ARCATA — Humboldt State has grown accustomed to life on the road, heading out on another road trip for back-to-back matches Friday and Saturday night. The Jacks travel south to take on Cal State Monterey Bay on Friday, Sept. 28, before facing Cal State East Bay on Saturday, Sept. 29, with both games starting at 7 p.m.
All three teams have one thing in common: they are all looking for their first California Collegiate Athletic Association victory. Humboldt State stands at 2-10 overall, 0-5 in conference, while CSUMB sits 6-6 overall, 0-4 in the CCAA, and CSUEB sits 5-6 overall, 0-4 in conference action.
Head-to-Head
Humboldt State and Cal State Monterey Bay are dead even in the all-time series at 6-6 after the Jacks swept the series last year 3-1 and 3-2. The Jacks hold the upper hand against long-time foe Cal State East Bay at 37-14, but fell both matches 1-3 and 0-3 last season to the Pioneers.
Live Stats
Otter Notes
Cal State Monterey Bay enters Friday's match with a four-game losing streak in tow. The Otters fell in three-straight sets to Cal State Los Angeles, but put up a fight against Cal State Dominguez Hills, taking the Toros to five sets but walking away empty-handed. ... Julia Ashen leads with a .405 kills per set average, good for a .225 attack percentage. Rachel Freeno has put down 10 service aces, while Kelsey Johnston has picked up 356 assists. Defensively, Rachel Cookus and Lacee Ventura lead the team in digs with 155 and 121, respectively.
Pioneer Notes
Cal State East Bay also enters the weekend with a four-game losing streak. Like the Otters, the Pioneers fell in five sets to CSUDH and lost 3-1 to Cal State L.A. ... Suzy Ni Xu leads the attack, averaging 3.05 kills per set. Hannah Bell has picked up 15 aces and 104 digs to put her second on the team defensively behind Nicole Boyle's 124 digs. Samantha Bruno has tallied 34 blocks, seven of which were solo blocks.
Lumberjack Notes
Humboldt State hits the road hoping to snap a seven-game losing streak. The Jacks fell in three-straight sets to both Cal State San Bernardino (26-24, 25-22, 25-17) and UC San Diego (25-13, 25-20, 25-16). ...
Alexa Rosendale averages 3.16 kills per set for the Jacks with a .145 attack percentage and has registered 152 digs.
Allison Drobish leads with 34 blocks, 12 of which are solo efforts, and averages 1.14 kills per set.
Channel Washington averages 2.29 kills per set, followed by
Ashley Neale with 2.00 kills per set. Neale leads the Jacks with 19 service aces, followed by Rosendale,
Tiffany McCray and
Sarah Wilber with 16, 15 and 14 aces, respectively. HSU has accumulated 98 aces, proving to be a threat from the line. McCray leads with 194 digs while Wilber leads with 279 assists and a .362 attack percentage.
Kelci Renshaw follows with 96 assists and has picked up 11 aces as a freshman.
Woodstra's Words
"It's a strange conference this year. I feel like anyone could beat any team on a given day. The fact that we haven't won yet is frustrating. ... I thought we started to have more of a diverse attack, but we need to continue to work on that. We need to keep controlling easier balls and have quality first contacts. ... We really need to crank it up toward the end of games so we're going to work on that at practice this week. ... I thought we played well against CSU San Bernardino in the first two sets, but we struggled to get in sync against UC San Diego. ... We just have to prepare hard and prepare to win this week. ... CSUMB can sometimes be difficult to play on the road since they have a tiny gym. It makes a few people in the stands seem like a lot. ... We've really been working on our serves and I've been pleased with how we've been doing. We're trying to cut down the other team's streaks. We did a good job against CSUSB, but weren't as successful against UC San Diego."
