This Week:
Thurs., Sept. 27
Utah State Spartan Gym 7:00 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 29
Nevada Spartan Gym 7:00 p.m.

SPARTANS CONTINUE HOME STAND: The San Jose State volleyball team will play home matches two and three of this five-match home stand this week. The Spartans face Western Athletic Conference foes Utah State on Thursday and Nevada on Saturday. Both matches will be played at Spartan Gym. Live streaming video will be available on the Spartan web site through the Gold Zone. Live stats are available through the Spartan web site at www.sjsuspartans.com.

SPECIAL TICKET OFFER: The San Jose State Athletics Ticket Office is running a special promotion for this Saturday’s volleyball match against Nevada. Any person who attends the San Jose State-UC Davis football game can buy a general admission ticket for the volleyball match at the discounted price of $3. Fans just need to show their football ticket at the volleyball ticket window outside of Spartan Gym. The volleyball ticket window opens at 6 p.m., before each home match. All other ticket inquiries can be directed to the ticket office at 408-924-SJTX (7589).

RADIO INFORMATION: The San Jose State-Utah State match will be broadcast on KSJS, 90.5 FM, the San Jose State student radio station. A live stream of the broadcast can also be found on www.ksjs.org.

ABOUT UTAH STATE: The Aggies enter Thursday night’s match with a 6-7 overall record and a 3-1 WAC mark. The team split a pair of matches last week, losing at #24 New Mexico State, 1-2, but sweeping Louisiana Tech, 3-0. Head coach Grayson DuBose is in his his second year at the school and has a 19-26 coaching record. Senior Amanda Nielson leads the team in kills with 184, 4.49 pg, and is tied for the team lead with Danielle Taylor in blocks with 41, 1.00 pg.

San Jose State leads the overall series, 14-5-1, but Utah State won the meeting earlier this season, 30-27, 30-25, 17-30, 30-27, on September 15. Colleen Burke led all hitters with a season-best 17 kills. Nia Freeman added a season-best 11 kills. For the third consecutive match, Clement recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 13 digs. Anglin and Kelly Crow each added seven kills for the Spartans. Anglin hit a team-best .462 for the match. Emily Burke with 51 assists and nine digs. Kristal Tsukano had 21 digs and three assists.

ABOUT NEVADA: The Wolf Pack enter the week with a 5-6 overall record and a 2-2 WAC mark. The team plays at Fresno State Thursday evening before traveling to San Jose. Head coach Devin Scruggs has a 178-128 coaching record in 11 seasons at the school. Senior outside hitter Teal Ericson is third in the WAC in kills with 195, 4.76 per game. Freshman middle blocker Lindsay Baldwin leads the team in blocking with 54, 1.32 pg.

San Jose State leads the overall series, 21-7, and won two of the three meetings last season. Nevada won the first meeting last season, 3-1, in Reno. The Spartans then won 3-0, in Spartan Gym, and 3-1 during the quarterfinals of the 2006 WAC Tournament in Reno.

SAN JOSE STATE HEAD COACH: Oscar Crespo is in his first season at the helm of the Spartan volleyball program and is the sixth head coach in the program’s history. He recorded his first collegiate win with a 3-0 sweep of Grambling State on August 24. A San Jose State graduate, Crespo is married to Lisa Ice-Crespo, a three-time All-American volleyball player at San Jose State.

ASSISTANT COACHES: Jason Dupler is in his first season as the top assistant after spending the 2006 season at Stanford as the volunteer assistant coach. Katie Goldhahn joins the Spartans after a standout career at Stanford. She was a setter for the Cardinal from 2002-05. Former Spartan Jeanine Haldi is in her second year on staff as a volunteer assistant coach.

WAC STANDINGS: #13 Hawai‘i is alone in first place with a 5-0 conference record. The Rainbow Wahine won a tough five-game match over #24 New Mexico State on Saturday, September 22. New Mexico State and Utah State are tied for second with 3-1 marks.

WAC STATISTICS: Six Spartans rank among Western Athletic Conference leaders this week. Colleen Burke is second in the WAC in hitting percentage at .402. Emily Burke is fourth in assists at 11.02 pg. Keri Anglin is fourth in hitting at .312 and seventh in blocking at 1.22 pg. Kristal Tsukano is sixth in digs at 4.25 pg Jennifer Senftleben is seventh in kills at 3.84 pg, and ninth in points at 4.36 pg.

As a team, the Spartans are second in hitting (.216), third in kills (14.90 pg), assists (13.63 pg) and digs (16.53 pg), fifth in aces (1.35 pg) and seventh in blocks (2.27 pg).

In WAC matches only, Colleen Burke is second in hitting at .354 and ninth in service aces at 0.29 pg. Anglin is fourth in hitting at .333. Tsukano is second in digs at 4.71 pg, while Niki Clement is 10th in digs at 3.86 pg. Emily Burke is sixth in assists at 11.00 pg.

As a team, the Spartans are second in digs (17.86 pg), fourth in hitting (.179), kills (15.00 pg) and assists (13.86 pg), tied for seventh in service aces (0.71 pg) and ninth in blocks (0.86 pg).

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Among national leaders through September 23, Colleen Burke is 23rd in hitting percentage at .402.

CAREER RANKINGS: Three Spartans rank among San Jose State career leaders. Jennifer Senftleben is fourth all-time in kills with 1,462 and fourth in kill attempts at 4,271. Colleen Burke is second in hitting with a .316 percentage. Brittany Collet is ninth in assists with 1,397.

RECAP OF LAST WEEK: The Spartans dropped a pair of matches last week, losing at Santa Clara, 0-3, on Friday, and at home to #13 Hawai‘i, 0-3, Monday night. Against Santa Clara, Emily Burke recorded her team-best eighth double-double of the season 18 assists and 11 digs. She added two kills and a block assist in the match.

Keri Anglin led the Spartans in kills with 10 and had two blocks, two digs and an assist. Colleen Burke hit a team-best .400 with seven kills on 15 attempts and only one hitting error. She added two service aces, two blocks and a dig.

Against Hawai‘i, freshman setter Courtney Zellmer recorded a career-best 26 assists. Zellmer came off the bench for the Spartans in the match and added six digs, one kill, one service ace and a block assist.

Niki Clement and Jennifer Senftleben recorded double-doubles for the Spartans Monday night. Clement led the team with 13 kills and 14 digs. Senftleben had 11 kills and 10 digs.

CRESPO TO FACE FORMER TEAM: This Saturday, San Jose State head coach Oscar Crespo will face the team and program he spent the past seven years with. Crespo was an assistant and associate head coach with Devin Scruggs. He helped Nevada make four NCAA Tournament appearances during his tenure.

ZELLMER IMPRESSES AGAINST #13 HAWAI‘I: Freshman setter Courtney Zellmer came off the bench against #13 Hawai‘i Monday evening and recorded a season-best 26 assists for the Spartans. She also tied her season-bests with one kill, one service ace a nd one block assist. Zellmer also recorded six digs.

AMIAN TIES SCHOOL BLOCKING RECORDS AGAINST USF: Brianna Amian tied two school records against San Francisco on Wednesday, September 14. She had 14 block assists in the five-game match to tie the school record set by Liz Hudson against Idaho on November 24, 2001. Amian also tied the total block record set by Hudson and Mandy McMahon, who had 14 blocks at Fresno State on October 7, 1983. Amian also contributed eight kills, five digs and two assists. The Spartans had a season-best 19.5 blocks in the match and outblocked the Dons 19.5-9.

TWO PLAYERS, 10+ BLOCKS EACH, THREE TIMES: For only the third time in school history, two Spartan players recorded double-digit blocks in a match. Against San Francisco, Brianna Amian had 14 blocks, while Keri Anglin added 12. Ironically, the last time this feat happened was against San Francisco on September 6, 2005, as Dyana Thompson recorded 12 blocks, and Niki Clement added 10 blocks. The first time was September 19, 1987, when Kari Roberson had 12 blocks and Kim Hicks had 11 blocks in a 3-1 win over San Diego State.

MIDDLES MAKING IMPACT FOR SPARTANS: This season, Colleen Burke and Keri Anglin are making a tremendous contribution for the Spartans on the floor. The combo is hitting .358 for the season with 229 kills on 519 attempts and only 43 hitting errors. Anglin is the team’s top blocker with 56, while Burke leads the team in hitting with a .402 percentage.

Both middle blockers were honored for their play at two tournaments. Anglin was named the MVP of the UVU/La Quinta Inn & Suite Invitational, while Burke was the MVP of the ASU/Bancorp South Classic.

SENFTLEBEN MOVIN’ ON UP: Since the start of the 2007 season, Jennifer Senftleben has moved up three places on the San Jose State career kill list. She started the season with 1,274 kills and moved past Stephanie Pascucci into sixth place after the first weekend. Against Murray State, Senftleben passed Lisa Ice-Crespo into fifth place. On September 12, Senftleben recorded 16 kills against San Francisco to move past Dawnis Wilson and into fourth place. Senftleben now needs 147 kills this season to move past third place, which is held by Brianna Blair with 1,608 kills from 1998-2001.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES ABOUND FOR SETTER: In 13 matches this season, freshman Emily Burke has recorded a team-best eight double-doubles and had a five- match double-double streak from Sept. 1-12.. Her only matches without double-doubles came against Grambling, Florida Atlantic, Northwestern State, Utah State and Hawai‘i. She had a season-best 65 assists against Arizona State and 18 digs at Utah Valley.

TSUKANO NEW LIBERO FOR SPARTANS: After spending last year as a defensive specialist, Kristal Tsukano is the third libero in school history since the position was instituted for the 2002 season. She enters play this week with 204 digs, 4.25 pg. Tsukano recorded a career-best 23 digs in three matches and double-figure digs in 10 of the 11 matches played. She took over the libero position from four-year All-WAC selection Jessie Shull, who set the San Jose State career dig record with 2,260 from 2003-06. The first libero at San Jose State was current assistant coach Jeanine Haldi (2002).

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM SELECTIONS: Three Spartans were named to the all-tournament team at the UVU/La Quinta Inn & Suites Invitational. Keri Anglin was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, while Colleen Burke and Jennifer Senftleben were all-tournament honorees.

Three Spartans received all-tournament honors at the ASU/ Bancorp South Classic. Colleen Burke was named the Most Valuable Player of th e tournament, while Anglin and Senftleben were named to the all-tournament team.

Jennifer Senftleben and Brianna Amian were named to the MCM Elegante Lobo Classic All-Tournament team.

SENFTLEBEN, CLEMENT NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-WAC TEAM: Jennifer Senftleben and Niki Clement were named to the 2007 Preseason All-Western Athletic Conference Team, as selected by the conference’s nine head coaches.

SPARTANS PICKED THIRD IN WAC PRESEASON POLL: The 2007 San Jose State volleyball team is picked to finish tied for third with Idaho in the WAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Spartans received a first-place vote as the team received 44 points to tie for third with Idaho.

2007 WAC Volleyball Coaches’ Preseason Poll
1. Hawaii (8) 64
2. New Mexico State 55
3. San Jose State (1) 44
Idaho 44
5. Nevada 36
6. Boise State 30
7. Utah State 22
8. Fresno State 20
9. Louisiana Tech 9

ALL-WAC RETURNEES: San Jose State returns two All-WAC players from last season - Colleen Burke and Niki Clement. Burke, a junior middle blocker, led the team in hitting with a .336 percentage. Clement, a junior outside hitter, led the Spartans in blocks with 97.

WAC TOURNAMENT MOVES TO LAS CRUCES: The 2007 WAC Volleyball Tournament moves to the Pan American Center on the New Mexico State campus in Las Cruces, N.M. The tournament will be held on November 15, 16, and 17, with the championship match shown live on CSTV on November 17, at 6:00 p.m. MST.

TICKETS FOR WAC TOURNAMENT ON SALE NOW: Tickets for the 2007 Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament are on sale to the public. For all-session tickets, there is an “Early Bird” Promotion (20% off regular price) until September 30. Ticket prices during this promotion are $20 for adults, $16 for senior citizens (age 65 and over) and $8 for children (18 and under) for an all-session pass (eight matches; four sessions). Beginning October 1, all-session tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for children. All seats are general admission. Single session tickets are available at $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and $4 for children.

All-session tickets for the volleyball tournament may be purchased by calling 1-866-672-8524 or calling the Pan American Center Ticket Office at 505-646-1420. Single-session tickets are available online at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 915-544-8444 or 505-532-2060.

LIVE STATS: All home San Jose State volleyball matches will have live statistics available on the Spartan web site at www.sjsuspartans.com.

UP NEXT: The Spartans continue its five-match homestand next week with matches against Louisiana Tech on Thursday, October 4, and #24 New Mexico State on Saturday, October 6. Both matches begin at 7 p.m., at Spartan Gym.

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