This Week:
Fri., Sept. 12
Four Points Sheraton LAX/LMU Volleyball Classic
vs. UC Irvine 4:30 p.m. PDT

Sat., Sept. 13
Four Points Sheraton LAX/LMU Volleyball Classic
vs. Loyola Marymount 12:00 p.m. PDT
vs. Pittsburgh 5:00 p.m. PDT

SPARTANS TRAVEL TO LOS ANGELES FOR TOURNAMENT: San Jose State travels to Loyola Marymount this weekend for the Four Points Sheraton LAX/LMU Volleyball Classic. The Spartans will face UC Irvine, Loyola Marymount and Pittsburgh. Live stats for the LMU match will be available at www.lmulions.com.

EMILY BURKE HONORED BY WAC: Emily Burke has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 1-7. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor for Burke.

She tallied 146 assists, 33 digs and 21 kills over four matches last week. Burke averaged 10.43 assists and 2.36 digs per set. She was named to the Sacramento State Invitational All-Tournament Team after becoming the first setter in school history to record a triple-double in a match. Burke accomplished the feat against Saint Mary’s Friday night with 40 assists, 15 digs and a career-high 10 kills. She also hit .571 on the match. She added a double-double vs. Sacramento State, finishing with 48 assists and 11 digs.

ABOUT UC IRVINE: The Anteaters begin the week with a 3-3 overall record. The team hosts Oregon Wednesday night before facing San Jose State Friday afternoon. Head coach Charlie Brande is in his ninth year at the helm of the program. Lauren Kellerman leads the team in kills with 66, 3.14 per set. Taryn Robertson leads the team in blocks with 18, and averages 10.76 assists per set.

San Jose State leads the overall series, 20-10-1. UC Irvine has won the past two meetings, 3-1, in 2002 and 2003. The Spartans last defeated the Anteaters, 3-0, in 1998 at the SJSU-SMC Tournament.

ABOUT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT: The Lions enter the week with a 4-2 record. The team hosts Ohio State Wednesday night before the tournament. Head coach Steve Stratos is in his 19th season at the school. Emily Day leads the team in kills with 88, 4.19 ps, and digs with 68, 3.24 ps.

San Jose State leads the overall series, 3-2. Loyola Marymount has won the last two meetings, 3-2, in 2005, and 3-1 in 2000. The Spartans last won in the series in 1992 with a 3-1 win at the UCSB Invitational.

ABOUT PITTSBURGH: The Panthers enter the week with a 3-3 record and host Duquesne Tuesday night before traveling to Los Angeles for the tournament. Head coach Toby Rens is in his first season at the school. Amy Town leads the team in kills with 63, 2.86 ps.

San Jose State won the only meeting between the two teams, 2-0, at the 1978 AIAW Nationals.

SAN JOSE STATE HEAD COACH: Oscar Crespo begins his second season as head coach at his alma mater. A 1990 graduate, Crespo was named head coach in March of 2007 as the program’s sixth head coach. He has a 16-20 coaching record in two seasons.

RECAP OF SACRAMENTO STATE INVITATIONAL: The Spartans finished 1-2 at the Sacramento State Invitational. On Friday night, the Spartans lost to Saint Mary’s, 25-22, 25-22, 22-25, 25-17.

Emily Burke recorded a double-double in the match with 40 assists, 15 digs and a career-high 10 kills. The triple-double feat has been accomplished in 11 matches in school history.

Four Spartans recorded double-digit kills in the match, led by Niki Clement who had 14 kills. Kelly Crow and Colleen Burke added 10 kills along with Emily Burke.

In the first match Saturday, the Spartans defeated host Sacramento State, 25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 25-18. Clement recorded her second double-double of the season with 15 kills and 14 digs. Colleen Burke hit .455 with 12 kills on 22 attempts and only two hitting errors and added a team-high four blocks. Brianna Amian added 14 kills and hit .385 for the match (14-4-26).

Against Cal State Northridge Saturday night, the team lost a hard-fought match, 29-27, 16-25, 25-27, 25-23, 17-15. Colleen Burke had 11 kills and hit .526 with only one hitting error in 19 attempts and added six blocks including a career-best two solo blocks.

Three other Spartans recorded double-digit kills against the Matadors, led by Crow who tied her season-high with 17 kills. She also had a double-double with 12 digs and added three block assists. Clement had 15 kills and 10 digs for her second-straight double-double and added four block assists. Amian recorded a season-best 15 kills with seven digs and four block assists. Nia Freeman tied her career high in blocks with seven block assists.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM SELECTIONS: Emily Burke was named to the Sacramento State Invitational All-Tournament team. Niki Clement and Kelly Crow were named to the Sheraton Four Points Wildcat Classic All-Tournament team.

TRIPLE-DOUBLE ACCOMPLISHMENT: Emily Burke recorded a triple-double against Saint Mary’s on September 5. She became the only setter in Spartan history to accomplish this feat. Burke had 40 assists, 15 digs and 10 kills in the match. The triple-double feat has only been accomplished in 11 matches in school history.

1,000 CAREER KILL CLUB: For only the second time in school history, two Spartan volleyball players joined the 1,000 career kill club in the same season. They became the 1th and 12 Spartan players to accomplish this milestone.

Niki Clement recorded her 1,000th career kill against Arizona on August 29. Colleen Burke hit the 1,000 career kill mark against Sacramento State on September 6.

The only other time in school history that this happened was during the 1986 season when All-American Lisa Ice and Christa Cook recorded their 1,000th career kills.

CAREER RANKINGS: Four current Spartans rank among San Jose State career leaders. Niki Clement is 10th in kills with 1,075 and eighth in kill attempts with 2,871 and 10th in block assists with 221. Colleen Burke is second in hitting percentage at .313, eighth in block assists with 238 and 12th in kills with 1,005. Emily Burke is ninth in assists with 1,487 while Brittany Collet is 10th in assists with 1,434. A complete updated listing is on page four.

MIRALDI HOME DEBUT FULL OF BLOCKS: Freshman Kylie Miraldi made her collegiate home debut a memorable match on September 1. Against St. John’s, she had a team-best two solo blocks and six block assists for eight total blocks. Miraldi added three kills and an assist in three sets played that day.

BURKE CLEMENT NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-WAC TEAM: Colleen Burke and Niki Clement were named to the 12-person Preseason All-Western Athletic Conference volleyball team as selected by the conference’s nine head coaches.

Burke was a first team All-WAC selection last season and led the team in hitting with a .343 percentage, the fourth-best in school history. She is second all-time in hitting with a .313 percentage and is on track to record her 1,000th career kill this season to join an elite club at San Jose State. Burke averaged 2.61 kills and 0.70 blocks per game last year.

Clement was a second team All-WAC pick last year. She averaged 3.37 kills and 3.40 digs per game last season. She needs just 12 kills to also join the group of former Spartans with 1,000 or more career kills.

SPARTANS PICKED THIRD IN WAC PRESEASON POLL: The 2008 San Jose State volleyball team is picked to finish tied for third with Idaho in the WAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

The 2008 San Jose State volleyball team has been picked third with Idaho by the league’s coaches in the Western Athletic Conference Preseason Volleyball Poll.

Defending WAC champion Hawaii has been selected first in the poll, receiving eight of the nine first-place votes and 64 total points. New Mexico State finished second with one first-place vote and 57 points. San Jose State and Idaho tied for third with 42 points each.

2008 WAC Coaches’ Poll
Rank Team Points
1. Hawai‘i (8) 64
2. New Mexico State (1) 55
3. Idaho 42
San Jose State 42
5. Utah State 40
6. Nevada 34
7. Boise State 20
8. Fresno State 16
9. Louisiana Tech 9

WAC TOURNAMENT IN HAWAII: The 2008 WAC Volleyball Tournament moves to the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus. The tournament will be held on November 20, 21, and 23.

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 open WAC play next week with two home matches. The team hosts Boise State on Thursday, September 18, and Utah State on Saturday, September 20. Both matches begin at 7 p.m., in Spartan Gym.