Volleyball returns to the Bay Area for three matches

Friday, September 8

Moraga, CA

6:00 PM

Fresno State

Saint Mary's

Volleyball returns to the Bay Area for three matches

9/7/2017 10:44:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

Saint Mary's/USF Challenge
Sep. 8-9, 2017 • at Saint Mary's (Friday) • vs. CSUN/at USF (Saturday)
Video: TheW.TV (Friday at Saint Mary's) • TheW.TV (Saturday at San Francisco)
Live: Live Stats on gobulldogs.com • Live Updates on Twitter (@FresnoStateVB)
Series History: (SMC) FS leads 6-4 • (CSUN) CSUN leads 15-9 • (USF) FS leads 26-4
Next Up: at CSU Bakersfield • Tuesday, Sept. 12 • 6:00 PM

Complete Match Notes (PDF)

Scouting the Tournament
• Saint Mary's has just a 2-4 record but has played one of the toughest schedules in the nation as three of its four losses have come against teams ranked in the Top-12 in Div. I with the other a narrow 3-2 loss against Pittsburgh. The Gaels will be playing their first home match of the season against the Bulldogs on Friday and rank 22nd nationally averaging 2.88 blocks per set with three players averaging more than one block per set.
• CSUN is 4-2 after sweeping a home tournament last week. The Matadors have won four straight matches, including a 3-0 sweep at San Diego State and a 3-1 home win over Pepperdine. Aeryn Owens leads the team with 4.32 kills per set and Rachel Diaz ranks 14th in Div. I with a .468 hitting percentage as the team averages 13.2 kills per set.
• The Bulldogs swept San Francisco 3-0 back on Aug. 26 as Taylor Slover had 18 kills and Fresno State hit .264 and held the Dons to .108 hitting. Since sweeping Nevada 3-0 in its season opener USF has lost six straight matches while winning only two sets, losing all three matches by 3-0 scores in a tournament in North Dakota last weekend. San Francisco ranks last in the West Coast Conference in hitting percentage and opposing hitting percentage as well as kills per set.

Block Party
• Fresno State recorded 21.0 blocks, a program record for a three-set match and the highest block total recorded by an NCAA Div. I team this season, on Tuesday in a 3-0 sweep of 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
• Entering play on Tuesday, the highest single-match blocking number recorded by any team in NCAA Div. I this season was 20.5 and the three-set high was just 17.0. The 'Dogs had five blocks in the first set, nine in the second set, and seven in the third set.
• Fresno State has recorded double-digit blocks in three straight matches and are averaging 4.30 blocks per set in the stretch after averaging 1.79 blocks per set through the first four matches of the year

Big Time Blocker
• On Tuesday 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.
• Watson had four solo blocks, including a stuff on match point, and six block assists to lead the Bulldogs. She has recorded at least five blocks in three straight matches and has at least three blocks in every match this year.
• For the season Watson ranks second in the Mountain West and 20th in NCAA Div. I averaging 1.54 blocks per set.

Running the Runners
• Fresno State has now won eight of its last nine meetings with valley rival CSU Bakersfield. On Tuesday the 'Dogs swept the Roadrunners 3-0 for the fifth time in that nine-match stretch.
• The teams will meet again next Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in Bakersfield.

Seeing a lot of the WCC
• Fresno State plays five total matches against teams from the West Coast Conference (WCC), having played three so far with two more upcoming this weekend.
• The 'Dogs played two WCC teams (San Francisco and Pepperdine) in the first weekend of the season and another (Portland) last week. The squad will face another WCC team (Saint Mary's) on Friday before facing USF again on Saturday. The Bulldogs are 1-2 so far against WCC foes.

Double Double-Doubles
• Sophomore Madelyn Halteman recorded her second double-double in three matches with 31 assists and 10 digs against CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday. She tallied the first Bulldog double-double of the year with 42 assists and 13 digs against Alabama State.
• Halteman now has seven career double-doubles after she tied with Aleisha Coates for the team-lead with five double-doubles during the 2016 season.
• Taylor Slover nearly had a double-double as well against Alabama State as she finished with 15 kills and nine digs. Halteman also was just a dig shy of another double-double with 40 assists and nine digs vs. Portland.

Beating a Tournament Team
• Fresno State earned a win over a 2016 NCAA Tournament team on Friday 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 second in the Mountain West averaging 5.10 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 and is 22nd currently.
• 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.
• Slover has accounted for 122.5 points this season, more than double the next highest total on the team (61.0)

Starting Strong
• The Bulldogs began the season with a win, 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 its 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.

Welcome Aboard
• Of the 15 student-athletes on the Bulldog roster, 14 have seen action over the first two weeks of the season.
• At least one player made their Bulldog debut in each of the first three matches of the season; Emily Dzubak, Reagan Leonard, and Pumehana Nedlic made their debuts in the season opener, Montez Uigaese saw her first court time in the first match on Saturday, and Jessica Gilbert played for the first time as a Bulldog in the second game on Saturday in San Francisco.

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 1.63 aces per set so far this year.
• Fresno State totaled 24 aces in their 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.

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 has just one official home match prior to the start of conference play, against CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday. The meeting with Fresno Pacific last Tuesday was an exhibition.
• Eight of the team's 11 non-conference road matches will take place in California with just one flight trip to Portland.

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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