Cal Poly Opens Big West Play at Long Beach State and UC Irvine
9/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
This Week....: The Mustangs open Big West Conference play this week when the team will travel south to face Long Beach State on Friday, Sept. 21 and UC Irvine on Saturday, Sept. 22. Both matches are scheduled for first serve at 7 pm. Cal Poly enters the week with a 1-10 overall record while LBSU is 5-6 and UCI 5-8. All matches will have live stats available at GoPoly.com.
• For the seventh year, institutions will air all home and conference matches on BigWest.TV, and beginning with the 2012 season, all BigWest.TV events will air free of charge. Head to http://www.bigwest.org/ ...this week for weekly event schedules.
What's coming up: Following the first weekend of Big West play Cal Poly will play a midweek non-conference match on Sept. 25th when the team will travel to Cal State Bakersfield. The Mustangs will return to conference play when they host UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Sept. 29th with first serve set for 7 pm.
A Quick Look at the Teams:
CP LBSU UCI
Record: 1-10 5-6 5-8
BWC Record: 0-0 0-0 0-0
Kills per Set: 11.46 13.00 12.20
Hitting % : .137 .203 .205
Digs per Set: 14.84 16.05 16.02
Blocks per Set: 1.16 2.05 1.92
Service Aces Per Set: 0.68 0.79 1.15
Long Beach State: Long Beach State enters the week 5-6 having picked up wins over Lipscomb, James Madison, Seattle, Arkansas State and Northern Illinois. D. Aigner-Swesey leads the team with 3.21 kills per set while Janisa Johnson helps out with 3.10. Tara Roenicke handles the setting duties averaging 10.69 assists per set while Tyler Jackson averages 4.10 digs.
UC Irvine: The Anteaters enter the week with a 5-8 record and will host UC Santa Barbara before the Mustangs visit. UCI has picked up wins over Oakland, Colgate, San Jose St. Southern Utah and American.... Aly Squires leads the team with 4.12 kills per set while Marisa Bubica adds 3.09... Kristin Winkler is the team leader with 5.09 digs per set...
Franks Earns All-Tournament in Utah Classic: Junior Holly Franks earned all-tournament honors when she averaged 3.45 kills per set... Franks had 17 kills against Utah Valley and 13 against Nevada... In the loss to Utah she tallied eight... For the tournament she hit .202 recording 38 kills on 84 swings....
Others–– at the Tournament: True Freshman Hannah Schleis tallied 27 kills in the three matches (2.45) on 69 swings... Junior middle blocker hit a remarkable .515 with 18 kills on 33 swings... Another true freshman stepped up at the tournament.... Maddie Kuber ... She averaged 2.27 kills, 2.00 digs, 7.36 assists and .64 blocks per set.... The setter/outside hitting recorded her 25 kills on 63 swings.... Junior transfer Steffi Sooter checked in with 4.00 digs per set while Nicole Kessler added 2.18 digs...
Let's be Frank: Cal Poly junior Holly Franks leads the team with 3.03 kills per set... Her 112 kills have come on 283 swings (.191)...
Pon's All-Around... : Senior Molly Pon has shown an all-around game with 50 digs and a 1.35 average per set.... Both her kills, second on the team with 2.19, and digs are up from last season's numbers.. 1.91 kills and 1.28 digs....
True Freshmen Stepping up...: Nicole Kessler, libero, tallied 35 digs in the match with Idaho and is averaging a team-high 3.54 digs per set...... Nicole's aunt, Lynn Kessler, was a standout player for the Mustangs in the 80's under head coach Mike Willton...
Schleis, Getting Comfortable ....: Outside hitter, true freshman, Hannah Schleis found her stride at the Utah Classic when she averaged 2.45 kills per set.... Against Utah Valley she tallied nine kills, 14 against Nevada and four against Utah.... For the season she is averaging 1.67 kills and .61 digs...
Another Freshman..... : Maddie Kuber continues to show her all-around play with 2.27 kills, 7.36 assists, 2.91 digs and 0.64 blocks per set at the Utah Classic .. For the season Kuber checks in with 1.96 kills, 5.35 assists, 2.15 digs and 0.50 blocks...
Playing the Best.... : The Mustangs have faced the No. 2 team (Texas) and the No. 19 team (San Diego) in the first week of the season.... Two weeks later the Mustangs faced No. 5 USC and No. 17 San Diego (again)... During the BWC season Cal Poly will face No. 7 Hawai'i twice and Pacific twice, who is receiving votes....
Missing in Action.... : Jennifer Keddy, a two-time AVCA All-America selection, was named the 2011 Big West Conference Player of the Year when she led the conference with 4.06 kills per set is sidelined for the season with a shoulder injury. The 6-4 middle blocker was also third in hitting percentage with a .339 clip and blocks with a 1.22 average. Keddy's 4.85 points per set average ranks first in the Big West and 22nd in the nation. Her all-around skills include 1.76 digs per set with her career-high 19 coming against UC Irvine. She was also selected for the national A2 team.
• In 2012, Big West volleyball expands to 10 teams with the addition of the University of Hawai'i. The Rainbow Wahine competed in the Big West from 1985-95 and posted a 165-31 Big West record and an overall mark of 302-68.
... The Mustangs have not made a postseason since the 2007 season... Overall the team has made 14 appearances and post a 13-14 overall record.
Triple -Double.... : True freshman Maddie Kuber led the team to a five set win over Idaho this past week when she tallied a triple-doulbe with 15 kills, 30 assists and 10 digs.... Her kills came on 38 swings (.184) while adding one solo block and three assisted blocks...
Utah Classic Recap: SALT LAKE CITY, UT – In the second match of the Utah Classic Cal Poly lost for the second time on Friday when the team dropped a four set match to Utah Valley, 3-1, on Friday. Earlier in the day Cal Poly lost in three sets to Utah. Set scores in the loss to Utah Valley went 26-28, 26-24, 25-21 and 30-28. In the loss to Utah earlier in the day set scores went 25-13, 25-23 and 25-21. Junior Holly Fanks led the team with 17 kills while senior Molly Pon had 12 kills with middle blocker Marianne Gera adding 10 kills in the loss. Hanna Schleis contributed nine kills with Megan McConnell adding eight kill s and 12 digs. Freshman Maddie Kuber had 41 assists with five kills and 15 digs with Kate Walters adding 11 assists and three digs. Junior Steffi Sooter led the team with 22 digs while freshman Nicole Kessler added 12 digs. As a team Cal Poly hit ,168 compared to Utah Valley's ,140 with the Mustangs holding a 14-11 advantage in team blocks. In the first match of the Utah Classic, Cal Poly lost to host Utah on Friday afternoon to set scores of 25-13, 25-23 and 25-21. Franks led the team with eight kills on 16 swings. Schleis and senior Pon each added four kills. McConnell and Gera helped out with three kills each. Sooter led the team with 11 digs with Kuber adding nine. Kuber and junior Walter had 13 and 11 assists respectively. Kuber also recorded a team-high five assisted blocks with Gera credited with four. In Saturday's match the Cal Poly volleyball team lost in four sets in a hard fought battle to Nevada in the final day of competition at the Utah Classic on Saturday. Set scores went 15-25, 26-24, 26-24 and 26-24. Cal Poly took an early lead in the match with a dominating first set win, but dropped the next three sets, all by scores of 26-24. The Mustangs battled in each of the sets and came from by behind in two of the sets to put themselves in position to win. A pair of true freshman, Maddie Kuber and Hannah Schleis, led the team with 14 kills each while junior Holley Franks added 13 kills. Franks was the lone Mustang selected to the all-tournament team. Senior Molly Pon added nine kills with junior Marianne Gera contributing with five. Kuber nearly made it her second triple-double with a team-high 27 assists and eight digs while junior Kate Walters tallied 25 assists and 10 digs. Junior Steffi Sooter led the team with 11 digs.
