Nov. 3, 2009
SERVICE: Cal State Fullerton has its final three home matches coming up, first hosting first-place UC Davis (18-7, 9-2) and middle-of-the-pack Pacific 16-7, 6-5) this weekend in Titan Gym.
Complete Release in PDF Format
Last week the Titans got a split of their Central Coast trip, losing in three sets at UC Santa Barbara (27-25, 25-21 and 25-16) before bouncing back to win their first true road match of the season with a 3-0 sweep at Cal Poly, (25-22, 25-20 and 31-29).
Kayla Neto had 11 kills and hit .385 as the Titans lost to the Gauchos on Friday for a split of their season series. But the Titans came back to score their first season sweep of the Mustangs as Erin Saddler had 21 kills on Saturday night.
THIS WEEK:
Fri, Nov. 6, vs. UC Davis (Titan Gym), 7 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 7, vs. Pacific (Titan Gym), 7 p.m.
LISTEN LIVE: Listen to this weekend's matches live on fullertontitans.com with Patrick Alog and Crysania Salcedo. Just click the head phone icon at the top of any page on the website.
VERSUS UC DAVIS: The Titans are 6-4 against the Aggies dating back to the 2004 season when the teams met for the first time. Fullerton dropped the first meeting of 2009 by a score of 25-27, 23-25, 14-25 in Davis. Last year, the Titans and Aggies split the season series with each team winning on the road. This is UC Davis' third season in the Big West Conference. Fullerton has won three of the five meetings in Big West Conference play.
VERSUS PACIFIC: Cal State Fullerton has beaten Pacific just six times since 1984, posting a 7-44 record against the Tigers all-time. The Titans dropped the Oct. 9 match in four sets, 25-20, 16-25, 16-25, 25-27. Last year, the Titans swept the season series, but the four years prior, Pacific and Fullerton had split the eight matches. Last year's Nov. 15 win secured the Titans' first-ever winning conference schedule, and their school record-setting ninth conference win of the year.
QUICK HITS:
&\#149; With their win over Cal Poly on Oct. 31, the Titans have now won 13-or-more games in each of the last six seasons.
&\#149; The program has notched at least 14 wins in each of the last five season, the best stretch in terms of victories in the program's history. The next closest run was from 1995 to 1997 where the Titans posted 12, 16 and 12 wins in three straight years.
&\#149; The Titans have recorded 16-or-more wins just four times in the program's history (1981, 1996, 2006, 2008), 17-or-more twice (1981, 2006), and 18 once (1981).
&\#149; The Titans set a school record early this year by winning its first six matches of the season before dropping their Sept. 7 match to Oregon State. The 1985, 1987, 1996 and 2006 teams all won five matches in a row before losing their first matches.
&\#149; In 29 previous seasons, the Titans have just ONE winning conference schedule and that was produced by the 2008 squad. The Titans finished in fifth place with a 9-7 record - the most wins in league by and Fullerton volleyball team. Fullerton has never finished higher than fifth place in their conference and have accumulated an 87-397 (.179) all-time league record dating back to 1980.
&\#149; Fullerton is a 9-2 at home in 2009 and 3-1 in matches at neutral sites. Conversely, the Titans have won just ONE road match (Cal Poly on Oct. 31) in eight tries.
&\#149; The Titans have not won more than two consecutive games since they opened the season with six straight victories.
&\#149; The Titans received six votes in the AVCA Top 25 Poll on Oct. 5 after defeating Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara in Big West conference action. It was the first time in program history that the team had been recognized at that level. The team's stay in the "receiving votes" section was brief after falling to both Pacific and UC Davis the following weekend.
&\#149; After cracking the top 100 for the first time in the sport's history in 2008, the Cal State Fullerton volleyball team jumped 26 spots to No. 67 on the NCAA's first RPI report in 2009, their highest mark ever. Since then, the Titans have gone 2-3 and have dropped to No. 91 in the most recent RPI report.
&\#149; The Titans have played one team in the NCAA's Top 25 (UCLA - 7), two in the Top 30 (Baylor - 30), four in the Top 40 (UC Santa Barbara - 35, Long Beach State - 31) and 7 in the Top 50 (New Mexico - 48, Pittsburgh - 42, Wisconsin - 39). Fullerton is 4-5 against those schools in the RPI Top 50.
&\#149; Setter Andrea Ragan posted a career high 5 service aces on Sept. 19 against Fordham including three consecutive strikes within the first 10 points of the match.
&\#149; Senior Alex Wolnisty broke into the Cal State Fullerton career Top 10 in kills last weekend. She now has 854 carer kills and more impressively has the second-highest career attack percentage in school history (.266), just one percentage point behind Becky Howlett, who posted a .267 mark from 1990-91. She also moved into the Top 10 in Sets Played, playing in her 377th set last Saturday.
&\#149; Setter Andrea Ragan has now moved in to sixth place all-time in Cal State Fullerton history with 1,649 career assists in just her second season in a Titan uniform.
&\#149; Libero Cami Croteau has tied Vanessa Vella with three Top 10 single-season performances in the Dig category. The defensive specialist has posted tallies of 505 (3rd, 2008), 502 (4th, 2007) and 423 (7th, 2009). Vella holds the No. 1, 2, and 5 spots on the ingle-season spot.
&\#149; Freshman Kayla Neto cracked the Top 6 in the Big West Conference in blocking last weekend. She now ranks No. 6 in the league, posting 1.00 blocks per set.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Junior Erin Saddler is holding at No. 2 on the Big West Conference leader board in kills with 361 total kills and 4.51 kills per set. Her 4.51 kills per set coming into the week ranks her 12th in the nation according to the NCAA, and her 5.10 points per set also ranked her 11th nationally. Saddler has accumulated 361 kills (15.69 kills per match) and also has 8 double-doubles (kills/digs). In the Titans' Sept. 3 match versus Montana, the Bellflower native had a career-high 27 kills, including 12 in the fourth and final set of the Titans' 3-1 victory. The junior also ranks 5th in the Big West in service aces hitting 26 total strikes (0.32 per set) trailing the league leader, Leah Sully (UC Santa Barbara) by 15 aces.
SETTING THEM UP: Sophomore Andrea Ragan remains atop of the Big West Conference standings and is ranking 13th in the nation with 11.50 assists per set. The league-leading setter now has amassed 920 total assists and has six double-doubles (assists/digs) to her credit.
CROTEAU CHALLENGING DIG RECORD: Junior libero Cami Croteau (Orange, Calif.) has embarked on a mission to break the Cal State Fullerton career dig mark set by her predecessor Vanessa Vella back in 2006. In three years in a Titan uniform, Vella posted 1,598 career digs in 316 career sets. Croteau, in her first two seasons, broke into the 1000-dig club and now, in her third year, sits just 168 digs away from the top spot with 1,430 career digs already to her credit. Croteau has collected 502 and 505 digs in her first two seasons, respectively, good for third and fourth all-time in the Titans' single-season record book behind Vella's 581 and 538.
CROTEAU LEADS THE LEAGUE: Libero Cami Croteau came into the week leading the Big West Conference and ranking 15th in the nation with 5.29 digs per set and 423 total digs. She is tailing the dig machine from NJIT Sabrina Baby who is scooping 6.29 attack attempts per set to lead the nation.
CLIMBING IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Senior Alex Wolnisty (Riverside, Calif.) sits 28 block assists away from tying the Cal State Fullerton block assist mark of 294 block assists set last year by former teammate Brittany Moore. Wolnisty has had as few as 53 block assists her freshman year and as many as 96 as a sophomore and currently has 266 block assists in her career through 23 matches this season. The middle is also just 46 total blocks away from tying the all-time blocking mark set by Stephanie Scofield from 1988-1991. Scofield posted 363 total blocks in her four-year career over 442 sets. Wolnisty currently has 317 total blocks, and still needs to pass Tammy Miller (325, 1986-89), Brittany Moore (360, 2005-08) and Scofield for the record.
WITH ACCURACY: Senior Alex Wolnisty stayed in the No. 6 slot in the Big West Conference despite dropping to a .303 overall attack percentage. The senior currently has 178 kills in 402 swings with just 56 errors. The Riverside native's best total attack percentage came last year when she hit a career-best .291, and is currently hitting .266 in her four-year career, ranking her second all time at Cal State Fullerton. Freshman Kayla Neto, who has come on strong the second half of the season, has also found her way into the Top 10 in attack percentage, jumping two spots to No. 7 in the league. The Middle from Clarksburg, Calif., is now hitting .288 (210 kills in 485 chances with 63 errors).