Volleyball opens MW play at defending champ Boise State, Utah State

Fresno State at Boise State
Sep. 21, 2017 • 6:30 PM PDT • Bronco Gym (1,400) • Boise, Idaho
Video: Mountain West Network
Live: Live Stats on gobulldogs.com • Live Updates on Twitter (@FresnoStateVB)
Series History: Fresno State leads 20-14

Fresno State at Utah State
Sep. 23, 2017 • 12:00 PM PDT • Wayne Estes Center (1,400) • Logan, Utah
Video: Mountain West Network
Live: Live Stats on gobulldogs.com • Live Updates on Twitter (@FresnoStateVB)
Series History: Fresno State leads 16-12

Complete Weekly Notes (PDF)

Scouting Boise State (7-5)
• The defending Mountain West champion, Boise State was picked second in the preseason coaches' poll, behind Colorado State, with three first place votes and 93 total points.
• Boise State won its first MW championship and played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2016. The Broncos swept No. 20 Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 9 Stanford, finishing the season with a 26-7 record.
• The Broncos lost only one starter and two letterwinners, bringing back five starters including 2016 MW Player of the Year Sierra Nobley and four other all-MW selections.
• Boise State leads the league in kills, digs, and assists per set this season with Nobley leading with 4.88 kills per set. The Broncos pushed No. 1 Minnesota to five sets last week.

Scouting Utah State (8-4)
• Utah State was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West after going 14-16 with an 8-10 conference record last year. The Aggies returned four starters and eight letterwinners in 2017.
• The Aggies have won two straight matches and four of their last five. Utah State also beat CSU Bakersfield twice but is just 2-2 at home with a 3-1 home loss against Utah Valley.
• The squad is third in the Mountain West with 15.2 digs per set but is fifth with 12.9 kills per set.
• Libero Tasia Taylor, the reigning MW Defensive Player of the Week, is second in the league and 39th in Div. I with 5.02 digs per set after totaling 42 digs over two matches last week. Lauren Anderson leads the team offensively hitting .262 with 4.09 kills per set.
• Fresno State won its last match at Utah State in 2015 and has not lost in Logan since 2014.

Mountain West Momentum
• Fresno State ended the 2016 season with two straight Mountain West victories and won three of its last five matches to close the season with some conference success.
• The 'Dogs penultimate match of last season was a 3-1 win over Utah State, the team's fourth straight victory over the Aggies. The two teams met just once in 2016.

Brielle Goes Off
• Junior Brielle Hefner has tallied double-digit kills in five of the last six matches, averaging 3.25 kills per set and hitting .346 in the stretch. She had 22 kills to just six attack errors last week, helping lead the Bulldogs to a win at CSU Bakersfield with 15 kills.
• Hefner had the match of her life two weeks ago against San Francisco, recording a career-high 25 kills while hitting .404. She had 13 kills and no errors on her first 26 swings of the match as she more than doubled her previous career high of 12 kills and tied for the most kills by a Bulldog this season.
• Hefner has been a consistent offensive threat all season as she leads the team hitting .284 and is second with 2.77 kills per set.

Five Set Fun
• Fresno State played three straight five-set matches, dropping five-setters against CSUN and San Francisco before beating CSU Bakersfield in five last Tuesday.
• The team played three consecutive five set matches for the first time since ending the season with three straight in 2014

Road Openers
• The Bulldogs played in an opposing team's home opener in three of their last five matches despite it being the third and fourth weeks of the season.
• Fresno State beat CSU Bakersfield, 3-2, in its home opener while dropping matches at Saint Mary's and UC Irvine in their first home matches.
• The Bulldogs were also the home-opening opponent at Portland as four of the team's six non-conference road matches came in its opponent's first home match of the season.

Block Party
• Fresno State ranks third in the Mountain West and 34th in NCAA Div. I with 116.0 blocks this season. The 'Dogs average of 2.58 blocks per set is also third best in the league.
• Fresno State has recorded double-digit blocks in six of the last eight matches and is averaging 2.94 blocks per set in the stretch after averaging 1.79 blocks per set through the first four matches of the year
• Haile Watson and Lauren Torres are both averaging better than 1.15 blocks per set over the last six matches and have 20 solo blocks between the two of them this year.

Hardly at Home
• Thirteen of Fresno State's first 15 matches of the season will be played outside of Fresno.
• The team has eight road matches and five neutral site matches scheduled over the first month of the season with just two home dates prior to Sept. 28.
• The team had just one official home match prior to the start of conference play, against CSU Bakersfield. The meeting with Fresno Pacific was an exhibition.
• Eight of the team's 11 non-conference road matches took place in California with just one flight trip to Portland.

2 Matches, 2 Cities, 10 Sets, 1 Day
• Fresno State played a volleyball marathon on Sept. 9, playing two matches in two venues (with an hour and a half commute between them) over a stretch of less than 11 hours.
• The 'Dogs took on CSUN at 11 a.m. on the campus of Saint Mary's before crossing the bay bridge to play at San Francisco at 7 p.m. After not playing a five-set match all season, both contests on went five as the team played 10 sets of volleyball on the day.
• USF was playing its only match of the day and was able to outlast the Bulldogs in five after CSUN pulled out a narrow win in the first match. Together the two matches took four hours and 37 minutes to play.

21 Jump Night
• Fresno State recorded 21.0 blocks, a program record for a three-set match and the highest three-set total recorded by a Div. I team this season, on Sept. 5 against CSU Bakersfield.
• The Bulldogs broke the previous three-set program record of 15.0 blocks set against Hawaii in 2007. The squad came within one block of the overall program record of 22.0 blocks set in a four-set match
• The total was the highest for any Div. I match this season before Western Kentucky tallied 23.0 blocks in a five-set match. The 'Dogs had five blocks in the first set, nine in the second set, and seven in the third set.

Running the Runners
• Fresno State has now won nine of its last 10 meetings with valley rival CSU Bakersfield. The Bulldogs swept two matches from the Roadrunners this year
• In Fresno the 'Dogs swept the Roadrunners 3-0, recording a sweep for the fifth time in the 10-match stretch, before outlasting CSUB 3-2 in Bakersfield last Tuesday.

Double Double-Doubles
• The Bulldogs had two double-doubles in the same match for the first time this season when Madelyn Halteman and Taylor Slover both had double-doubles against San Francisco.
• Halteman recorded her third double-double of the year with career highs of 59 assists and 15 digs while Slover recorded her first career double-double with 18 kills and 11 digs.
• Halteman now has eight career double-doubles after she tied with Aleisha Coates for the team-lead with five double-doubles during the 2016 season.

Big Time Blocker
• Junior Haile Watson became the first player in program history to tally 10 blocks in a three-set match, topping the previous record of nine achieved twice, in the first meeting with CSU Bakersfield. Watson had four solo blocks, including a stuff on match point, and six block assists to lead the Bulldogs.
• She has recorded at least four blocks in all but three matches this season. For the season Watson ranks fourth in the Mountain West with 1.20 blocks per set and is 56th in the nation with 54.0 total blocks.

WCC You Later
• Fresno State played five total matches against teams from the West Coast Conference (WCC), playing at least once against a WCC team in each of the first three weeks of the season.
• The 'Dogs played two WCC teams (San Francisco and Pepperdine) in the first weekend of the season and another (Portland) the following week. The squad faced another WCC team (Saint Mary's) before USF again.

Beating a Tournament Team
• Fresno State earned a win over a 2016 NCAA Tournament team with its 3-1 victory over Alabama State. The Lady Hornets won the SWAC last season to earn the NCAA bid, going 18-0 in league play and 24-9 overall.
• The Bulldogs held the Hornets to .152 hitting in the match and had a 68-56 advantage in digs to beat ASU, which entered the match with a 2-1 record on the season.

Taylor Terrific
• Junior Taylor Slover ranks sixth in the Mountain West averaging 4.04 points per set this season. She was second in NCAA Div. I with 6.60 points per set through the first week of the year.
• In her first match as a full six-rotation player, Slover had career highs of 25 kills and 6 service aces in the 'Dogs season-opening 3-1 win over Utah Valley. She tied for the second most aces in a match in program history and the 5th most kills in a four-set match.

Starting Strong
• The Bulldogs began the season with a victory, beating Utah Valley 3-1 in San Jose, to win their season opener for the seventh time in 10 seasons under head coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell. The 'Dogs opened their season at 2-0 for the second consecutive year.
• With a 3-0 sweep at San Francisco on Aug. 26, the 'Dogs earned a sweep in their first true road match of the season for the third consecutive year, having won 3-0 at Boston College last season and at Western Carolina in 2015.

Rival Win
• In the annual meeting between the two NCAA institutions in Fresno, the Bulldogs of Fresno State held Fresno Pacific to .000 hitting in the match with 10.5 blocks in a 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-17) sweep in an exhibition match last Tuesday.
• The Bulldogs held the Sunbirds to -.034 hitting in the second set and -.033 hitting in the third as FPU, an NCAA Div. II school, finished the night with 27 kills and 27 attack errors.
• Lauren Torres and Haile Watson each had five blocks for Fresno State, which hit .208 in its first home match of the season. Taylor Slover led the way offensively with eight kills
• Since the match was an exhibition the stats accumulated by Fresno State were not counted towards the season statistics.

Aces Aplenty
• After leading the Mountain West and ranking 15th in NCAA Div. I averaging 1.67 service aces per set last season, the 'Dogs are averaging 1.42 aces per set so far this year.
• Fresno State totaled 24 aces in its first three matches (10 sets) of the season while allowing just 13 aces from its opponents.
• The team's 180 total aces in 2016, which were 27th most in Div. I, were the most for the program since the 2002 season.

Juniority
• Fresno State's 2017 roster features nine juniors among 15 total student-athletes.
• The junior class accounts for nearly two-thirds of the roster while no other class has more than three members.
• Among the nine juniors are five returning players and four newcomers, as all four of the team's new transfers this year joined the program as juniors.

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Volleyball opens MW play at defending champ Boise State, Utah State

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Players Mentioned

Aleisha Coates

Madelyn Halteman

Brielle Hefner

Taylor Slover

Lauren Torres

Haile Watson

Fresno State Athletics