 with six kills and three blocks with Dani Mafua posting 37 assists, eight digs and three kills.
Fresno State took the early lead, going ahead 3-2 in the first set. But Hawai‘i answered with a couple Hewitt points, on a block and a kill, taking the lead at 4-3. UH extended their lead to 12-9 before it got close with both teams going back-and-forth. The Rainbow Wahine wouldn’t be able to get it to more than a three-point lead again until a kill by Satele made it 23-19. After giving up a Bulldog point, UH put it away, scoring on a kill by Hewitt and a Fresno State hitting error, ending it 25-20.
Hawai‘i jumped out early in the second set as a block by Hewitt and Danielson put UH ahead 6-2. The Bulldogs pulled within a point at 11-10 after a three-point run, forcing a timeout by Head Coach Dave Shoji. Fresno State kept pushing, staying within a point at 17-16, before the Rainbow Wahine pulled away, scoring eight of the final 10 points in the set to get the 25-18 second set victory.
UH again made an early push in the third set, going ahead 5-1. But the Bulldogs came up big, scoring nine of the next 12 points to go ahead 15-12 at the media timeout. Hawai‘i stayed in it before using a 7-1 run to push into the lead at 21-17. A couple of kills by Danielson got UH to match point at 24-20 before her 16th kill of the night ended it at 25-22.
Boise State 3, Louisiana Tech 0
The Boise State volleyball team made quick work of Louisiana Tech on Thursday (Nov. 11) night, picking up their 10th sweep of the season. The Broncos (19-11, 6-8 WAC) earned a 3-0 (27-25, 25-12, 25-11) win over the Lady Techsters (12-18, 1-12 WAC) thanks to nine aces, 43 kills and a .330 hitting percentage.
The Broncos' 10th sweep of the season marks the most since 1992 when the team had 12 sweeps under head coach Darlene Bailey.
Senior Alisha Young helped the Broncos make their way into the history books with the sweep, but also earned a large feat of her own. After recording 10 kills on the night, Young surpassed the 1,000-career kills mark, now sitting at 1,007-career kills. Young's 10 kills led the match, while also earning 15.0 points and five blocks (one solo) for match-highs. Fellow senior Sadie Maughan was hot on offense tallying eight kills and a match-leading .462 hitting percentage. Sophomore Cailin Fellows had a solid night as well, racking up eight kills and a .333 hitting percentage.
One of the Broncos' biggest advantages on the night was their 9-to-1 service aces differential over the Lady Techsters. Boise State sophomore Kersti Whitney led the way with three aces, while Young , Amanda Remy and Fiona Jones each added two aces. Remy racked up 11 digs on the night for a team-high, while junior Breann Nesselhuf added 28 assists, six kills (.667) and eight digs.
Louisiana Tech was led by Clara Vido with eight kills, while Lori Hunsucker added 12 digs to lead the match. Bianca Bin racked up a team-high 26 assists, while joining Kara Jones in leading the team with four blocks apiece. Mallory Stanley earned the Lady Techsters' only service ace with Jones leading the team with 9.0 points.
Louisiana Tech was held to 29 kills (.115), one ace and 34 digs.
New Mexico State 3, Idaho 1
The New Mexico State volleyball team clinched the No. 2 spot in the 2010 Western Athletic Conference Tournament with a win 3-1 over Idaho, in Memorial Gym, Thursday, Nov. 11.
The Vandals came out strong and took set one 25-20, and looked to keep the momentum by going up 18-10 in set two. The Aggies played through it and came back to win set two 25-23 and then went on to win set three and four, 25-20 and 25-21 respectively.
Now the second seed in the tournament, NM State goes to 18-10 and 12-2 in the WAC. Idaho goes to 12-12 and 7-6 in the league and will look to clinch a spot in the tournament when it takes on Louisiana Tech, Nov. 13.
The Aggies were led by senior Kayliegh Giddens, who scored 22.5 points on 19 kills, two aces, one solo block and one block assist. She tied her career-high of 17 digs posting her ninth double-double of the year. Freshman Rocio Gutierrez posted a career night with 17 kills , while adding eight digs. Her previous high was 12 kills, which she has done twice already.
The Aggies posted eight service aces on the night compared to only three by the Vandals. NM State also out-blocked the Vandals 12.0-11.5.
Senior Whitney Woods added 12 kills, one aces, seven digs and four block assists, while junior libero Kelsi Phillips also added an ace to go along with 12 digs and three assists. WAC assist leader Jennah DeVries posted a match-high 47 assists going along with six digs, two block assists and an ace.
NM State now travels to Boise to face the Broncos in the final regular-season road match of the year. The match is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. (MT) in Bronco Gym. Aggie fans can listen in on the action in Las Cruces at KSNM AM 570 with Kyle Doperalski giving the play-by-play action.