Highlanders (7-15, 2-9) In Week 12 Big West Match #12

Tuesday, November 8 @ 7 pm PT

vs UC Davis (12-13, 5-7)

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Riverside—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team completes the season series against UC Davis Tuesday night at 7 pm inside the SRC Arena.

The Highlanders picked up a three-set victory over visiting Cal State Fullerton in their last match on Friday night. In the victory, Mickayla Sherman posted a 12-kill, 12-dig double-double, while serving up six aces—the fourth most in the program's history in a single match.

Brooke Callahan smashed a match-high 13 kills in the win, and hit .647 for the match, which placed her in a tie for 10th on the Highlanders' single-match records list (story).

Cristina Maietta and Maddie Hubbell anchored a defense that held the Titans to an .020 hitting percentage. Maietta tallied a match-high 13 digs and added a career-best five block assists. Hubbell notched her 20th double-digit dig performance of the season with 12 digs to move her program leading career total to 1,616.

UC Riverside leads the conference in digs averaging 16.30 per set, aided by Hubbell's 4.25 a frame, which ranks fifth in the Big West.

UC Davis is coming off a pair of five-set home losses last week, when they were knocked off by UC Santa Barbara Thursday and edged by Cal Poly on Saturday.

In their first meeting of the year at Davis, the team's split the first two sets. The Aggies then took sets three and four by the scores of 25-16 and 25-19 (box score/recap).

The Aggie attack is led by Emily Allen, who averages 3.01 kills per set. Middle blocker Lauren Jackson is the fourth most efficient hitter in the conference at .363 this season. Maddie Merlino and Sophia Mar share the setting duties averaging 5.49 and 5.41 assists per set respectively.

UCR leads the overall series 33-20-2 (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 1,616 digs for her career, and is now 67 digs away from breaking into the top-10 on the Big West all-time digs list with 1,683. The Highlanders have five 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 nine 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
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   on the year. She also served 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 six aces rank fourth on the all-time single match records list, while Callahan's .647 average 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 4.25 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 21 matches, including five out of their nine 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.