SERVICE!: The Cal State Fullerton women’s volleyball
team (10-8 overall, 3-6
in the Big West) hit the road this weekend for two Big West Conference
matches against first-place UC Santa Barbara (12-3, 7-2) and last-place
Cal Poly
(2-16, 0-9).
The Gauchos will host the Titans on Friday night (10/22) at The Thunderdome
in Santa Barbara. The Titans will then travel to Cal Poly for a Saturday
night (10/23) battle with the Mustangs at Mott Gym. Both matches will
begin at 7 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara is coming off a two-win week having beat second-place
Long Beach State 3-1 and UC Irvine 3-0 while Cal Poly was swept 3-0 by
both UC Irvine and Long Beach State.
SERIES RECORDS: Cal State Fullerton has never beat UC
Santa Barbara and is
0-48 dating back to the 1982 season. Fullerton came close in their last
meeting (9/25) in game one at Titan Gym, but UCSB prevailed (30-28, 30-19,
30-19) to
keep their perfect record against the Titans alive.
Fullerton is a career 3-34 against the Mustangs in their 23 years of competition.
The Titans snapped a 13-game losing streak to the Mustangs in their last
meeting on 9/24 (30-21, 30-28, 30-18) when they won their first Big West
game of 2004.
HOME SWEET HOME: With a five-game win on Friday versus
Utah St., the
Titans improved to 9-1 at Titan Gym, their best home record since 1996.
The 1996 squad finished 9-3 at home en route to a 16-13 overall record
… The Titans were close to picking up their tenth win on Saturday
night, but the Vandals squeeked
out a fifth-game win to beat CSF 3-2 giving Fullerton only their second
loss at home this season.
IMPROVING: With Fullerton’s three conference victories
in 2004, the Titans have already notched as many conference wins as the
last two seasons combined. Fullerton was 2-16 in 2003, and 1-17 in 2002.
Both teams finished in 10th in the conference ... With their 10-8 overall
record, CSF has reached ten or more victories for the first time since
the 1997 team was 12-18 and only the 8th time in the 29 years of the sport...
This is the first 10-win season for Carolyn Zimmerman in her three years
as Titan head coach.
MOVIN’ ON UP: Barring any unforeseen circumstances
that would keep her
out of the lineup this weekend, senior Lauren Goins will reach a milestone
accomplished by only three other players in Titan volleyball history …
Goins is just ten shy of her 1,000th career kill, ranking her fourth all-time
with 990 in her three-plus years in a Titan uniform. When she reaches
that plateau, Goins will become the first Titan since Megan Sabo to reach
the 1,000-kill mark since 2000 … Susan Herman (1986-89) holds the
CSF all-time career kill record with 1,534.
Goins also moved up a couple other lists last weekend, tallying 28 more
digs to give her 873 for her career to rank seventh all-time (only four
short of 6th all-time), and also had six service aces to rank fifth with
95.
ON THE ATTACK: Senior Carley Dial’s .322 and senior
Tiffany Dolven’s .311 hitting percentage is good enough for 8th
and 9th respectively on the Big West leaders board … Senior Lauren
Goins is 9th in the Big West with 3.74 kills per game.
CAN YOU DIG IT?: Cal State Fullerton freshman libero
Vanessa Vella is quickly making a name for herself as one of the best
diggers in the Big West Conference and in the school record books. Vella's
296 digs have her just 49 digs short of moving into the top five on Fullerton's
single season record books. Her 4.48 dpg rank her fourth in the Big West
entering play this weekend.
ALL IN WITH A PAIR OF ACES: Serving has been a strength
of the Titans in 2004, and that is reflected in the most recent Big West
Conference statistical reports. Fullerton ranks second in the league with
1.89 per game and the Titans have two players among the top 10 in the
individual category: Lauren Goins ranks fifth at 0.41 pg while Alyssa
Opeka stands seventh at 0.38 pg.
GREAT WALL OF TITANS: Cal State Fullerton continues to
play well at the net
this season, outblocking the opposition in nine of the team's ten victories
and ranking a close third in the conference with 2.58 bpg (UC Santa Barbara
is
second at 2.59 bpg). This success is led by the play of senior Tiffany
Dolven,
who ranks third in the league with 1.32 bpg and has the most block solos
(27) of any player in the Big West Conference.
MS. CONSISTENT: Cal State Fullerton senior Lauren Goins
may not have her picture in Webster's next to "consistent,"
but she could be the poster child if she wanted to. Goins has posted double-digit
kills in 16 of the Titans' 18 matches (including the first seven straight)
and has had 12 matches of 10-or-more digs (including a season-high 23
digs against Arizona State).
She's well ahead of last year's pace when she had just five matches of
10-or-more kills in the first 10 matches and in 18 overall.
ABOUT THE TITANS: Cal State Fullerton returns eight letterwinners
from last year's squad which went 8-22 overall (2-16 in the Big West),
including five players who started 20 or more matches in 2003. The roster
is very balanced with a good mix of experience (seven upperclassmen, including
four seniors) and youth (eight freshmen and sophomores). Fullerton also
returns a potent offense with the returners accounting for just over 92
percent of the offense last season, 96.5 percent of the team's blocks,
and just under 52 percent of the digs from 2003.
TITANS PICKED NINTH IN PRESEASON COACHES POLL: Cal State
Fullerton was picked to finish ninth in the Big West Conference this season
according to a poll of the league's head coaches. The Titans, who finished
10th last season, received 21 points to finish ahead of UC Riverside –
the source of Fullerton's only two conference wins in 2003.
UC Santa Barbara received nine first-place votes and was picked to repeat
as league champs for a third consecutive season with 99 points.
