Riverside—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team plays a pair of road matches this week beginning Thursday October 20 at UC Davis with first serve scheduled for 7 pm PT, and Saturday they'll complete the season series against UC Irvine at 7 pm in the Bren Events Center.
UC Riverside picked up its first Big West conference win of the 2016 season on Friday night over UC Santa Barbara in four sets. In the victory, freshman Mickayla Sherman
(Antioch, CA) established career-highs of 26 kills and 11 digs, on a night that saw four Highlanders. Maddie Hubbell 18, Chelsea Doyle and Cristina Maietta 15 each logged double-digit digs to give the Highlanders four double-digit diggers for just the second time this season (
story).
On Saturday, the squad completed their four-match home stand with a 3-0 loss to Cal Poly in a match that saw them drop the opening two sets to the Mustangs, 25-23 and 26-24, before falling 25-13 in the third (
story).Â
Sherman earned the program's first Big West Freshman of the Week award for her play against the Gauchos and Mustangs (
story). She leads the Highlanders with 206 kills on the year.
Meg Graham
(Augora Hills, CA) remains the squad's most efficient hitter after raising her hitting percentage from .268 to .275 last week. She is also the squad's top blocker with 54 total blocks this season. Maddie Hubbell
(Bakersfield, CA) ranks fourth in the Big West with 4.15 digs per set.
UC Riverside is hitting .144 on the year, ninth in the league. On the defensive side of the net, their 15.86 digs per set ranks third.
UC Davis is coming off a three-set loss at Hawai'i in their lone match of the week. Like the Highlanders, four of their six conference matches have gone four or more sets. They are 2-2 in those matches.
The Aggie attack is led by Emily Allen, who averages 3.46 kills per set. Middle blocker Lauren Jackson is the fourth most efficient hitter in the conference at .363 this season. Sophia Mar and Maddie Merlino share the setting duties averaging an identical 5.54 assists per set in 2016.
Kelechi Ohiri and Heather Reed lead the defense for Davis. Reed is second in the Big West at 4.39 digs per set, and Ohiri is third with 1.26 blocks per frame.
The clubs spilt the 2015 season series with the Aggies picking up a 3-1 victory in Davis, and the Highlanders prevailing at home in a five-set affair, snapping what had been a seven-match skid to UC Davis. UCR leads the overall series 33-19-2 (
all-time results).
UC Irvine also visited the island in their lone match last week versus Hawai'i, however the Anteaters managed to take the third set, 26-24, before falling 3-1 to the Rainbow Wahine.
Outside hitter Victoria Dennis logged 16 kills in the loss, and her 288 total kills in the 2016 campaign are second in the conference. Shelley Anderson directs the Irvine attack averaging 8.34 assists per set, while Idara Akpakpa is the team's most efficient hitter at .282.Â
The defense is anchored by Luna Tsujimoto's 3.62 digs per set, along with the blocking efforts of Danielle Geiger (0.79/s) and Akpakpa (0.73/s). The Eaters' opponents are hitting .245 this season, while UC Irvine connects at .225. The Anteaters are 1-5 in their six conference matches which have gone four or five sets. Their other Big West result was a 3-0 sweep at Cal State Fullerton.
In the first meeting between the clubs this season, the Anteaters grabbed a four-set victory over UCR in a match where the Highlanders won the first set 28-26. UC Irvine leads the overall series 14-34-2, and has claimed seven straight matches (
all-time results).
GAME NOTES
FRESHMAN?
Freshman outside hitter Mickayla Sherman became the first player in the history of the UCR Volleyball program to win Big West Freshman of the week for her play October 10-16 (
story). Sherman had a career-high 26 kills and 11 digs in the Highlanders win over UCSB on Friday October 14th. Her 26 kills matched the season-high total set by Fabiana Rosas in the season's opening weekend against Southern Utah (
box score/r
ecap).
FIRST THINGS FIRST
UCR has taken the first set in four of six contests during Big West conference play, including three of four while in the friendly confines of the SRC Arena.
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 4.15 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 12 of their 18 matches, including four out of their six 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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