SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State volleyball team returns to the court on Saturday, Nov. 6, when it travels to the Central Valley to battle Fresno State in a Mountain West match, starting at 11 a.m. PT.
Links to live stats and streaming video via the Mountain West Network will be available on GoAztecs.com.
SDSU is coming off a thrilling 3-2 victory at UNLV on Monday night (25-22, 16-25, 11-25, 25-23, 15-11), which snapped a five-match losing streak. Zoi Faki led the Aztecs with 16 kills, while Victoria O'Sullivan finished with 12 put-aways of own.
In addition, Heipua Tautua'a flashed her versatility wth eight kills, 12 digs and a team-high three block assists, helping the Scarlet and Black win in Vegas for just the second time since the start of the 2013 campaign.
Despite a deficit in almost every statistical category, SDSU posted more team blocks (5.0 to 1.0) over the final two sets while benefiting from nine UNLV attack errors overall and five wayward serves during that span to help key its comeback.
Entering the weekend, the Aztecs are slotted ninth in the conference standings with a 4-9 mark and a 7-18 overall record. SDSU finds itself three matches behind sixth-place Boise State (7-6) in the race for the final spot in the Mountain West Championship. The top six teams in the league will receive a bid to the MW Championship, Nov. 24-26, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For the season, the Aztecs occupy the second spot in the conference with 11.74 assists per set while ranking fourth in digs (13.02/set), fifth in kills (12.69/set) and seventh in hitting percentage (.219). However, SDSU has fared much better offensively in MW matches, leading the league in kills (13.18/set) and assists (12.12/set) while ranking fourth in hitting percentage (.235).
Individually, O'Sullivan leads the Aztecs with 3.64 kills per set, which ranks third in the Mountain West. The SDSU senior has amassed 950 kills for her career, needing just 50 more over the final five matches to reach the 1,000-kill plateau in a Scarlet and Black uniform.
Last week, O'Sullivan launched a collegiate-best 24 kills in a narrow 3-2 setback to Utah State and followed that effort with another 23 put-aways in a four-set defeat to Boise State, which are tied for the third- and fifth-highest single-match totals, respectively, in the conference so far this year. With her performances, the Aztec has also collected over 20 kills in consecutive matches for the first time in her career.
Additionally, O'Sullivan has posted double-digit kills in 20 of her previous 22 starts and has surpassed that plateau in 52 of her last 67 appearances dating back to the start of the 2019 campaign.
Elsewhere, senior Natalie Smith ranks fourth in the Mountain West for all matches with an average of 3.72 digs per set. Smith's 27 digs vs. Houston Baptist on Aug. 27 is tied for the fourth-best showing in the conference this season and is tops for a three-set match. In addition, the SDSU senior posted 22 scoops vs. UC Riverside on Sept. 18, which is tied for the third-best total in a three-set contest.
Meanwhile, Fresno State (10-11, 6-7 MW) occupies the seventh position in the conference standings following a four-set loss at home to UNLV on Thursday (17-25, 25-20, 14-25, 22-25). Senior Desiree Sukhov led the Bulldogs with 14 kills, while junior Grace Doyle (13) and freshman Ella Rud (12) also recorded double-digit put-aways. However, the Rebels posted a greater hitting percentage (.363 to .242) and held the upper hand in kills (56-49) and aces (12-8) to help keep Fresno State at bay.
Entering the Saturday's match, the Bulldogs sport three players who are averaging over two kills per set, including Sukhov (2.86), junior Amaria Kelly (2.43) and fellow classmate Savanah Smith (2.59), with Doyle (1.99) not far behind. Among the MW leaders, sophomore Kasey Purrey ranks second with 1.22 blocks per set, while junior Mikayla Weiss is sixth in assists (6.68/set). In addition, Doyle checks in at 10th this week in with a .336 hitting percentage and ranks eighth in service aces (0.36/set, 27 overall), trailing teammate Sukhov (0.43/set, 32 overall), who is tied for third in that category.
Collectively, Fresno State ranks fourth in both blocks (2.27/set) and aces (1.78/set) but occupies the lower half of the conference in kills (9th, 11.59/set), assists (9th, 10.73/seet) and hitting percentage (10th, .190).
The Bulldogs are under the guidance of fourth-year head coach Jonathan Winder, who was a four-time All-American and the 2007 national player of the year for the men's team at Pepperdine, where he led the Waves to the NCAA finals as a senior in 2008.
Despite dropping a five-set nail-biter to Fresno State in San Diego on Oct. 7 (25-22, 22-25, 25-17, 23-25, 12-15), San Diego State still leads the all-time varsity series 33-16. In that contest last month, the Aztecs built a 2-1 lead in sets but could not close out the Bulldogs, who benefited from eight SDSU attack errors and three wayward serves in the pivotal fourth set while out-blocking the Scarlet and Black 5.0 to 2.0.
The teams combined for 12 ties and six lead changes in that fourth stanza, where Tautua'a led the Aztec offense with four kills, while Noa Miller and Andrea Walker collected three apiece. The Aztecs seemed poised to close out the match after building a 21-18 lead on consecutive kills by Walker and Kennedy Feuerborn.
However, the Bulldogs fought themselves off the ropes, uncorking a timely 5-1 surge to vault in front 23-22. Fresno State was gifted three points on two off-target SDSU attacks and a ball-handling error, while Rud knocked down a kill and combined with Purry on a block. The Aztecs knotted the score shortly thereafter at 23-23 on a Walker blast but could not regain the upper hand, as the Bulldogs recorded back-to-back kills to escape with the set. Stung, SDSU fell behind 7-2 in the fifth set and could not gain the upper hand after trimming the margin to 14-12.
The Aztecs are 9-9 in 18 previous trips to Fresno since 1986. The Bulldogs are 6-3 at home this year, while SDSU is 4-7 in true road matches, including 3-3 mark in conference play.
Following Saturday's showdown, San Diego State will make its final road trip of the regular season next week when it battles Air Force on Thursday, Nov. 11 before facing New Mexico on Saturday, Nov. 13.
The Aztecs wrap up their regular-season slate with a pair of home matches vs. Nevada (Nov. 18) and San José State (Nov. 20).