Bulldogs open season Friday at GBD Invite

Friday, August 30

Green Bay, WI

11:00 AM PT

Fresno State

Ohio

Bulldogs open season Friday at GBD Invite

8/29/2019 11:06:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Fresno State Notes (PDF)

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

Fresno State vs. Ohio
Aug. 30, 2019 • 11:00 AM PT • Kress Center (4,000) • Green Bay, Wisc.
Watch: None
Live: Live Stats • Live Updates on Twitter (@FresnoStateVB)
Series History • Streak • Last : First Meeting

Fresno State vs. Indiana State
Aug. 31, 2019 • 9:00 AM PT • Kress Center (4,000) • Green Bay, Wisc.
Watch: None
Live: Live Stats • Live Updates on Twitter (@FresnoStateVB)
Series History • Streak • Last : First Meeting

Fresno State at Green Bay
Aug. 31, 2019 • 4:00 PM PT • Kress Center (4,000) • Green Bay, Wisc.
Watch: ESPN+ (Requires Subscription)
Live: Live Stats • Live Updates on Twitter (@FresnoStateVB)
Series History • Streak • Last : FS Leads 2-1 • FS W 1 • FS 3-0 (8/29/09)

Bulldog Bones

With five returners and 10 newcomers the Bulldogs look to build off their best season in 16 years
In 2018 the 'Dogs finished in second in the MW and won their first postseason match since 1995
Fresno State returns a pair of 2018 All-MW selections in Madelyn Halteman and Reagan Leonard
The Bulldogs have started 2-0 or better in three straight years and won 8 of their last 11 openers
Fresno State will face Ohio and Indiana State for the first time and last played Green Bay in 2009

By The Numbers
22 - Wins by Fresno State last season, the most since 2002, in the first season under head coach Jonathan Winder
8 - Consecutive wins in Fresno State's first true road match of the year dating back to 2010
24 - Total blocks by the Bulldogs in just four sets in the Red-Blue Scrimmage last Friday

Scouting Ohio (2018: 13-18, 7-9 MAC)

Ohio finished in fourth place in the East division of the Mid-American Conference last year but has won nine league titles since 2003 and reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2005.
The Bobcats led the MAC in aces and were second in blocks last season but were last in the league averaging only 14.90 digs per set. Ohio returners 13 letterwinners with 10 newcomers.
Senior Lizzie Stephens ranked second on the team in both kills and aces last season, finishing 18th in the nation in aces. Junior setter Vera Giacomazzi was third in the MAC in assists in 2018.

Scouting Indiana State (2018: 10-20, 3-15 MVC)

Indiana State has had three straight losing seasons in which it won 11 or fewer matches each year. The team finished ninth in the Missouri Valley last year and was picked eighth in 2019.
The Sycamores ranked third to last in NCAA Div. I averaging 0.81 aces per set last year. The squad lost its leaders in kills, blocks, and assists from 2018 and have seven freshmen this year.
Senior Jade York returns after leading the team with 479 total digs in 2018. She is one of five returning starters for Indiana State, whose roster features three Canadian players this year.

Scouting Green Bay (2018: 20-11, 13-3 HOR)

Green Bay is the defending Horizon League champion after recording its first league title since 2003. The team was swept by Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Phoenix return reigning Horizon League Player of the Year Taylor Wolf, who led the conference in kills and points last year, as well as the league's 2018 Setter of the Year Maddie Yoss.
Green Bay led its conference in kills per set and hitting percentage last year. The Bulldogs and Phoenix have met three times before with the last meeting a 3-0 Fresno State win in 2009.

2019 Openers

Fresno State looks to build off one of the best seasons in program history with five returners and 10 newcomers entering the 2019 season.
The 2018 Bulldogs, who finished 22-11 overall and 13-5 in the MW, had a record-high second place MW finish, recorded the program's most wins since 2002, and earned the team's first postseason victory since 1995 in their first season under head coach Jonathan Winder.
Though the 'Dogs lost four starters and nine total players from 2018 they return a pair of All-MW selections in senior setter Madelyn Halteman and junior libero Reagan Leonard.
Among the 10 newcomers are four true freshmen and six transfers, three of which began their collegiate careers at Power 5 schools with two Pac-12 school transfers

Starting Strong

The Bulldogs have won their season opener in eight of the last 11 seasons. The 'Dogs have also started 2-0 in each of the last three seasons, extending to a 3-0 start last year.
Fresno State has an even more impressive winning streak in its first true road game of the season, having won eight straight road openers with sweeps in three of the last four. The last time the 'Dogs lost their first road game of the season was at Utah Valley in 2010.
Last year the 'Dogs began the season 7-1, their best record through eight matches since 2002.

Red-Blue Recap

The Bulldogs took to the court for the first time last Friday as they hosted an intrasquad Red-Blue scrimmage in front of fans and alumni in the Save Mart Center.
Most of the Bulldogs played for both sides as the teams changed for each of the four close and competitive sets, with the Blue winning 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-23).
The Bulldogs combined for 24.0 team blocks in the match with newcomers Rebecca Rendahl tallying 12.0 and McKenzie Kramer totaling 10.0. Amilya Thompson led the way with 17 kills, Madelyn Halteman had 46 assists and 13 digs, and Reagan Leonard recorded 22 digs in the match.

Underestimated Again?

Fresno State was picked to finish sixth in the 2019 preseason MW Coaches' Poll despite finishing second in the league last year.
In the 2018 preseason poll the 'Dogs were picked seventh and ended up second. If they move up five spots again from the preseason poll to the actual final standings they would win their first MW title in 2019.

She Can Dig It

Junior Reagan Leonard was a 2018 All-MW Honorable Mention selection and was named to the 2019 Preseason All-MW team, becoming just the second Bulldog ever named to the Preseason All-MW team since Fresno State joined the conference in 2012.
Leonard broke the single-season program record with 605 digs last year, topping the previous high mark of 573 digs set by current Fresno State assistant coach Maggie Eppright in 2015.
In her first season as the team's starting Libero Leonard led the MW in total digs and was second in digs per set while also breaking the single-match program digs record.

Pride Of The Valley

Fresno State's historic 2018 season was largely fueled by five starters and six total players who remained in the Central Valley.
The 'Dogs will heavily rely upon home-grown talent again in 2019 as two of those starters, Madelyn Halteman (Turlock) and Jocelyn Rodriguez (Clovis), are back and the team added five more Central Valley players in Amaria Kelley (Sacramento), Mikayla Weiss (Clovis), Savanah Smith (Roseville), Amilya Thompson (Stockton), and Julia Handy (Hilmar).

Setting Star

Madelyn Halteman, the longest tenured Bulldog and the lone fifth-year senior on the 2019 roster, enters her final season after ranking second in the MW with 9.88 assists per set to earn her first All-MW selection last year.
Halteman led the 2018 team to a .230 hitting percentage, third best in a season in program history, while also leading the team with 38 aces and tallying 11 double-doubles.
She begins her senior season ranked fifth in program history with 2,883 career assists.

Global Experience

After just one season as a MW head coach Jonathan Winder was selected to lead the MW All-Star team at the annual Global Challenge tournament in Croatia in July.
Winder had a familiar face on the roster as Madelyn Halteman was chosen for the team, becoming the fifth Bulldog in the last six years to represent the 'Dogs internationally.
Among the MW team's seven matches in the tournament was a historic matchup with the Iranian Senior National Team, which only recently has been allowed to compete in public.

Powered Up

Fresno State added six transfers for the 2019 season and three of them began their careers at Power 5 schools.
Savanah Smith played her freshman season at Washington State, helping lead the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament and tallying seven kills in a postseason win over Florida State, before staring at American River College last year.
Two other Bulldogs redshirted at Power 5 schools as freshmen in 2018 with Julia Handy starting at Arizona and Rebecca Rendahl at Minnesota, which was ranked as high as No. 1 in the nation last year and made the Sweet 16.

Tough Schedule

Fresno State faces many daunting challenges in its 2019 season with significant travel and eight matches against fellow 2018 postseason teams.
Two of the team's three non-conference road tournaments will be hosted by teams that won their conference and qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season, starting this week at Horizon League champion Green Bay.
The 'Dogs play three total 2018 NCAA Tournament teams (Green Bay, Northern Arizona, Colorado State) and two NIVC teams as well as an SEC foe in LSU.

Winning on the Road

The Bulldogs went 9-4 in true road matches last year and broke the program record for road MW wins going 7-2.
The 'Dogs won seven MW road matches after the 2016 and 2017 teams combined to go 2-16 in road MW contests (both were 1-8).
Fresno State ended the season with a winning road record for the first time since 2013.
The 'Dogs were also 4-3 in neutral site matches last year.

-- For the full news and notes release, click on the Fresno State Notes link at the top of the page.

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