ARCATA, Calif. – The Humboldt State women's volleyball team will host two conference foes this weekend, facing UC San Diego and Cal State San Marcos on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
 
Both games have a start time of 7 p.m., and the Tritons are 10-3 (4-1 in the CCAA) while the Cougars are 6-7 (3-2).
 
The Lumberjacks are coming off a 3-1 win Tuesday night over Cal State East Bay at home following a Southern California weekend swing where they fell to Cal State Dominguez Hills 3-2 and Cal State LA 3-1.
 
HSU Head Coach Kelly Wood said regarding the East Bay victory, "It was definitely a strong night for us offensively; we made a lot of mistakes from the service line, which was uncharacteristic of us, and the whole night it felt a little disconnected, discombobulated if you will. But regardless, the team and the coaches are just so pleased to start this home streak with a win against a good East Bay team."
 
Junior setter Rachel Tostberg said, "We definitely learned from the Southern California trip, and figured some things out as a team and as individual players." Tostberg made mention of the team's three more consecutive impending home games allowing the squad to settle into its routine and get some consistent rest in the spirit of mental preparation. She also enthusiastically spoke of being able to perform in front of her home fans."
 
Wood said she was especially proud of her team's showing Saturday against Cal State LA, a "strong, athletic, talented team" against which she said HSU competed especially well, and took the third set. "I told the girls after the match that I was very proud of the effort you put out today," said the coach, who noted that the team managed to make it a 17-all contest in the fourth set before the Golden Eagles pulled away.
 
"We're happy to be at home," said Wood. "The adrenaline kicks in, the soreness goes away, the energy level is at at the highest level it can be. We had a great match in our last home match against San Francisco State, and the girls are happy to be sleeping in their own beds, going to class, and getting ready to play here in Lumberjack Arena."
 
The Cal State East Bay win moved the Jacks to 3-10 overall, 2-5 in conference, and Wood sees a lot of optimism from her troops and opportunity in their homestand: "We are going into only our fourth week, and we have time to get things moving in the right direction. We feel like in these first few weeks of conference, even though we don't have a positive record, we're seeing a lot of positive things. After Saturday night, there weren't a lot of long faces; we don't like to lose, but they understood that we've made a lot of improvements over the past few weeks."