Highlanders In Week 12 Big West Matches 13 & 14

Friday, November 11-7 pm PT

vs. Cal Poly (15-8, 8-4)

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Saturday, November 12-7 pm PT

vs. UC Santa Barbara (16-9, 7-5)

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Riverside—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team goes north to the central California coast for back-to-back matches against Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara.

The Highlanders will travel to San Luis Obispo to meet the Mustangs on Friday. Saturday, the team heads to Santa Barbara for a match up with the Gauchos. Both matches being at 7pm PT.

In their most recent match, the Highlanders got double-digit kills from Cristina Maietta and Brooke Callahan to go with 22 digs from Maddie Hubbell in a three sets to one loss against UC Davis.

Maietta (Los Alamitos, CA) had 12 kills, Callahan (Bishop, CA) logged 10, and Meg Graham (Agoura Hills, CA) recorded six kills and seven blocks in Tuesday's match versus the Aggies (box score/recap). 

Cal Poly is coming off wins over UC Irvine and UC Davis in last week's matches. They topped the Anteaters by a score of 3-1, and prevailed in a five-set affair over the Aggies three sets to two.

UC Riverside fell in a tight, 3-0, sweep in the first meeting between the clubs at the SRC Arena, where they narrowly lost the first two sets, 25-23 and 26-24 (box score/recap). 

The Mustangs lead the overall series 23-10, and have won four straight, including sweeps in each of the last three matches (all-time results).

UC Santa Barbara is riding a four-game winning streak in which they have notched wins over Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly, UC Davis, and UC Irvine. They'll entertain Cal State Fullerton Friday night. before hosting the Highlanders.

In the first meeting of the year, freshman Mickayla Sherman established career-highs of 26 kills and 12 digs in leading the Highlanders past UC Santa Barbara, 3-1, for their first Big West conference victory of the season (box score/recap).

UCR trails in the overall series 5-43-2 (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 1,638 digs for her career, and is now 45 digs away from breaking into the top-10 on the Big West all-time digs list with 1,683. The Highlanders have four 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 12 contests during Big West conference play, including three of seven 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
This season, 676 blue and gold faithful supporters saw the Highlanders take on the Rainbow Wahine in the newly renovated SRC Arena.
 

Date	Opponent	Att.
September 24, 2011	CSUN	745
September 27, 2014	Hawai'i (#25)	731
October 28, 2016	Hawai'i (#14)	676
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

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.

Freshman Mickayla Sherman leads the team in digs with 270 on the year. She also served up six aces in the Highlander's 3-0 win over Cal State Fullerton. Transfer Brooke Callahan had 13 kills on 17 swings, while hitting .647 for the match. Sherman's six aces rank fourth on the all-time single match records list, while Callahan's .647 average for th match places her 10th on the same list.

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 4.31 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 14 of their 24 matches, including six of their 12 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.