LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 2nd-ranked UC San Diego women's volleyball team (22-1, 14-1 California Collegiate Athletic Association) puts its 13-match winning streak on the line when it travels to Cal State Stanislaus (8-15, 2-13 CCAA) and No. 25 Chico State (19-6, 10-5 CCAA) this week. The Tritons have won 14 consecutive matches against Cal State Stanislaus and will play the Warriors on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in Turlock. UCSD and Chico State have split the CCAA season series in each of the last three seasons. The Tritons face the Wildcats in Chico on October 31. First serve is set for 4:00 p.m.
UCSD leads the all-time series against CSUS 23-2, having won 55-of-66 (.833) sets. The last Warriors victory over the Tritons came on September 13, 2002 in Turlock.
While the Warriors have dropped five straight, Cal State Stanislaus has won a set in every match during the losing streak. CSUS lost in five to both Cal State Monterey Bay and San Francisco State, while losing last week in four sets to Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona.
CSUS is led by Lianne Vicchio with 3.26 kills per set while Janay Bankston adds 1.84 kills per set. CSUS has used three different setters this season, with Nicki Brown leading the way with 8.33 assists per set. Melissa Bishop has a team-high 0.77 blocks per set and Amanda Pielstick averages a team-high 3.63 digs per set.
UCSD will be looking to end a two-match losing streak at Chico State, losing in four sets in 2007 and five sets in 2008 in Acker Gym. Last week the Wildcats swept Cal Poly Pomona and lost a hard fought battle on the road at No. 3 Cal State San Bernardino 18-25, 25-19, 25-9, 25-23.
Chico State is led by Makenzie Snyder who is second in the conference in kills per set with 4.69. Gillian Heydorff is seventh in the conference with 3.87 kills per set. Sable Villaescusa is fourth in the CCAA in assists per set with 10.42 and Jessica Leek is second in the CCAA in aces with 0.46 per set.
Julia Freidenberg has taken over the CCAA lead in hitting percentage, hitting at a .383 clip. The redshirt freshman is also hitting over .400 in conference matches.
Sylvia Schmidt is fifth in the CCAA with 4.02 kills per set and Roxanne Brunsting is first in the conference in aces per set at 0.55 and third in digs per set at 4.25.
Elaine Chen is first in the CCAA with 11.11 assists per set.
In the UCSD career record book, Schmidt is now fifth in school history with 1,064 career kills. Chen is up to 2,743 career assists which ranks third all-time at UCSD.
In the single-season UCSD record book, Schmidt enters the week with 330 kills. She is just 21 kills shy of reaching the single-season top-10 for kills in a season.
Brunsting enters the week with 353 digs which is already the 10th highest total in school history. She will move up to sixth place with at least 13 digs in two matches this week.
Freidenberg's attack percentage of .383 would rank as the third highest percentage in school history if the season were to end today. The top mark is a .399 percentage, set by Katie Hogan during the 2004 season.
