Sept. 6, 2004
Gonzaga Volleyball Notes (Sept. 6, 2004)
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Gonzaga Volleyball Statistics
THURSDAY- Sept. 9
No. 11 Colorado State at Gonzaga, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY - Sept. 10 (Portland State Classic)
Gonzaga at Portland State, 7:30 p.m.
SATURDAY - Sept. 11 (Portland State Classic)
Gonzaga vs. Northern Colorado, Noon
Gonzaga vs. Oregon, 5 p.m.
2004 GONZAGA BULLDOGS RECORD: 1-3, 0-0 WCC
BULLDOGS HAVE FULL SLATE THIS WEEKEND: The Gonzaga University volleyball team will have both its dance card and travel schedule full this weekend as the Bulldogs tackle four matches in three days in two cities. On Thursday night Gonzaga will host nationally ranked Colorado State in Martin Centre before a Friday morning flight to Portland to compete in the Portland State Volleyball Classic. Gonzaga will face the host Vikings on Friday night before playing Saturday matches against Northern Colorado and Oregon.
DAVIS CRACKS A 1,000: Senior Christina Davis became just the 11th player in Gonzaga school history to surpass the 1,000 kill mark for a career as she finished play at the DoubleTree Club Bronco Invitational with 1,015 career kills. Davis stands just four kills back of B.J. Kuntz in tenth place and six kills behind Erica Cordy for ninth. Davis has a legitimate shot of moving all the way up to fourth place on the career list at some point this season as Jennifer Kubista sits in fourth place with 1,159 career kills. The top three career leaders at Gonzaga all finished with 1,500 or more kills with Kelley Cunningham holding the school record with 1,964. Davis also moved further up the career attacks list on the weekend with 201 attacks, making her just the fifth player in school history with 3,000 or more career attacks.
THIRD CAMPAIGN FOR YOSHIMURA: Kip Yoshimura is in his third season as the Bulldogs head coach and continues the rebuilding project of the Gonzaga volleyball program. Yoshimura produced an 8-50 record in his first two years as the Bulldogs head coach with hopes of improving that mark this year with his first true recruiting class in place. His career record is 260-125 during 11 seasons as a head coach including nine seasons at Lewis-Clark State College where he guided the Warriors to nine straight NAIA tournament appearances. A 1990 graduate of Long Beach State University, Yoshimura entered the coaching ranks as a student assistant on Long Beach State's 1989 NCAA National Championship team. He then coached at Weber State before one season as an assistant coach at Gonzaga during the 1992 season.
No. 11 COLORADO STATE RAMS (2-1): Gonzaga hosts its second match of the season on Thursday night as nationally ranked Colorado State visits Martin Centre. The Rams will play at Colorado and Washington State prior to visiting Gonzaga. CSU opened the season with a 2-1 record including a win over No. 13 Georgia Tech and loss to No. 5 Minnesota. Colorado State has a balanced offensive attack with four players averaging over 3 kills per game. Dre Downs is the best of the bunch with 3.40 kills per game. Tom Hilbert leads the Rams in his eighth season as head coach.
PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (4-0): Gonzaga returns to tournament play on Friday night when they battle host Portland State in the PSU Volleyball Classic. The Vikings are off to a 4-0 start after winning a tournament in Maine. Jessica Brodie was the Vikings top player earning All-Tournament honors. Portland State leads the all-time series 4-2 but the teams have squared off since the 1990 season. Jeff Mozzochi guides the Vikings in his 13th season as head coach.
NORTHERN COLORADO BEARS (2-1): Gonzaga faces NCAA Division I newcomer Northern Colorado on Saturday morning as the two schools meet for the first time. The Bears are off to a 2-1 start on the season with wins over Creighton and Montana and a five-game loss to New Mexico. This is the first full season of competition for the Bears at the Division I level after playing a partial D1 schedule last year. Erin Deffenbaugh is the Bears top attacker with 4.79 kills per game. Ron Alexander enters his third season as the Bears head coach guiding the team to 63 wins and only 5 losses during their transition to Division I.
OREGON DUCKS (4-0): Gonzaga wraps up weekend action against Oregon as the two schools meet for the ninth time in school history. Gonzaga won the last meeting between the schools in 2001 in Spokane. Oregon is off to a 4-0 start this season after winning their own tournament over the weekend. Lauren Westendorf has been a force on the attack with 5.38 kills per game as the Ducks are hitting .275 as a team. Included in those four opening wins is a victory over Colorado which opened the season receiving votes in preseason AVCA poll. Carl Ferreira is in his fifth season as head coach.
SOLID ON THE BLOCKS: Senior Lauren Armas and freshman Briawna Mueller have helped the Bulldogs with some solid play on the front line as the team looks to replace the defensive void left by Abby Cullen. The combination of Armas and Mueller has been successful through the first four matches as Armas is averaging 0.93 blocks per game and Mueller 0.80.
GIHRING CLIMBS A SPOT: Senior setter Emilee Gihring climbed up one spot on the Gonzaga career assists list over the weekend as she passed Missy Perry for eighth place on the Bulldogs list. Gihring now has 865 career assists in just under one full season of action. Last year the transfer from Denver finished with 700 assists despite missing close to a third of the season. This year she is off to a solid start averaging 11 assists per game in four matches.
LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: Gonzaga opened the 2004 season with a 1-3 record, dropping the home opener to Montana State and posting a 1-2 record at the DoubleTree Club Bronco Invitational in Boise. Christina Davis led the GU attack through the first four matches with 4.33 kills per game while Jessica Herrera holds the team lead with 58 digs. This marks the sixth time in the last seven years that Gonzaga has started a season with a 1-3 record after the first weekend. The last time Gonzaga started a season better than 1-3 through the first four matches was in 1997 when Gonzaga posted a 3-1 record to start the season.
BETTER IN THE SERVICE GAME: One area the Bulldogs have already shown significant improvement on over the first four matches of the season is the service game. Gonzaga has already dropped in 26 service aces for a 1.73 aces per game average. Last year the Bulldogs totaled 95 aces for the season for an average of 0.87 per game. Gonzaga has also improved greatly in service return allowing only 30 aces over the first four matches for a 2.00 aces per game average. Last season GU allowed 231 service aces for an average of 2.11 per game.
BALANCED ON DEFENSE: Gonzaga defense appears to be very balanced after the first four matches of the season with four players averaging 2 or more digs per game. New libero Jessica Herrera is the team leader with 3.87 digs per game while Christina Davis, Emilee Gihring and Lacey Bell are all close behind. Freshman Alecia Douglas has also played well in the back row with 1.2 digs per game.
LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT COMBO: Head coach Kip Yoshimura continues to juggle his starting line-up through the opening week of the season looking for the right combination of players. Junior Katy Rydberg along with freshman Alecia Douglas and Becky Jones have all taken a turn as the Bulldogs six starter. Douglas was the in the starting rotation when the Bulldogs knocked off Weber State and has picked up two starts while Jones and Rydberg each have one start under their belt. Douglas plays as a defensive specialist in the back row while Jones and Rydberg start as offensive players. Douglas has appeared in all 15 games this season while Jones has been the more effective of the offensive players with 1.83 kills per game.
LACEY AND LAUREN HAVE GOOD WEEKENDS: Lacey Bell and Lauren Armas both had solid weekends for the Bulldogs as they finished third at the Boise State Tournament. Bell had 30 kills and 26 digs on the weekend including a team-high 18 kills in the win over Weber State. Armas was also deadly on the attack with 38 kills and 14 blocks including two matches with 15 kills or more. For the season Armas remains the Zags top percentage attacker with a .317 attack percentage while both players rank second and third in kills per game on the team.
