ARACATA - Heading out on its longest road trip of the season, Humboldt State will test its volleyball might in the second three-match week of the past three weeks.
The Lumberjacks tries to better its first three contest week where they won just the middle of the three matches. For the second week in a row, HSU will also aim to move back over .500 once again.
HSU faces the three Los Angeles area California Collegiate Athletic Association members in four days. The Jacks open against the Broncos of Cal Poly Pomona on Wednesday night, before taking on CSU Dominguez Hills and Cal State Los Angeles on back-to-back nights Friday and Saturday.
Jacks defense enough to take Warriors
For Following a rough opening set, the Lumberjacks' defense spurred the squad to victory to outlast the Warriors of Cal State Stanislaus, 3-1.
The aforementioned first set saw the visiting Warriors run off seven points in a row to mount a 20-9 lead before taking the contest 25-13.
The bad set result was not repeated again the rest of the Jacks night.
With various long rallies, HSU compiled 94 digs in the four-set affair led by a career-best 29 from Renshaw, who also lined three service aces.
Led by the defense, HSU tied the match at one game apiece with a 25-19 second set win to head into intermission. The Jacks hung on for the important game three, 25-23, before finishing the match with a 25-21 game four victory.
Hayden joined Renshaw with 17 digs, while downing 10 kills, lining an ace and handing out an assist.
Quick-strike Chico State has cure for HSU
On a night celebrating 'Dig for a Cure,' Humboldt State had no cure for the quick-strike Chico State volleyball attack.
The visiting Wildcats' offense could not be stopped outside of the Lumberjacks pulling out a 26-24 second set in the 3-1 victory. Chico State opened with a 25-18 win in the first set, before taking the two sets out of the intermission by 25-20 and 25-14 totals.
The home team's passing did bode well for them as a bright spot. Sam Seibert handed out 37 assists to go with two kills, three digs, an ace and a block assist.
Coach Wood's Comments on last weekend:
"Last weekend we had a hard fought win against Cal State Stanislaus. After struggling in the first game we refocused and played well for the rest of the match.
Saturday we faced off with Chico, and they had an offense that we were unable to stop. I was proud of the effort we put out there, but we still have so many parts of our game that are hurting us against the real solid opponents. We continue to make a lot of mistakes that really prevent us from being successful against some of these more experienced teams."
Owen hitting her way to the top
After sitting out last year, HSU outside hitter Ashley Owen has put together a very solid year. The 6-3 junior has risen through consistently to the leaderboard for kills in the CCAA. Owen moved into 5th place in the latest individual leaders with 259 kills.
Owen is the lone Jacks player to hit double figures in kills in as many as 16 of the team's 18 matches. She downed 31 kills in eight sets last week and recorded a season-high of 28 kills vs. CSU Dominguez Hills on Sept. 21 in Arcata.
Renshaw aces up the ranks
Much like her frontline teammate, libero Kelci Renshaw has moved into the league's best servers over the past few weeks. The sophomore holds a 0.37 aces per set average, which is now the 2nd best of any of the 12 CCAA volleyball squads.
Renshaw has lined seven aces in the Jacks last three matches with two at Sonoma State, before hitting three against Cal State Stanislaus and another pair versus Chico State. She has at least one ace in 14 of the 18 season games with three matches of three aces.
The libero had her best back-to-back defenisve efforts with 29 and 20 digs in last week's two matches. She has posted 20-plus digs in three of the last four and four of the last six HSU matches.
Coach Wood's Comments on this week:
"We will be in southern California this week playing three matches, and kicking off the second half of conference play. Our goal for this weekend and the second half in general is to show growth and development as a team. We need to play with much more consistency, and we need to get off to a much better start in many of our matches. We have a tendency to dig ourselves into a hole before we start playing well, and we need to change that in order to give ourselves more opportunities to be successful."
HSU's CCAA 6th week foes...
at Cal Poly Pomona (7-12/5-6 CCAA)
(Wed. at 7 p.m. in Pomona)
Series History: CPP leads 22-1
Last meeting: CPP won 3-0 on Oct. 9 in Arcata -- (25-21, 25-19, 25-18) CPP was led by Jessica Doerner's 12 kills and 8 digs ... HSU received 13 kills from Ashley Owen and Kaityn Dunaway had 8 kills, 18 digs and 2 aces
*Last HSU win: only win came in 3-0 victory in Arcata in 1st meeting of 2006 series
*Coached by Rosie Wegrich in her 22nd season ... She is 5th in active Division II coaches and 19th at all levels with 693 wins.
*One of hottest CCAA teams since winning in Arcata over HSU with wins in four of the past 5 matches losing only to nationally-ranked Sonoma State
*In the four wins, Broncos have went 12-7 in the match sets
*Alexa Hasen is 2nd in the CCAA with 1.24 blocks per set and 3rd on team with 135 kills
*Jessica Doerner leads team with 224 kills
*Nicoletta Stork rated 4th in CCAA at 0.36 aces per set
at CSU Dominguez Hills (8-11/1-10 CCAA)
(Fri. at 7 p.m. in Carson)
Series History: HSU leads 18-5
Last meeting: HSU won 3-1 on Sept. 21 in Arcata -- (21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-23) CSUDH was led by Alijah Gunsaulus with 20 kills and 15 digs ... HSU's Ashley Owen belted 28 kills and hit .345 with 46 set assists and 17 digs coming from Sam Siebert
*Last HSU win: last meeting
*HSU won 3 of the last 5 matches -- CSUDH won both 2012 meetings and HSU took both games in 2011
*Coached by Jennifer Adeva in her 3rd season
*Toros have dropped their last five matches and 15 of the last 16 sets
*Lost 10 of the last 11 matches ... won only 7 of the 31 sets in those matches
*Whitney Lee sits 3rd in the CCAA with a .344 hitting percentage
*Alijah Gunsaulus leads the team with 214 kills
*Dana Brown holds 669 set assists and 138 digs
at Cal State Los Angeles (12-7/7-4 CCAA)
(Sat. at 7 p.m. in Los Angeles)
Series History: CSULA leads 18-3
Last meeting: CSULA won 3-2 on Sept. 19 in Arcata -- (26-24, 9-25, 25-21, 17-25, 6-15) HSU led 2-1 but could not convert four match points, before CSULA stormed back to win in five sets ... CSULA's Iona Lofrano hit 27 kills with a .377 attack pct. ... HSU's Ashley Owen and Symone Hayden pounded 12 kills and Colleen Noonan dug 15 balls
*Last HSU win: 3-1 win @Arcata (Sept. 20, 2008)
*Coached by Randi Smart in her 5th-year
*Golden Eagles have won 4 of their last 5 matches -- won 12 of 20 sets in those contests
*Split matches last week with a 3-0 loss to CSU San Bernardino, before defeating UC San Diego, 3-2
*Iona Lofrano is 2nd in the CCAA in both kills (337) and kills/set (4.27)
*Kymberly Silveyra also ranks in CCAA for kills (271)
*April Reyes rates 5th in digs (303) and Alexandra Bura is 5th in assists (10.01/set) for the league
