Highlanders (6-14, 1-7) In Week 10 Big West Match #9

Friday, October 28 @ 8 pm PT

vs #14 Hawai'i (14-5, 7-1)

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Riverside—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team hosts #14 Hawai'i Friday, October 28 on ESPNU at 8 pm PT. The Highlanders are also celebrating the diversity of its campus and community with Native American Heritage night, which will include a prematch ceremony by bird singers from the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians. Highlanders freshman Mallory Marcus is a Soboba Tribal member

Last week, senior libero Maddie Hubbell (Bakersfield, CA) had 17 digs in a, 3-1, loss at UC Davis Thursday night to reach 1,558 for her career and become the UC Riverside Volleyball All-time digs leader (box score/recap). Mickayla Sherman (Antioch, CA) had 16 kills in the defeat, while Brooke Callahan added 10.

On Saturday, the Highlanders fell in three sets at UC Irvine, and were led by Callahan's nine kills on 14 attempts along with Cristina Maietta's (Los Alamitos, CA) eight kills and 11 digs (box score/recap).

Sherman continues to lead the Highlanders with 206 kills on the year—3.04 per set. Meg Graham (Augora Hills, CA) remains the squad's most efficient hitter at .257. She is also the squad's top blocker with 57 total blocks this season. Hubbell ranks fourth in the Big West with 4.16 digs per set and 308 total digs.

Hawai'i was off last week, but picked up a pair of home victories the week prior over UC Irvine, 3-1, and UC Davis, 3-0.

The Rainbow Wahine are led by Nikki Taylor, who tops the Big West in kills (4.87) and service aces (0.56) per set, and is also third in blocks per set (1.29). Norene Losia is third in the conference with 10.54 assists per set, and is second behind Taylor serving up 0.41 aces per frame.
 
Emily Maglio leads the league in blocks with 1.33 per set, and shares top hitting percentage honors at .378. Savanah Kahakai patrols the back row for Hawai'i, averaging 4.03 digs per set.
 
In this year's meeting on the island, UCR dropped a 3-0 decision (box score/recap). The Highlanders are still searching for their first victory versus the Rainbow Wahine (all-time results).


GAME NOTES

SHE CAN DIG IT
With 17 digs at UC Davis on October 20, 2016, Maddie Hubbell became the UC Riverside Volleyball program's all-time digs leader, surpassing 2015 UCR Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee and Two-Time All-American Sheryl Benson-Rawlins' (84, 86, 88-89) mark of 1,556 (all-time list).

Hubbell has 1,571 digs for her career, and is now 112 digs away from breaking into the top-10 on the Big West all-time digs list with 1,683. The Highlanders have eight matches remaining in the 2016 regular season. Big West Volleyball Record Book

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/recap).

FIRST THINGS FIRST
UCR has taken the first set in four of eight 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.
 

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.
 

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 freshmen 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 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)
 

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 13 of their 20 matches, including five out of their eight 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.