SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - The San Francisco women's volleyball team is set to hit the road to face off with a pair of ranked opponents this weekend, highlighted by a televised rematch at No. 16 BYU on Saturday.
Coming in at No. 24, the Pepperdine Waves sport an 11-7 overall record (1-4 WCC) heading into the weekend. The Dons meet the Waves at Firestone Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. The match will be live streamed free of charge
online here. The 16th-ranked BYU Cougars tout a 16-1 overall record (4-1 WCC). BYU welcomes USF to Smith Fieldhouse Saturday at 7:30 p.m., for their second meeting of the 2012 campaign. BYUtv will broadcast the match with the action available online at
www.byutvsports.com.
The Dons (12-6, 3-2 WCC) are all to familiar with weekend travel of late, fresh off a pair of road victories against Portland and Gonzaga. After falling behind by one set to Gonzaga, the Dons used wins in the second, fourth and final sets to earn a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Bulldogs. The team followed up their strong performance at Gonzaga with a three-set sweep of Portland to cap off the road trip. Freshman
Ester de Vries posted 34 kills on 80 total attacks for a .275 hitting percentage for the Dons.
Leanna Ludes and
Mackenzie Murtagh combined for 86 assists. Defensively,
Rebecca Kopilovitch led the way with 35 digs and
Valentina Zaloznik finished the weekend with 10 total blocks.
USF - BY THE NUMBERS:
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A tandem of Dons are in the top four in the WCC for kills, with senior Jocelyn Levig recording 3.71 kills per set and de Vries accounting for 3.53 kills per set.
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Levig's average of 0.48 service aces per set ranks second in the conference standings.
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Kopilovitch, a sophomore libero from Israel, digs an average of 4.56 balls per set, good for second in the WCC. She has more than 750 digs in her young career, with 301 thus far in the season.
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Ludes has 639 total set assists on the season for an average of 10.31 assists per set to lead the way for the Dons.
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The Dons have faced fierce competition against three previously ranked teams this season (No. 7 Stanford, No. 11 BYU, No. 25 Cal) and with this weekend's action, the 2012 total will sit at five. USF hasn't played more than five ranked opponents in a season since 2004 when the Dons matched up with eight teams in the rankings.
ROAD WARRIORS: Including this upcoming pair of matches, the Dons will have played six of their last seven opponents on the road. USF has a 4-4 road record on the year after notching wins at Gonzaga and Portland last weekend.
FEARLESS LEADER: Gilad Doron is in his sixth season at the helm of the Dons, where he has compiled a 85-76 overall record. Doron's 38 WCC victories rank as the highest total in program history. He became the all-time USF wins leader earlier this season as the Dons knocked off then-No. 25 California on Sept. 1.
LAST TIME OUT: The Dons overwhelmed Portland in straight sets to move to 12-6 (3-2 WCC). Junior outside hitter
Malina Terrell posted nine kills and a .692 hitting percentage to lead the USF offense. De Vries also contributed nine kills to go with nine digs and a season-high six aces.
PEPPERDINE - BY THE NUMBERS:
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Pepperdine boasts a hitting percentage of .245, second only to BYU. The Waves also sit in second in kills per set (14.47) and digs per set (15.55), trailing San Diego in both categories.
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Middle blocker Victoria Adelhelm has a .393 hitting percentage (2nd in the WCC), and averages 1.2 blocks per set (3rd in the WCC). Adelhelm is the lone senior on the squad.
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Jazmine Orozco leads the Waves with 3.53 kills per set and fellow junior Kellie Woolever posts an impressive 11.02 assists per set.
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The tandem of Woolever and sophomore Michaela Christiaansen have combined for 455 total digs per set.
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Pepperdine is looking to break a three-match conference losing streak. The Waves have recently fallen to St. Mary's, Santa Clara and San Diego in conference action, intermingled with non-conference wins over UC-Santa Barbara and Bucknell.
LAST TIME OUT: Pepperdine opened its three-match week with a convincing three-set shutout over Bucknell on Monday evening. Taylor Racich led the Waves with seven kills and four aces, while Lexi Weldon
came off the bench with a match-high eight kills.
VERSUS: Historically, Pepperdine owns a 50-3 all-time record over USF, in matches dating back to 1979. This marks their first meeting of the 2012 season.
BYU - BY THE NUMBERS:
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BYU is tops in the conference in hitting percentage (.318), opponent hitting percentage (.155), blocks (174 total, 2.95/set).
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Senior Nicole Warner leads the WCC with a .429 hitting percentage and junior Kathryn LeCheminant is coming in at third in the conference with a .389 percentage.
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Junior Jennifer Hamson clocks an average of 4.05 kills per set to lead the league.
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The duo of Warner and Hamson are 1-2 on the blocks list with averages of 1.73 and 1.20 blocks per set, respectively. Warner's 1.73 blocks per set leads the nation.
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BYU's sole loss on the season came at the hands of St. Mary's, where the Cougars fell three sets to one in Moraga Sept. 29. BYU has lost a total of 10 sets in their 16 matches this season, winning 11 matches in straight sets. One of the Cougar's set losses on the season was at USF.
LAST TIME OUT: Down 2-0, Nicole Warner and Jennifer Hamson led the Cougars in its best comeback of the year to defeat Loyola Marymount 3-2 in Los Angeles. Warner posted a career-high tally of 17 blocks and Hamson's 23-kill, 10-block effort sparked the comeback.
VERSUS: BYU holds a 4-0 record against the Dons. In the Cougars' last meeting with the Dons, BYU won 3-1 at the Hilltop on Sept. 27. In that match, the Dons fell 3-1 after taking the second set 25-23. De Vries compiled a 15-kill, 12-dig double-double in the effort.
