Oct. 17, 2007
Complete Release and Season Statistics in PDF Format
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AZTECS TRAVEL TO LAS VEGAS FOR LONE MATCH OF THE WEEK
*** San Diego State concludes a string of three straight conference road matches when it visits Las Vegas this week to take on UNLV on Friday, Oct. 19, at 7:00 p.m. (PDT) in Cox Pavilion.
*** The match will be televised live on The Mtn. Friday evening and will re-air on CSTV on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 2:00 p.m. (PDT).
*** The match is the Aztecs' lone contest of the week as they begin the second half of the league season.
SERIES RECORD
*** SDSU's all-time record against UNLV stands at 15-10 since the teams first met in 1985. The Rebels had won the last seven matches between the schools until the Aztecs claimed a five-game victory when they met in Peterson Gym on Sept. 21. The loss was one of only two for the Rebels over the first half of the 2007 conference season (eight matches).
*** San Diego State is 9-3 vs. UNLV at home, 6-6 in Las Vegas and 0-1 at neutral venues. SDSU's last win on the Rebels' home court came during the 2003 season.
SCOUTING THE REBELS
*** UNLV enters the week with an overall record 13-5 and 4-2 in the Mountain West Conference as it begins the week in second place in the league standings. The Rebels have been receiving votes the past couple weeks in the AVCA/CSTV national poll.
*** The Rebels are led by a pair of seniors in outside hitter Maria Aladjova (4.51 kpg, 3.22 dpg) and middle blocker Lauren Miramontes (4.22 kpg, 1.08 bpg). Aladjova was named the Mountain West Conference player of the week last week for the second time this season.
*** In addition to that twosome, senior libero Jada Walker leads the league in digs (6.07 per game) while setter Melody Nua is averaging 13.00 assists per game in conference matches.
WARNER GETS NUMBER 200
*** San Diego State head coach Mark Warner recorded his 200th career win with the Aztecs' victory over Air Force on Oct. 4.
*** Warner is in his 13th season at the helm of the Aztec women's program. His career record over that span stands at 200-187 (.517).
*** Over the past 12 years, Warner has led his teams to a pair of NCAA Tournament berths and a Western Athletic Conference championship. His tutelage has produced 15 all-conference players and he was named the Mountain West Conference co-coach of the year in 2002.
LAST WEEK
*** San Diego State dropped a pair of Mountain West conference matches on the road last week.
*** On Friday (Oct. 12), the Aztecs fell at New Mexico in three games by scores of 30-26, 30-18, 30-25. Senior Lindsay Mahan and freshman Lauren Salisbury led SDSU with 10 kills and four blocks apiece. Libero Aime Cordeiro totaled 23 digs over the three games.
*** The following day (Oct. 13), the Aztecs dropped a 3-2 (30-28, 30-18, 26-30, 26-30, 15-12) decision at TCU. Four players finished in double figures in kills for SDSU led by Lindsey Mahan with 17. Hannah Evans chipped in with 14 kills while Salisbury and Caitlin McMillan recorded 12 and 10 respectively.
DARNALL LOST FOR THE SEASON
*** Sophomore outside hitter Stephanie Darnall suffered a broken leg (tibia) in the first game of last Saturday's match at TCU and will miss the remainder of the season.
*** Darnall, who had started every match and played in every game this fall until she was injured, is the team leader in kills at 3.28 per game. She is also second in digs (2.65 dpg), behind only libero Aime Cordeiro.
*** She has reached double figures kills in 13 of the team's 19 matches.
*** Darnall, who recorded 10 double-doubles in her first season at SDSU last year, has added eight more in 2007.
MCMILLAN COMES THROUGH
*** In the absence of Darnall, sophomore Caitlin McMillan was called upon at TCU and she responded by recording 10 kills and 15 digs against the Horned Frogs.
*** It was the first double-double of her Aztec career.
*** Both her kill and digs totals in the TCU match represented career highs as well. Her two assists in that contest tied her previous best as an Aztec.
MAHAN MAKING HER MARK
*** Senior Lindsey Mahan led the Aztecs with 17 kills at TCU last Saturday, one shy of her career high.
*** Over SDSU's last four matches, she is hitting .343 while averaging3.27 kills per game.
*** Four of her nine service aces on the year have come in the last four contests as well.
*** She had her career-best 18 kills in the win over UNLV last Sept. 21. It marked the third time this season that she has set a personal best in that category.
*** Mahan set a career high with 10 blocks in the match vs. Northern Illinois on Sept. 8.
*** Her .309 overall hitting percentage is second on the team and ranks eighth in the Mountain West Conference this week.
*** She is second on the squad with a season average of 1.25 blocks per game. Mahan's blocking average over her previous three seasons as an Aztec was 0.88 bpg.
LATHROP DOUBLES UP
*** Setter Leah Lathrop had her third double-double of the season with 25 assists and 11 digs in the match vs. Wyoming on Oct. 6.
*** It marked the seventh double-double effort of her three-year Aztec career.
*** She ranks fifth in MWC league matches this week in service aces with an average of 0.33 per game.
*** Lathrop has played in every match this season with the exception of the UNLV contest on Sept. 21, which she missed due to a sore back.
EVANS SOLID UP FRONT
*** Redshirt freshman Hannah Evans reached double figures in kills for the seventh time this season with 14 at TCU last Saturday.
*** In conference play she is averaging over two kills, two digs and a half block a game.
*** Evans has recorded four double-doubles this year. She has been in double figures in kills seven times and hit double figures in digs on nine occasions.
*** Evans has started 18 of SDSU's 19 matches in 2007.
SALISBURY SHINES
*** First-year Aztec Lauren Salisbury (Southlake, Texas, Carroll HS) has started all 19 matches this season and continues to impress.
*** She enters the week as the overall team leader in blocking at 1.33 per game as well as hitting percentage (.314).
*** She set a personal best with 25 kills in the win over UNLV on Sept. 21. Her previous high was 17 against Northern Illinois on Sept. 8.
*** Her .600 attack percentage in that match against UNLV is the highest for an Aztec this season.
*** Salisbury opened her SDSU career with a 10- kill, seven-block effort vs. UC Santa Barbara on Aug. 24.
*** Her overall hitting percentage ranks sixth in the MWC this week.
*** In league games, she is hitting .315, seventh-best in the conference.
ON THE BLOCK
*** San Diego State has been out-blocked in a match in only three of its 19 contests this season.
*** Individually, the Aztecs are the only team with three players who appear among the top 10 in the MWC blocking stats, either overall or in league matches only.
*** In all matches, SDSU is averaging 3.13 blocks per game, second-best in the MWC.
*** This week, San Diego State ranks 20th in the nation in blocking. NCAA statistics are posted on Tuesday afternoons (at www.ncaa.org).
*** The Aztecs have three players who are among the top 10 in the league's overall stats in blocking led by freshman Lauren Salisbury (1.33 bpg-4th) and senior Lindsey Mahan (1.25 bpg-5th). In addition, senior Sydney De Turk ranks ninth at 1.11 bpg.
*** In league-game stats, Mahan and Salisbury are tied for sixth at 1.19 bpg while De Turk is 10th at 1.16 bpg.
CORDEIRO SETS CAREER MARK
*** With 27 digs in the match against UNLV on Sept. 21, senior Aime Cordeiro set a new San Diego State career record in that category.
*** Her current total of 1,782 digs has surpassed the total of 1,678 set by Jackie Mendez (1985-88) and moved her into the all-time top spot.
*** Cordeiro's 30 digs vs. San Diego on Sept. 18 was the 10th time in her career that she has posted at least 30 digs in a match, the most in SDSU history. Former Aztec Jackie Mendez ranks second with four 30-dig contests.
*** Cordeiro's average of 6.30 digs per game leads the MWC overall stats this week.
*** She ranks seventh in the NCAA Division I stats this week.
DE TURK AT THE NET
*** Sydney De Turk, a senior transfer from Concordia University in Irvine, who appeared in just seven games a year ago in her first season as an Aztec, has started 11 of SDSU's last 12 matches.
*** She set her personal high in kills with 10 against Utah (Sept. 13) and then bettered that with 12 in the match vs. Brigham Young two days later.
*** De Turk also had a career-best nine blocks in each of those matches.
SDSU VOLLEYBALL ON TV
*** The Aztecs will appear on television twice during the 2007 season.
*** In addition to this week's contest at UNLV, SDSU's match at Brigham Young on Friday, Nov. 16, will be televised live on BYUTV and will be streamed over the Internet at www.byutv.org. The match may be seen on a tape-delayed basis on The Mtn. on Sunday, Nov. 18, at 4:00 p.m. (PST).
*** The Mtn. will also carry the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship contest of the 2007 MWC championship tournament to be held in Las Vegas Nov. 21-24. All of those matches will be televised live with the exception of the second semifinal on Friday, Nov. 23, which will be tape-delayed one hour.
WORKING LONG HOURS
*** Seven of San Diego State's 19 matches this season have gone five games. The Aztecs are 4-3 in those contests.
*** Last season, SDSU went 2-3 in five-game matches.
*** Since going to rally scoring in 2001, the highest number of five-game matches in a season for the Aztecs had been five (2002, 2003, 2006).
*** The team's best season record in those matches was 2-3 in both 2002 and 2006.
*** The last time SDSU had seven five-game contests in a season was in 1996, going 4-3 in those outings.
*** The Aztecs had eight five-game matches during the 1992 campaign.
DEFENDERS CONTRIBUTE
*** Two SDSU defensive specialists were instrumental in the win over UNLV back on Sept. 21.
*** Junior Michelle Ferrer and sophomore Brianna Bowman both played in all five games, their most action in a match as an Aztec.
*** Ferrer set a career best with 15 digs in the contest, surpassing her previous high of 10 against UC Santa Barbara in the season opener.
*** Bowman also had a personal best with 11 digs. Her career dig total entering the match was two.
DUAL SETTERS
*** With the exception of the match vs. UNLV on Sept. 21, the Aztecs have been rotating Kristen Castillo and Leah Lathrop at the setter position. Lathrop missed the match on Sept. 21 due to injury.
*** Because they are splitting time, neither has accumulated spectacular numbers, but together they are averaging 11.98 assists and 2.79 digs per game.
*** Lathrop has amassed 446 assists this season compared to .433 for Castillo.
*** Between the two, they are hitting .410 with 36 total kills in 78 attempts (four errors).
*** Castillo notched her fifth career double-double with 63 assists and 15 digs vs. UNLV on Sept. 21.
*** Lathrop recorded the seventh double-double of her SDSU with a 25-kill, 11-dig performance vs. Wyoming on Oct. 4.
CASTILLO HAS BIG NIGHT
*** With setter Leah Lathrop not available for the match against UNLV on Sept. 21, senior Kristen Castillo played the entire contest against the Rebels and had one of her finest outings as an Aztec.
*** She set career highs with 63 assists and 15 digs in the win. Her previous bests included 51 assists vs. Wyoming in 2006 and 10 digs vs. Northern Illinois earlier this season.
*** Castillo's double-double effort was her second of the season and fifth of her SDSU career.
*** She also had five kills in the match along with three block assists.
MOVING UP THE CHARTS
*** Senior setter Kristen Castillo has moved into fifth place on the career assist list with 2,489. She is 284 assists away from the number-four spot occupied by Liane Sato (1985-86) with 2,773 assists.
*** With 1,914 career assists, junior Leah Lathrop has moved up to the number-seven spot. She needs 325 assists to move up one spot by catching Melissa Stokes (1986-88) who recorded 2,239 assists as an Aztec.
RECORD SETTER
*** Libero Aime Cordeiro, who set an SDSU and Mountain West Conference record with 46 digs against Northern Illinois on Sept. 8, followed that up with a 44-dig outing in the team's next match against Cal State Fullerton on Sept. 11.
*** Despite falling two digs shy of tying her own record, the 44 digs established a new MWC mark for digs in a five-game match.
AZTEC NOTES
*** Freshman Kelsey Manasco had a personal-best four blocks in the match at TCU last weekend. Her six kills represented her second-most of the season after she recorded eight against Texas-Pan American.
*** Lauren Salisbury and Lindsey Mahan are the only two Aztecs to have started every match this season.
*** Redshirt freshman Kate Ammerman made her first career appearance in the match against Air Force on Oct. 4.
*** SDSU has won the opening game in 13 of its 19 matches in 2007.
*** The Aztecs' six-match winning streak, which ended with the loss to BYU on Saturday Sept. 15, was their longest since 2003 when they recorded four consecutive victories twice during the season.
*** SDSU's 3-0 loss at Colorado State was the first time this season it has failed to win a game in match. That has since been followed by a 3-0 loss at New Mexico last weekend.
*** Setter Kristen Castillo has recorded at least one kill in seven of SDSU's last nine matches.
*** Lauren Salisbury, Sydney De Turk and Hannah Evans have at least one block in every match this season. Lindsey Mahan ended a streak of 14 matches in a row with a block when she was shut out at Colorado State on Sept. 27.