Riverside–The UC Riverside Volleyball Team readies to host its first tournament in 10 years this Labor Day weekend, the UC Riverside Classic September 1-2.
Friday they'll open the season at noon against the WAC's Chicago State, the first meeting in history between the two clubs. Later that day at 5 pm, Coach Patton-Coleman leads the team into battle versus San Jose State, a team they faced in 2015, when UCR prevailed in five sets.
On Saturday Chicago State will take on Southern Utah at 1pm, before UCR entertains their home fans in the tournament finale against Howard at 8 pm. The Highlanders won the only the meeting with the Bison in a 3-0 sweep back in 2001, when each set was played to 30 points.
GAME NOTES
OFF TO A TOP-10 START
The Highlanders enters the weekend inside the top-10 in the NCAA in several categories, 4th in assists per set (15.30), 5th in kills per set (15.80), and 9th in digs per set (20.80). Chelsea Doyle is second in the country averaging 13.40 assists per set.
NCAA stats
Reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Week Nicole Rodriguez's 5.80 digs per set place her 25th nationally, while middle blocker Meg Graham's .481 hitting percentage is 29th.
RETURN OF THE ATTACK
The Highlanders return four of their top five attacking players from last season.
Mickayla Sherman led the squad with 312 kills, followed by
Meg Graham's 206, and
Brooke Callahan's 179. Rosas' 57 kills in 10 sets were fourth.
THE SET UP
Junior setter
Chelsea Doyle logged 895 assists in 2016, and 940 during the 2015 campaign–those totals are the highest since Coach Patton-Coleman's arrival in 2013. This season, she established a new career-high of 57 assists in a 3-1 victory over Drake on August 26 (
box score /
recap).
In a match versus CSUN last year, then freshman
Angela Gonzalez racked-up a career-high 29 assists.
NEUTRAL SITES SET HIGH
The Highlanders went 5-3 in neutral site matches last year, the best record during the Patton-Coleman era. This season they'll play seven neutral site matches, three in California (2-1), and two each in Texas and Colorado.
FRESH AS SHERMAN IS
In 2016, outside hitter Mickayla Sherman was named to the
All-Conference Freshman Team, and was also the first player in the history of the UCR Volleyball program to win Big West Freshman of the Week.
Sherman won for her play October 10-16, when she had a career-high 26 kills and 11 digs in the Highlanders' win over UCSB on Friday, October 14th (
story). Her 26 kills matched the team's season-high set by Fabiana Rosas in the season's opening weekend against Southern Utah (
box score/
recap).
FIRST THINGS FIRST
UCR took the first set in six of 16 contests during Big West Conference play last season, including five of eight while in the friendly confines of the SRC Arena.
This season they have prevailed in the opening frame in two of three matches, both victories.
INDY 500
Last season, 676 blue and gold faithful supporters saw the Highlanders take on the Rainbow Wahine in the newly renovated SRC Arena.
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| 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 seven new players to the fold—five freshmen and two transfers. The 2017 squad returns 10 letter winners and four starters.
Riverside native, and freshman Mikaela Grove posted 18 kills in the Highlanders' 3-1 victory over Drake. (
box score /
recap)
ALL-TOURNEY TEAMS
In 2016, 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).
Nicole Rodriguez and Meg Graham each were named to the Titan All-Tournament Team in the season's opening weekend. (
tournament stats)
SWEPT UP
Last season, UCR had a pair of victories by way of the 3-0 sweep—the August 26th season opener vs. Southern Utah, and September 9th vs. Southeastern Louisiana. The 2005 squad set the DI mark with nine victories in three frames.
See results
The 2017 season opened with a sweep of Fairleigh Dickinson, the second year in a row UCR has gotten past the season's first foe in three frames.
PLEADING THE FOURTH AND FIFTH
The Highlanders played to four or five sets in 14 of 28 matches last season, including eight of their 16 Big West matches. The 2004, 2007 and 2012 squads all played 15 matches to four or five sets to claim the UCR Division I mark.
UC Riverside is 1-0 in 2017.
SHE CAN DIG IT
With 17 digs at UC Davis on October 20, 2016, Maddie Hubbell ('13-16) 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 finished her career with 1695 digs, and is eighth on the Big West all-time digs list.
Big West Volleyball Record Book
LET THERE BE HEIGHT!
Of the seven newcomers to the Highlanders 2017 squad, five are taller than 6-0, giving UC Riverside eight 6-footers overall, which is more than last season's total (6).
(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 fifth 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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