Volleyball Travels to CS Northridge for ESPN3 Big West Match
11/12/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
First Serve: Cal Poly returns to the road for a pair of Big West Conference matches this week when the team travels to Cal State Northridge and UC Davis.
The match with the Matadors is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 14 with first serve set for 7 pm. The game has been added to the ESPN3 network and can be viewed through the ESPN web site.
Following the match with the Matadors, Cal Poly will travel North to play UC Davis on Saturday, Nov. 16 with first serve set for 2 pm.
Cal Poly enters the week 10-13 overall and 4-6 in Big West Conference matches. This will be the fourth time in six week the Mustangs have faced the conference-leading team. Cal State Northridge enters the match with the Mustangs with a overall record of 21-4 and a conference-leading 11-1 Big West record.
UC Davis will host UC Santa Barbara on Thursday before the Mustangs come to visit on Saturday. The Aggies enter the week 14-11 overall and 6-6 in Big West matches.
For the Mustangs it has been a season of runs, picking up thee-straight at the Sacramento State tournament. Concluding the Arizona State tournament with a pair of wins and opening Big West play with wins over Long Beach State and UC Irvine. After four losses in conference play the Mustangs picked up a pair of wins on the road over Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside...
Senior Chelsea Hardin returned to the lineup for the first time in five matches after suffering a hand injury and responded with six kills against Hawai'i. Sophomore Hannah Schleis led the team with seven kills while freshman Taylor Gruenewald had six. Senior Marianne Gera responded with five kills on 11 swings (.455) and added a pair of blocks.
A Quick Look at the Teams:
CP CSUN UCD
Record: 10-13 21-4 14-11
BWC 4-6 11-1 6-6
Kills: 12.73 13.92 13.08
Hitting %: .202 .271 .213
Digs: 14.18 13.12 15.95
Blocks: 1.84 2.48 1.91
Ser. Aces: 1.31 1.09 1.33
TV: Thursday's match at Cal State Northridge will be part of the ESPN3 production ... Trent Schlom will be calling the play by play with former UC Irvine, Whitney Pavlik, on color. Sanaz Tavassol will serve as the sideline reporter.
What's Coming up: Following the road trip to Cal State Northridge and UC Davis, Cal Poly will return home for the team's final home stand. The Mustangs will host UC Riverside on Nov. 22 followed by Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 23.... Prior to the match with the Titans, Cal Poly will honor the teams seniors in a brief ceremony.
Cal State Northridge: The Matadors enter the match with the Mustangs on Thursday with a 21-4 overall record and post a conference-leading 11-1 mark. The team's lone conference loss came at the hands of UC Santa Barbara (3-0). CSUN defeated the Mustangs in five sets on Oct. 19 (27-25, 26-28, 22-25, 25-18 and 15-11) after the Mustangs were held a 2-1 lead. CSUN has four players averaging better then two kills per set led by Casey Hinger with 2.92 kills. Mahina Haina adds 2.81 while Natalie Allen checks in with 2.80. Sydney Gedryn hands out the assists at 10.39 per set while Kelcie Randazzo leads the team with 3.71 digs per set. Hinger plays big at the net leading the team with 1.08 blocks per set. Cal Poly leads the all-time series, 27-22, including the loss earlier this season.
UC Davis: UC Davis enters the week with a 14-11 overall record and post a 6-6 mark in conference matches. UCD will host UC Santa Barbara on Thursday before the Mustangs come to visit. Devon Damello leads the team with 3.08 kills per set with Kaylin Squyres adding 2.86 per set. Jenny Woolway dishes out the assists at 10.27 per set with Megan Lancaster leading the team in digs, 3.55 per set. UC Davis is an impressive 7-1 at home this season with the team's lone loss coming in four sets to Long Beach State. Cal Poly holds a 10-8 advantage in the all-time series including a four set loss to UCD on Oct. 18.
A Season of Ups and Downs... : This season has been a series of runs for the Mustangs... both up and down.... Cal Poly opened the season with the one exception when the team went 1-2 a the Northern Colorado/Colorado State Tournament... The Mustangs followed that tournament up with three wins at the Sacramento State tourney... That was followed up with five-straight losses against three ranked teams and two that were receiving votes... Cal Poly concluded the Arizona State tourney with a pair of wins and carried that into the conference season with two more... That four-match win streak was followed four straight losses before picking up a pair of wins over Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside...
Welcome Return: Senior Chelsea Hardin is a welcome return to the lineup after going down with a hand injury in the first set against UC Davis (Oct. 18). Hardin missed the next four matches and returned this past week against Hawai'i... Hardin left the team when she was leading the team in kills per set and hitting percentage.... In the match with Hawai'i she tallied six kills while adding an assisted block. For the season she averages 3.06 kills per set while hitting .281... In conference matches she averages 3.35 kills and hits .233.....
McConnell's Way..: Senior outside hitter Megan McConnell continues to set the pace for the team... This past week she added just three kills and three digs in the match with Hawai'i, but her all-around game is still impressive... Overall the senior averages 2.94 kills and 2.57 digs per set.. Her game includes 24 assists, 17 aces and 29 total blocks... In conference matches she averages 2.94 kills and 2.51 digs.... She has served up a team-high 12 aces with 17 total blocks...
In Big West Conference Play: Since BWC play opened (with Chelsea Hardin not meeting the requirements) freshman Taylor Gruenewald leads the team with a .301 hitting percentage and is sixth in BWC standings... Senior Megan McConnell is 10th with 2.94 kills per set with sophomore Maddie Kuber fifth in assists (10.09)... In aces per set, senior Jennifer Keddy leads the conference with 0.50, but Keddy has been sidelined the rest of the season... McConnell is fifth with 0.34 aces per set... Senior Steffi Sooter is third in digs in the conference with 4.04 per set...
Overall in Stats.... : Overall Taylor Gruenewald is eighth hitting .295.... Chelsea Hardin is sixth in kills with 3.06 while Maddie Kuber is sixth in assists with 9.50...
Where is the Team: Cal Poly is seventh in the conference in hitting percentage (.202) and is sixth in kills (12.73)... The Mustangs are fifth in assists (11.94), third in aces (1.31) and seventh in blocks (1.84)...
Turnaround Season: Things are looking up for the Mustangs in the 2013 season. So far this year, Cal Poly has more then doubled its overall win total from 2012 (4-26) with a 10-13 record. In conference, the Mustangs have eclipsed last season's total by one win with a 4-6 record.
Missing in Action : What Cal Poly is missing this season and missed last season... 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. 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.
This season she appeared in 47 sets and averaged 1.74 kills and 1.00 blocks before her season ended with a foot injury...
A Dig or Two... : Senior Steffi Sooter seems to have found her form from a year ago when she averaged 3.09 digs per set... In the 10 BWC matches she recorded 141 digs and a per set average of 4.03.... For the season she averages 3.08 digs per set...
A Nice Surprise: True freshman Anna Gorman had the hot hand in the two Big West Conference wins over Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside. Gorman tallied 15 and 11 kills respectively and averaged 3.71 kills while hitting .247 for the two matches... It was her first match of the season at outside hitter.... Her previous experience came when she served in each of her previous matches.
Another Newcomer... : Freshman Lexi Reddick saw her first action in a Mustang uniform in the match with UC Santa Barbara. Reddick played the final two sets and tallied three kills and a pair of assisted blocks...
Big Opening in Big West...: The Mustangs opened Big West Conference play 2-0 for the first time since 2010 season...
Setting it Up...: Second-year head coach Sam Crosson has made the use of two setters this season with sophomore Maddie Kuber playing 64 sets and junior Shannon Garrett 40 sets.... Kuber dishes out 9.50 assists per set while Garrett hands out 6.75 assists... Kuber and Garrett also check in with 1.75 and 1.27 digs per set respectively.... In BWC matches Kuber dishes out 10.09 assists per set...
Nice to be Home...: After opening the season with 13 matches on the road... Cal Poly returned home with a pair of wins in front of some nice crowds... In the conference opener against UC Irvine, 1,383 fans were there to watch the three set win... The next night the fans backed it up with 1,023 against Long Beach State.... In the team's six home matches the Mustangs have played in front of an averaged of 1,016 fans per match.
Schleis-ing it up....: Sophomore Hannah Schleis is third on the team with 2.70 kills per set ... She tallied a season high 20 kills in the win over Baylor... At the ASU tournament, she tallied 11 kills on 23 swings (.435) in the win over Alabama State and 16 kills in the win over Louisiana-Monroe.... In conference play she averages 2.66 kills while hitting .184...
Who is are the Opponents...: Currently there are six teams on this year's schedule who are ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll.... Stanford is currently the top ranked opponent at No. 6 with Colorado State at No. 10... Hawai'i is ranked No. 12, Cal at No. 20... and Cal State Northridge in the polls at No. 21.... Arizona State is receiving votes....
ASU All-Tournament: True freshman Tayor Gruenewald and senior Chelsea Hardin earned all-tournament honors when they each tallied 38 kills in the three-set tournament... Gruenewald averaged 3.17 kills while hitting .318.. She added eight total kills... For Gruenwald it was her second all-tournament selection (Sacramento State Tournament) this season... Hardin averaged 3.17 kills while hitting .438... It was also her second all-tournament selection (Sacramento State Tournament)...
ASU Tournament II : Steffi Sooter averaged 4.58 digs per set at the ASU tourney... She tallied a total of 55 digs in the three matches... For the season she has 118 digs (2.41)....
Cal Tournament by the Numbers: Senior Chelsea Hardin led the team in the three matches at the Cal tournament this past weekend with 3.30 kills while hitting .247. Megan McConnell added 2.70 kills and 2.90 digs with Jen Keddy recording 2.40 kills and 0.80 blocks.
Breaking it Down by Class...: Seniors 6 -- Kate Walters, Megan McConnell, Jennifer Keddy, Chelsea Hardin, Steffi Sooter and Marianne Gera..
Juniors 2 -- Stacia Williams and Shannon Garrett...
Sophomores 4 --Hannah Schleis, Katie Conroy, Nicole Kessler and Maddie Kuber...
Freshman 6 -- Shannon Fouts, Kristen Witous, Taylor Gruenewald, Anna Gorman, Lexi Reddick, Lauren Pluim...
Sophomore Step in Time...: Sophomore Nicole's Kessler is a bit of a legacy when it comes to Cal Poly... Aunt, Lynn Kessler, was a standout player for the Mustangs in the 80's under head coach Mike Wilton...
McConnell is the MVP: Cal Poly senior Megan McConnell powered the Mustangs to the Sacramento State Tournament Championship by going undefeated in the tourney (3-0). She tallied 44 kills on 129 swings in the tournament (.225), including a career-high 20 kills in the win over San Jose State. She added a pair of double-doulbes in the tournament. Her all-around game included eight assists, two aces and four total blocks.
All-Tournament: Senior Chelsea Hardin earned all-tournament honors at the Sac State tourney... In the three matches she averaged 2.83 kills while hitting .389 in the 12 sets. She also added five assisted blocks... She led the team with 18 kills against Sacramento State and had 13 kills on 17 swings (.647) against Central Connecticut State...
All-Tournament II: True freshman Taylor Gruenewald also was selected to the all-tournament team at the Sac State tourney... In the three matches she averaged 2.42 kills and 0.75 blocks per set... Her kills came on 53 swings (eight errors), hitting .396 in the tourney... In the five-set win over Sac State, Gruenewald tallied 13 kills that came on 21 swings (one error) for a .571 hitting percentage. She also recorded four total blocks (one solo) in the match.
