Riverside—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team hosts a pair of matches on ESPN3 in the SRC Arena this week. The Highlanders will honor breast cancer awareness with "Think Pink Night" on Friday, October 14th, when they face UC Santa Barbara, and on Saturday, they'll entertain the Cal Poly Mustangs. Both matches being at 7pm PT.
UC Riverside (5-11, 0-4) is still searching for its first Big West conference victory of the 2016 season. The team has taken the first set in three of four conference matches, however they have dropped sets 2-4 in each of the aforementioned contests.
Brooke Callahan
(Bishop, CA) had 15 kills in the home opener versus Long Beach State (
box score/
recap) on October 5th, and Mickayla Sherman
(Antioch, CA) logged 17 kills in a defeat against UC Irvine (
box score/
recap) on October 8th.
Sherman leads the team with 178 total kills. Meg Graham
(Augora Hills, CA) remains the squad's most efficient hitter at .268, and is also the squad's top blocker at 0.83 per set.
Maddie Hubbell
(Bakersfield, CA) patrols the defensive back row averaging 4.17 digs per set, which ranks fourth in the Big West.
UC Santa Barbara will arrives in the inland empire at 11-7 overall, and 2-3 in the conference after splitting last week's home matches. They picked up a four-set victory over UC Davis, and were swept by Cal Poly.
The Gauchos have three players leading the conference in key statistical categories; freshman Lindsey Ruddins, averages 4.12 kills per set, Phoebe Grunt is hitting .394, and Emily Petrachi digs up 4.54 attempts per set.
Grunt averages 0.98 blocks per set, and Hannah Juley dishes out 9.54 assists per set, both figures rank fourth in the Big West.
Chanel Hoffman (208) and Ruddins (210) are one of four tandems in the conference with over 200 kills each this season.
In last year's meeting at the SRC Arena, the Highlanders snapped a seven-match losing streak to UCSB with a 3-0 sweep of the Gauchos. UCR trails in the overall series 4-43-2 (
all-time results).
Cal Poly (10-6, 3-2) enters the week on a three-match winning streak, after dropping its first two Big West matches to conference leaders Long Beach State and Hawai'i. Last week the Mustangs swept both of their opponents—UC Irvine at home, and UC Santa Barbara on the road.
The Mustangs also have a duo that has amassed over 200 kills each in Adlee Van Widen (217) and Raeann Greilsen (200). The squads most efficient hitter is Taylor Gruenewald, who has tallied 143 kills while connecting at a .387 clip—second-best in the conference.
Taylor Nelson orchestrates an offense that ranks second in the league with a .243 team hitting percentage, and she averages a Big West-leading 11.41 assists per set.
Cal Poly leads the overall series 22-10, and has won four straight, including sweeps in the last two meetings (
all-time results).
GAME NOTES
RECORD BREAKERS, HISTORY MAKERS
The Highlanders had five wins in conference play last year, besting the 2003, 2005 and 2011 squads for the most Big West victories in program history.
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| Year |
W |
L |
Pct |
| 2015 |
5 |
11 |
.313 |
| 2005 |
4 |
10 |
.286 |
| 2011 |
4 |
12 |
.250 |
| 2003 |
4 |
14 |
.222 |
INDY 500
The Highlanders 3-2 victory over Cal State Fullerton on September 25, 2015 was witnessed by 510 rabid UC Riverside fans—the ninth highest attended match in the Division I history of the program ... or rather the 10th highest, as 629 fans attended the team's match against #10 Hawai'i on October 3.
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| Date |
Opponent |
Att. |
| September 24, 2011 |
CSUN |
745 |
| September 27, 2014 |
Hawai'i (#25) |
731 |
| October 3, 2015 |
Hawai'i (#10) |
629 |
| October 27, 2001 |
Long Beach State |
625 |
| September 21, 2012 |
Hawai'i (#7) |
594 |
| October 4, 2002 |
Long Beach State |
586 |
| October 26, 2001 |
UC Irvine |
575 |
| September 3, 2008 |
UCLA (#6) |
535 |
| November 17, 2001 |
Cal State Fullerton |
513 |
| September 25, 2015 |
Cal State Fullerton |
510 |
AND NEW ...
The Highlanders welcome 11 new players to the fold—nine freshman and two transfers. The 2016 squad returns seven letter winners and five starters, led by All-Conference honorees Maddie Hubbell and Chelsea Doyle along with Fabiana Rosas, Meg Graham and Cristina Maietta.
BLUE AND GOLD DIGGER
As a sophomore in 2014, Maddie Hubbell ranked eighth in the Big West in digs per set with 3.59. Last season, she led the conference in total digs (525) and in digs per set (4.91), earning her First Team All-Conference honors.
This season, Hubbell is averaging 4.17 digs per set. Should she maintain that average, she will land in the top-10 of the single-season digs per set ranks in the program's Division I history.
She was twice named Big West Defensive Player of the Week in 2015—August 31-September 6 and November 7-13. In 2016, she picked up the award in the season's opening weekend August 26-27. (
story)
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| Digs Per Set (min. 100) |
| Sheryl Benson |
5.7 |
1988 |
| Leanna Clark |
5.1 |
1988 |
| Melanie Jones |
5.0 |
1987 |
| Maddie Hubbell |
4.91 |
2015 |
| Janna Stern |
4.5 |
1998 |
ALL-TOURNEY TEAMS
This season Fabiana Rosas and Maddie Hubbell were named to the Cal Molten Classic All-Tournament Team (
story), Chelsea Doyle was named to the All-Tournament in Utah State Invitational
(story), and Meg Graham was selected to the Roadrunner Classic All-Tournament Team (
story).
SWEPT UP
Last season, UCR had four victories by way of the 3-0 sweep—September 4th vs. Grand Canyon, September 12th vs Central Michigan, November 7th at Cal State Fullerton, and November 14th at home against UC Santa Barbara. The 2005 squad set the DI mark with nine victories in three frames.
see results
The Highlanders have two sweeps to their credit in 2016—August 26th vs. Southern Utah, and September 9th vs. Southeastern Louisiana.
PLEADING THE FOURTH AND FIFTH
The Highlanders played to four or five sets in 13 of 28 matches last season. The 2004, 2007 and 2012 squads all played 15 matches to four or five sets to claim the UCR Division I mark.
In 2016, the Highlanders have played to four or five sets in 11 of their 16 matches, including three out of their four Big West matches.
LET THERE BE HEIGHT!
Of the 11 newcomers to the Highlanders 2016 squad, five are taller than 6-0, giving UC Riverside six 6-footers overall, which matches last season's total.
(ALMOST) OVER THE RAINBOW
UC Riverside took the first set from nationally ranked Hawai'i in the last match of the 2014 season, 25-19. It marked the first time the Highlanders had won a set against the Rainbow Wahine since 1984, spanning 20 sets. UCR also nearly topped Hawai'i in the second set of their September 27, 2014 meeting, but the Rainbow Wahine eked out a 29-27 victory.
On October 30th, 2015 the Highlanders took the third set from #6 ranked Hawai'i 25-18, and narrowly lost the decisive fourth set 25-23.
GENERAL PATTON-(COLEMAN)
UC Riverside Volleyball is in it's the fourth season under Head Coach Michelle Patton-Coleman. Patton-Coleman came to the Highlanders following five seasons at San Francisco State, where she took over a program that lay dormant for four years (2004-07). The Gators advanced to two NCAA Tournaments during her tenure including a 21-9 mark in 2012 which included a program-record 16 conference victories.
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