Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
New Mexico (Fresno State Invite)
Volleyball Nets Sweep in Season Opener Over New Mexico
8/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 29, 2003
FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State volleyball came out of the chute in full throttle when the Bulldogs swept New Mexico (30-20, 30-22, 30-11) in their season opener at home during the Fresno State Invitational.
The win made 13th-year head coach Lindy Vivas just the third Western Athletic Conference coach to amass 300 or more career victories as she joins Dave Shoji (Hawai'i) and first-year head coach Jon Wilson (Rice).
The Bulldogs were led by junior outside hitter Kristen Fenton, who totaled 13 kills and hit .667 (13-1-18) to go along with four aces, four digs and four blocks. Senior middle blocker Carrie Hartt led the middle attack with seven kills while hitting .357 (7-2-14) with three aces and two blocks.
Sophomore setter Robyn Keune notched 34 assists and picked up three kills as the new general of the Bulldogs. Tiffany Bishop (4 kills, 3 aces), Tuli Peters (.545 hit pct., 6 kills in 11 attempts, 2 aces, six digs) and La'akea Campbell (4 kills, 2 digs) performed well as they had their first Bulldog starts.
As a team, Fresno State hit a blistering .479 (42-7-73) while dishing out 14 service aces and collecting 21 digs and seven total blocks.
For New Mexico, the Lobos were led by Anna Reines, who had 13 kills and hit .320 (13-5-25) with four digs. UNM struggled offensively after hitting .130 (27-18-69) while posting 19 digs and two blocks.
In game 1, the Bulldogs hit .421 (11-3-19) with Fenton notching five kills and three service aces. In game 2, Fresno State hit .563 (19-1-32) as Fenton was perfect after hitting .833 (5-0-6) with an ace and a block solo. With 11 service aces in the first two games, the Bulldogs picked up three in the final set and outblocked the Lobos (6-1).
"We had a slow start but finished strong," Vivas said. "I thought our serving was tough and we played well with new faces, including making a few changes in the line up towards the end of the match. I thought Robyn (Keune) did very well and Kristen (Fenton) was getting to everything and it didn't matter what New Mexico tried to do. Our blocking came around once we forced them into making bad sets and adjusted to their speed. It was a nice way to begin the season."
Earlier in the day, Cal Poly defeated Idaho State in five games (31-29, 28-30, 28-30, 30-21, 15-12). The Mustangs set a new tournament record in team block assists with 34 against the Bengals. The old tournament record was 24, which was done five different times (most recent was Fresno State vs. CS Fullerton, 2000).
Fresno State resumes invitational play tomorrow with a 2:30 p.m. contest against Idaho State and a 7:30 p.m. match against Cal Poly.
Overall, the invitational gets underway at 12:00 p.m. with Cal Poly and New Mexico squaring off. Sandwiched between Fresno State's two matches will be New Mexico and Idaho State playing at 5:00 p.m.
