SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State volleyball program will open its 45th season of varsity competition this week when it travels to the Silver State for a two-match series against UNLV on consecutive nights, Feb. 4-5, at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada. First serve for both encounters is set for 6:30 p.m. PT, with live stats and streaming video via The Mountain West Network available on GoAztecs.com.
QUICK HITS
> This weekend's matches will mark the debut of Brent Hilliard, who became the fifth head coach in Aztec volleyball history after a successful 19-year tenure as an assistant at the University of San Diego, where he served as the Toreros' associate head coach from 2007-19.
> Hilliard hired the legendary Steve Timmons to his staff as an assistant coach. Timmons was the first American male to win three Olympic medals in indoor volleyball, leading the U.S national team to gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Games, as well as a bronze in 1992.
> San Diego State posted a 15-14 overall record in the fall of 2019, marking the program's sixth winning season in a nine-year span. The Aztecs also finished fifth in the Mountain West race with a mark of 8-10.
> SDSU will have gone 439 days since playing its last intercollegiate match on Nov. 23, 2019, when it dropped a 3-1 decision to Boise State in the season finale. The Aztecs' last win took place two days earlier that year with a four-set victory at Utah State.
> Thursday's opener at UNLV will mark SDSU's earliest match in program history to count in the conference standings. The previous mark was set in 1997 when the Aztecs played host to San José State in a Western Athletic Conference clash in the second match of that season.
2021 MOUNTAIN WEST SPRING VOLLEYBALL SCHEDULE
> The Mountain West has adopted a 16-match conference-only schedule for the 2021 spring volleyball season taking place over nine weeks (Feb. 4-April 3).
> Each institution will play six opponents twice and four opponents once.
> Using a hybrid scheduling format, the first seven weeks will feature teams facing the same opponent twice in one weekend at one site. Travel partners will play the final two weeks of the season.
> The regular-season champion will be the Mountain West's NCAA tournament automatic qualifier.
CATCH AZTEC VOLLEYBALL ON THE MOUNTAIN WEST NETWORK
> As of Feb. 3, the Mountain West Network is scheduled to stream 11 of the Aztecs' 16 matches during the 2021 spring campaign. A link to MWN matches will be available on GoAztecs.com.
> SDSU is slated to live stream six home matches on the MWN this spring, including the first Fresno State clash (Feb. 12), followed by Nevada (Feb. 27), Utah State (March 12-13), Air Force (April 1) and Colorado State (April 3).
> Five of the Aztecs road contests are also scheduled to be streamed on the MWN, including UNLV (Feb. 4-5), Wyoming (March 5-6) and Boise State (March 20).
SERIES RECORD VS. UNLV
> Since the two programs first met in 1985, the Aztecs lead the all-time series against the Rebels, 28-22.
> However, SDSU is 10-14 vs. UNLV in Las Vegas and is 4-6 in its last 10 trips to Sin City.
> Last season, the Aztecs defeated the Rebels in Cox Pavilion for the first time since 2012 with a thrilling four-set triumph (28-26, 27-25, 20-25, 27-25).
> With the victory, SDSU put the brakes on a three-match slide against UNLV and snapped the Rebels' own nine-match winning streak.
> The Aztecs had three players surpass double-digit kill totals in that contest, including the since-graduated Hannah Turnlund, who completed a double-double with 16 kills and a match-high 21 digs, while Victoria O'Sullivan (13 kills) and Andrea Walker (12 kills, 5 block assists) also played key roles.
> SDSU maintained the advantage in kills (58-56), digs (74-64) and team blocks (12.0-9.0) to help fuel its victory.
> Despite committing 34 attack errors, the Scarlet and Black also benefited from 11 errant Rebel serves, which offset eight aces by the hosts.
> The two sides combined for 42 ties and 16 lead changes in the match, including 15 and seven, respectively, in the first set alone.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
> UNLV posted a 20-11 overall record and 15-3 mark in the Mountain West during the 2019 fall campaign, finishing third in the conference race behind Colorado State and Wyoming. Following the regular season, the Rebels competed in the National Invitational Volleyball Tournament, defeating Kansas City (3-1) in the event opener before falling to South Dakota (3-0) in the second round. UNLV was picked second in the MW preseason coaches poll, garnering 90 points and four first-place votes, just behind defending league champion Colorado State, which received 92 points and five first-place votes. The Rebels boast six seniors on their roster this spring, including two-time all-MW honoree Mariena Hayden, who was also named to the preseason all-conference team. An outside hitter, Hayden led MW last season in points per set (4.70) and service aces (70) while ranking third in kills per set (3.76, 384 overall). In addition, UNLV returns middle blocker Kate Brennan, who received all-MW honorable mention in 2019 after ranking sixth in the league with a .330 hitting percentage and 18th with 0.87 blocks per set (111 overall). Also back in the mix for the Rebels are outside hitters Shelby Capllonch (2.56 kills/set, 3.16 digs/set) and Theda Sweder (2.10 kills/set), along with libero Paris Oliveira, who ranked 10th in the MW with 3.24 digs per set last year. As a team, UNLV finished among the top half of the MW in several statistical categories during the 2019 campaign, including service aces (1st - 1.88/set), kills (2nd - 13.19/set), assists (3rd - 12.25/set) and hitting percentage (4th - (.233)). Head coach Dawn Sullivan is in her third season with the Rebels after spending 13 years as an assistant at Iowa State, including the final six as associate head coach.
WELCOME BACK
> The Aztecs return 13 players, including nine letterwinners from last year's squad that finished with a 15-14 record overall and an 8-10 mark in the Mountain West.
> Leading the returners is outside hitter Victoria O'Sullivan, who ranked sixth in the league with 3.20 kills per set (352 overall) and tied for the team lead with 14 solo blocks while finishing fourth with 52 stops overall. The Aztec junior is the lone veteran to have played all 110 sets in 2019, finishing with double-digit kill totals in 21 of the Aztecs' 29 matches, including 10 straight to start the season.
> In SDSU's riveting five-set thriller over West Virginia at the Aztec Challenge in September 2019, O'Sullivan blasted a career-high 22 kills and logged a collegiate-best .487 hitting percentage, committing just three errors in 39 attempts.
> With the graduation of Hannah Turnlund and Tamia Reeves, setter Camryn Machado is the Aztecs' lone all-Mountain West honoree to return from last year. The Cardiff-by-the-Sea native ranked second in the MW with 10.62 assists per set (1,158 overall) and occupied the No. 2 spot on the team with 2.54 digs per set (277 overall).
> Additionally Machado led the Scarlet and Black with 14 double-doubles (assists-digs), including seven vs. MW opponents, and topped the squad with 16 service aces, including a career-high three in a home sweep of Utah State.
> Senior right-side hitter Erin Gillcrist has been selected team captain for the upcoming season. The Lakewood, Colorado, native has successfully recovered from off-season shoulder surgery and looks to build on a 2019 campaign in which she averaged 1.89 kills (144 overall) and 0.71 blocks per set (54 overall).
> In the Aztecs' 3-1 victory over Long Beach State on Sept. 19, 2019, Gillcrist matched her career-best with a .500 attack percentage, flooring 10 balls on 16 attempts with two errors.
> Also back in the fold is middle blocker Andrea Walker, who owns the top returning hitting percentage among Aztec regulars after finishing 10th in the Mountain West last year with a .308 clip. The Fairfield, California, product occupied the second spot on the team with an average of 0.88 blocks per set (61 overall) and ranked fifth behind Gillcrist with an average of 1.87 kills per set (129 overall).
> Walker compiled double-digit kills on three occasions, including a career-high 13 put-aways in SDSU's 3-1 victory at Utah State on Nov. 21, 2019.
MEET THE NEWCOMERS
> First-year head coach Brent Hilliard has added four newcomers to the roster, including a trio of freshmen in outside hitter Heipua Tautua'a, setter Kennedy Feuerborn and defensive specialist Nadia Barcklay, along with junior defensive specialist Brooklynn Hill, a transfer from perennial national power Penn State.
> Hill played 13 matches in two seasons with the Nittany Lions, who advanced to the NCAA regional finals in both of her years on the State College campus. A native of Southern California, Hill starred for three straight conference championship teams at Rancho Cucamonga High School from 2015-17, earning all-Baseline League honors three times to go with a trio of team MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards.
> A product of Wai'anae High School in Hawai'i, Tautua'a garnered first-team all-Western Division accolades from the O'ahu Interscholastic Association in 2018 and landed on the AVCA Phenom Watch List. She also excelled at the junior level, collecting Most Valuable Player honors at the 2019 Girls Junior National Championships after leading her Spike and Serve Volleyball Club 16s team to the American Division title. In addition, Tautua'a earned a spot on the USA Volleyball Girls' Youth A1 National Training Team in 2018-19.
> Feurborn, meanwhile, arrives on The Mesa by way of Johnson County (Kan.) Community College where she enrolled for the 2019-20 academic year but did not compete in volleyball. Feuerborn earned second-team all-state honors and landed on the state Class 6A all-tournament team as a senior in 2018 at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, Kansas. She originally signed with Baylor as a prep but did not attend.
> Rounding out the rookie class is Barcklay, who graduated from Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, where she received first team all-conference recognition and team MVP accolades as a junior in 2018 after averaging 24.6 digs per match (541 total, 7.7 per set).