Riverside—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team honors seniors Maddie Hubbell and Cristina Maietta prior to Friday's home finale against CSUN, before traveling to Long Beach State Saturday night in the season finale. First serve is scheduled at 7 pm PT for both matches.
The Highlanders picked up their second win in four matches, Saturday, with a five-set victory over UC Santa Barbara. Maietta posted 17 kills to lead the UC Riverside to a season-sweep of the Gauchos—the Highlanders' first season sweep over UCSB in program history. Mickayla Sherman added 12 kills, Brooke Callahan finished with 11, and Meg Graham added 10 (
box score/
recap).
Senior Maddie Hubbell recorded 15 digs Saturday, increasing her UC Riverside career record to 1,663. She needs just 20 more digs over the final two matches of the season to break into the Big West Conference career top-10 list.
CSUN split its two matches last week, picking up a four-set victory at Cal State Fullerton, and falling in straight-sets to Long Beach State at home.
Aeryn Owens continues to lead the Matadors with 3.45 kills per set, and is followed by Julie Haake, who averages 3.25 kills per frame. Libero Katie Sato is fourth in the conference at 4.22 digs per set.
In the first meeting of the year between the clubs, UCR got double-digit kills from Sherman (15) and Maietta (13) in a, 3-0, defeat at CSUN (
box score/
recap). UCR trails in the overall series 59-21 (
view results).
Long Beach State currently sits second in the conference standings at 11-3 with an outside chance of sharing the league regular season title with Hawai'i, should the 49ers win out and the Rainbow Wahine drop both of their matches this weekend.
In the season's first meeting between the Highlanders and LBSU, UC Riverside took the first set, 25-21, before falling in four sets (
box score/
recap).
Nele Barber leads the 49ers' offensive attack, registering a Big West leading 422 kills. Missy Owens sets the attack, and averages 10.57 assists per set, which is the second-highest average in the conference. Yizhi Xue leads the 49ers' block efforts, and has tallied 105 total blocks this season-third-most in the conference.
The Beach' leads the overall series 42-8, and is on a 10-match winning streak (
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 '90 mark of 1,556 (
all-time list).
Hubbell has 1,663 digs for her career, and is now 20 digs away from breaking into the top-10 on the Big West all-time digs list with 1,683. The Highlanders have two 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 14 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 4.21 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 16 of their 26 matches, including eight of their 14 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.
