ARCATA – With three non-conference wins under their belt, the Lumberjacks look to keep the victory streak alive as they start California Collegiate Athletic Association action on Saturday. Humboldt State hosts Sonoma State with a 5:30 p.m. tipoff time at the Lumberjack Arena, right before the men play at 7:30 for the year's first double-header.

HSU enters the game 3-0, coming off a 69-57 win over National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' Hope International on Friday. Sonoma State comes in the game 1-0, claiming a 55-54 overtime victory over Colorado Mesa on Saturday.

Head-to-Head

Sonoma State holds the edge in the overall series against the Lumberjacks (36-29). Last year, Humboldt State and the Seawolves split the series, each grabbing a victory on the road. SSU beat HSU 73-65 at Lumberjack Arena almost a year ago exactly on Nov. 27, but the Jacks turned around and won in Rhonert Park 61-56 later in the season.

Multimedia

Video streaming will be featured through the Lumberjacks' web site at the following link:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-state-athletics. Live stats for all HSU home matches can be accessed at http://livestats.internetconsult.com/humboldt/wbball/ while the event is in progress.

Lumberjack Notes

In Friday's win over Hope International, Bree Halsey led the Jacks with 16 points, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 on the night. Halsey is tied for third in the CCAA for most rebounds, averaging 9.0 per game. Whitney Howard picked up a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds to help HSU grab the victory over the Royals. Howard sits in the No. 12 spot in the conference leader board with 14.0 points per game. Although the Jacks have produced offensively, they also had 24 turnovers in the game against Hope International, something head coach Joddie Gleason is not pleased with.

"Right now we're working on cleaning up our offense a bit—we've had too many forced errors," said Gleason. "At practice, we're focusing on when it's the right opportunity to attack and push, and when that doesn't present itself, we need to do a better job executing offensively."

While Kayla Williams didn't have a good game offensively against Hope International, Gleason is really proud of the leadership she has shown to "rally the troops" when they're struggling. Gleason and the Jacks will look to use their veteran experience from players like Williams, Halsey and Caitie Richards as the grueling conference schedule begins.

Opponent Notes

Sonoma State started its season out with an overtime win over Colorado Mesa last week. Travis Newman  scored with 0.6 on the clock to tie the game at 49-49 to send it into overtime. The Seawolves pulled ahead with a close 55-54 victory. Newman led the Seawolves in points, grabbing 16 on the night. The top rebounder for SSU was Aly Conway who posted six rebounds.

Injury Report

Injuries are a constant cloud hanging over HSU, and although the Jacks had some time off this week to recover, Lisa Petty and Kelly Kime are still questionable heading into Saturday's game—both with foot injuries.

Gleason's Gabs

"First three conference games are just as important as the ones in February. We need to crank it up a notch and increase our intensity to match conference play. Sometimes that is difficult this early in the season, but I don't think that will be a problem for us since we have a bunch of veteran players to lead the team." ... "Sonoma is a very good team. They play a lot of people that are all very good, so it's difficult to scout because they have a lot of different weapons. We haven't seen them a lot [on film], since we only have a couple games. They'll give us problems with their size if we're not prepared. They are a well-coached, well-disciplined team and they'll give us a handful."