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Weekly Volleyball Release: 11/11
Colorado State at Utah highlights schedule.
Nov. 11, 2002
Complete Release in PDF Format
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Colorado State regained the lead in the conference standings headed into the final week of league play as the Rebels upset San Diego State, knocking the Aztecs out of first place. Since the start of the 2000 season, Colorado State has had at least a share of the top spot in the league standings all 23 weeks. CSU posted 13-1 MWC marks the past two seasons en route to regular season titles both years. Utah and SDSU are now tied for second with identical 9-3 MWC records. The Rams travel to Utah and BYU this week, while SDSU travels to New Mexico and Air Force. The Utes will look to extend their 28-match home win streak by finishing the league schedule at home with CSU and Wyoming. MWC CHAMPIONSHIP DRAWS NEAR The fourth annual Mountain West Conference Volleyball Championship will take place Nov. 21-23 at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo. All MWC Championship matches will be televised, including the title match on Fox Sports Net Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. MST. The MWC has produced three different conference tournament champions the past three years (CSU-1999, BYU-2000, Utah-2001). ON THE HOME COURT The home team was 5-1 last week in MWC matches. Utah, 12-0 at home this year, closes out regular season MWC play this week with a 13-match home conference win streak on the line. The Utes have won 28 straight overall at Crimson Court. League-leading Colorado State has won five of its last six at Moby Arena and sports a 10-4 home record this season. San Diego State finished the year on a seven-match home win streak. UNLV has won four of its last five at home. Overall, the MWC posted a 27-16 home record in non-conference matches this season. In MWC matches, the home team was 29-19. GRAND ATTENDANCE BYU became the third MWC team to top 2,000 fans for a single match this season after totaling 2,194 Friday at Smith Fieldhouse for the Utah match. Wyoming reached 2,231 at Arena Auditorium for the Colorado State match Oct. 25, while CSU topped 2,000 twice this season (vs. Long Beach State Sept. 5 and vs. Utah Oct. 19). Five of the eight MWC teams reached the 1,000-mark for attendance in a single match this year. Colorado State (16) and Wyoming (23) are ranked in the nation's top 25 for attendance this season. 20 WIN SEASONS This year, for the first time in league history, four teams could reach 20 wins. Utah notched its seventh straight 20-win campaign with a win over BYU last week, while Wyoming reached 20 wins for the first time since 1989. With a pair of victories, San Diego State would reach its first 20-win campaign since 1996. BYU, Colorado State and Utah notched 20 victories each of the first three years in the MWC and qualified for NCAA Tournament play. WEEK FIVE QUICK HITS (Nov. 11) Air Force -- The Falcons fell to 2-10 in the MWC after dropping road matches at Wyoming and Colorado State last week. Sophomore Lamecca Jefferson has topped 10 kills in each of her last three outings, including 14 kills vs. Wyoming and 11 vs. Colorado State. Freshman Kristin Hamlett tallied 18 kills and a .500 hitting percentage vs. Wyoming. In her last three matches, Hamlett is hitting .418 with 3.75 kills per game. With 946 career kills, Diaz is approaching the 1,000 kill mark and could hit it this season. Junior setter Kristin Huitt is climbing in the record books and currently ranks seventh on the Falcon all-time assist chart with 2,251 assists. The Falcons will look to snap a nine-match losing streak this week when they host UNLV and San Diego State. With one more win this season, the Falcons will surpass their win total for the last two years combined (8). BYU -- BYU dropped a match to instate rival Utah, marking the first time in the history of the series that the Utes swept the Cougars. BYU hit just .174, but held Utah to a .188 percentage--the first team to do so since Colorado State held the Utes to .149. Junior Karina Puikkonen continued solid play for BYU and posted her sixth double-double of the season with 46 assists and 12 digs. True freshman Kim Wilson netted a match-high 16 kills vs. Utah. Wilson has now led the Cougars in kills in five of their last seven matches. Carrie Bowers set a career-high with nine digs and Sahara Castillo tied a career-high with 11 digs vs. Utah. BYU finishes the conference season by hosting Wyoming and Colorado State. The Cougars need a split this week to ensure a non-losing record in conference play. In 33 years of volleyball, BYU has never had a losing season in conference play. Colorado State -- The Rams have won nine of their last 11 matches, including two straight after sweeping New Mexico and Air Force last week. Tess Rogers set the Mountain West Conference record for kills by a freshman this weekend. The true freshman has tallied 343 kills in 26 matches and in conference play has 175 kills, breaking the conference records of 326 and 155, respectively, both held by Delavane Diaz of Air Force from 2000. Rogers is also just two kills shy of breaking the CSU freshman kills record of 344 held by Angie Miller in 1988. With five service aces in the two matches over the weekend, Andreya Downs now has 54 on the season and needs just five more to break the school record of 58 by Sherri Danielson in 1984. CSU is in first place in the MWC standings headed into the final weekend of conference play at Utah and BYU. The Rams currently have winning streaks against five of seven MWC opponents (Air Force, New Mexico, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming). New Mexico -- The Lobos have dropped their last four matches, including setbacks to Colorado State and Wyoming last week. Junior outside hitter Anna Reines hit .349 for the weekend series and averaged 4.29 kills per game. Reines also recorded double figure kills against Colorado State (19) and Wyoming (11). After switching from libero to outside hitter, senior Blaire Burns tallied a career-high 13 kills vs. Wyoming. Burns also had a team-high 13 digs vs. Colorado State, marking the 16th time she reached double figure digs this season. Freshman Chelsea Sondrup ranks fifth on the school's single season block assist chart with 90. The Lobos host San Diego State and UNLV this week to wrap up the 2002 conference season. San Diego State -- The Aztecs fell from atop the MWC standings after last week's defeat at UNLV. San Diego State hit a conference season low .016 vs. the Rebels, while also being outblocked 9.5 to 4.0. Zlatina Anguelova led SDSU with 11 kills, marking the seventh straight match in double figure kills since returning from an injury. SDSU is still tied with Utah for second in the league and has hopes of sharing the regular season conference title, but it will need help from BYU or Utah. In the meantime, the Aztecs must win road matches this week at New Mexico and Air Force to finish no lower than second in the standings. A sweep this week would give the Aztecs their best conference record since 1997 (11-3). UNLV -- The Rebels picked up a big win over San Diego State last week as Leiana Oswald tallied a conference season-high 19 kills in the match. Including a five-game loss to Northern Arizona, Oswald recorded 49 kills and hit over .300 last week. Her 20 kills and 18 digs vs. NAU marked her fourth double-double of the season. Four Rebels totaled three or more blocks as UNLV outblocked SDSU 9.5 to 4.0. The Rebels snapped their 10-match losing streak by winning five of their last eight matches. UNLV travels to Air Force and New Mexico this week and with a sweep, the Rebels would attain their best conference record since joining the MWC. Utah -- Utah has the league's longest win streak at six matches after upending BYU last week. The win over the Cougars marked the first time Utah defeated the Cougars twice in conference play in the same season in series history. Senior Sylva Strzinková led the Utes with 15 kills and 11 digs, marking her league-best 27th career double-double. Junior Kim Turner totaled 14 kills, 16 digs, four aces and eight blocks, giving her eight double-doubles this year. Turner and Strzinková rank second and third, respectively, in the MWC for kills. Junior Jackie Morrill tallied a career-high 18 digs vs. BYU and currently ranks sixth in the MWC with 2.98 digs per game. Utah could play itself into a share of the MWC regular season title--which would be the school's first--with a sweep this week over Colorado State and Wyoming.
Wyoming -- The Cowgirls snapped a three-match losing streak with wins over Air Force and New Mexico last week. With last week's victories, Wyoming reached 20 wins in a season for the first time since 1989. Junior Michele Rauter recorded her 23rd and 24th double figure kill matches of the season. For her career, she has 54 double-figure kill matches and needs only six kills to reach 1,000 for her career. Her 994 ranks eighth in school history. Sophomore setter Amy Doman currently has 2225 career assists, which is sixth all-time in school history. Only five other Cowgirls have 2,000 or more assists in their career. As a team, Wyoming set the MWC single match record for aces with 16 vs. New Mexico, breaking the old mark of 15 held by UNM and Wyoming from the same match - Oct. 13, 2001. The Cowgirls close out the regular season at BYU and Utah this week.
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