ARCATA - A year of cementing the volleyball foundation of the future is almost complete. Humboldt State will complete its first step in raising up the rugged California Collegiate Athletic Association ranks this week with the final pair of matches.
The Lumberjacks have taken many steps in the fall of 2013 in the first year of head coach Kelly Wood's tenure at the helm.
HSU comes off a week of a split of its final two home matches by falling to #15 Sonoma State before handling San Francisco State.
The Jacks will travel to face their rival Wildcats of Chico State Friday before going south to Turlock to matchup with Cal State Stanislaus on Saturday evening.
HSU tries to build last time on win total
The Jacks have increased their win total by 367% in the 2013 campaign.
After claiming only three victories in 29 matches a year ago, HSU enters the final pair of bouts with 11 victories in 27 contests this year.
HSU aims to put more victories on that 11-16 record to increase the win-percent by over 400% with even one more in its win column.
Jacks most wins in nine seasons
An 11-win season may not seem like a huge accomplishment but it is for HSU when put in context.
The Jacks' 11-16 record heading into the final two matches are now the most victories since finishing an even 13-13 for the 2005 campaign.
First-year head coach Kelly Wood can also claim to have won the third most win for a first year in program history behind only Dan Collen's 19-13 mark in 1989 and Tina Raddish's 16-11 record for 1994.
HSU sends Siebert out with home win
The Jacks were able to send their lone senior Sam Siebert with the quickest winning combination of the season as part of the first straight sets shutout of the year.
On her 'Senior Night,' Sam Siebert and the Lumberjacks took a bite out of the Gators of San Francisco State in sweeping fashion, 3-0, on Saturday night.
The straight-set victory (25-21, 25-19 and 25-22) was the first such win for HSU on the year to snap a six-match losing streak and record the second sweep of an opponent this season in the Gators.
In her final appearance in Lumberjack Arena, Siebert punctuated the home win when she teamed with middle blocker Alex Hasenstab to block San Francisco State's Jaclyn Clark for the final point of the match.
Along with the match-ending block assist, Siebert finished the evening with 38 set assists to go with seven digs.
Ashley Owen and Symone Hayden both hit over .290 on the HSU frontline. Owen lined 13 kills, recorded a .296 hit percentage and blocked three attacks. Hayden posted 12 kills of her own with eight digs and one block.
Coach Wood's comments on last week's matches:
"We finished our last home weekend of matches with a split after losing to Sonoma and beating San Francisco Saturday night. We played SSU tougher than the first time, taking a set off of them. They are a team with very good offensive balance, and they're a tough serving and passing team. They always play with composure, and in order to beat them we really had to play very well. Our young team has struggled all season long with playing at our highest level for an extended period of time, and that was the case again against them.
When we played Saturday vs. San Francisco we did a much better job of playing with consistency, and it really felt like we were in control during that match, which has been an unfamiliar feeling this season. We got our first three set win of the entire season, and it was a great way to finish our season at home."
Siebert completing quality final year
A senior always wants to make her mark on the collegiate program that they have played. Sam Siebert has been able to accomplish this task.
The senior transfer has added stability to the HSU offensive attack and helped the team compete on a nightly basis for the team to claim a rise with 11 wins.
Siebert has totaled the 7th most assists per set in the CCAA of 9.63 or 897 in 93 sets. She also has 42 kills, 17 aces, 214 digs and 26 blocks.
Owen, Dunaway and Renshaw hits marks
Three HSU players - Ashley Owen, Kaitlyn Dunaway and Kelci Renshaw - have been able to hit the 400 plateau in stat categories this season.
With eight more kills, outside hitter Owen will become the first Jacks player with 400-plus kills over the last seven years. She currently is 4th in the CCAA with 392 kills and 6th in kills per set at 3.66.
Renshaw and Dunaway are the third and fourth HSU players with 400-plus digs in a season over the past five seasons. Renshaw has 403 digs and Dunaway 402 for the year as Tiffany McCray's 450 last season and Emily Nuss' 403 in 2009 were the only other two.
Renshaw ranks 5th in the league with 0.36 services aces per set. She has 39 over 107 sets played.
HSU's CCAA final weekend road action foes...
Coach Wood's comments on this weekend's contests:
"We head out this weekend for our final away weekend of the season, starting with Chico on Friday night. Chico was very impressive when we played them last time. They run such a fast offense, and we had a very hard time stopping them. We finish up on Saturday with Stanislaus, who is a young team like us, and has shown a lot of improvement this season. It is always difficult playing teams on their home court, but we will prepare all week to go and have a strong finish to our year."
at Chico State (14-13/11-9 CCAA)
(Fri. at 7 p.m. in Chico)
Series History: Chico St. leads 42-21
Last meeting: Chico State won 3-1 in Arcata on Oct. 19 -- (18-25, 26-24, 20-25, 14-25) Chico State hit .284 for the four-set match including .385 in the game-winning fourth set. Chico St. received 23 kills and 11 digs from Alex Shurtz and 14 kills, three digs and three block assists from Lindsay Quigley...Ashley Owen downed 15 kills for HSU with Kaitlyn Dunaway having 12 kills and Kelci Renshaw 20 digs on the night.
Last HSU win: 3-2 in 2nd meeting of 2008 in Arcata
*Directed by 11th-year coach Cody Hein
*Wildcats have won three of their last five matches including a 3-0 victory over #15 Sonoma State
*Won 12 of 17 sets in last five matches
*Split two road matches last week -- a 3-0 loss at CSU Dominguez Hills before winning at Cal State Los Angeles, 3-2
*Elle Larronde leads team with 344 kills
*Alex Shurtz sits 3rd in CCAA with 4.03 kills/set
*Lindsay Quigley has 3rd best hitting percentage .361
*Molly Ratto is 3rd in aces per set (0.38)
*Setter Torey Thompson leads league in assists per set at 11.34
at Cal State Stanislaus (7-21/4-16 CCAA)
(Sat. at 7 p.m. in Turlock)
Series History: HSU leads 45-20
Last meeting: HSU won 3-1 on Oct. 17 in Arcata -- (13-25, 25-19, 25-13, 25-21)...Warriors were led by Jocelyn Cervantes with 13 kills and Paige Walker with 11 kills, 14 digs and six block assists...Jacks received 16 kills from both Owen and Dunaway with Renshaw digging 29 attacks.
Last HSU win: Last meeting
*Coached by 9th-year head coach Christina Lore
*Warriors have dropped their last seven matches and nine of 11 overall.
*Snapped a six-match shutout streak last Saturday by taking CSU Dominguez Hills to five sets before losing, 3-2
*Won only three matches since Oct. 1st (3-12)
*Warriors have only one senior on their team
*Libero Sarah Crowl leads the CCAA with 5.43 digs per set -- 516 digs over 95 sets played
*Blair Ehrlich leads team with 348 kills
*Taylor Massengale has a team-high 60 blocks.
###
