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What 2 Watch 4
The third week of play across The Big West sees the current top two and league undefeateds, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, square off on Saturday. This weekend is the first homestand of the season for the Aggies, who played their first 14 games on the road.
UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara are both stalwarts at the net, currently 1-2 in team blocks per set. UCSB averages 2.72 blocks per set, good for 12th in NCAA Division I. The Gauchos are paced by Andi Kreiling’s 1.41 blocks per set as the transfer from Arizona State is coming off a career-best eight denials in the last match for Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, UC Davis’ net play is led by Ally Chandler, who blocks 1.22 attempts per set, accounting for half of the Aggies’ 2.46 blocks per set average. Offensively, look for Michelle Ohwobete of UCSB and UCD’s Olivia Utterback to captain their respective sides in the Saturday afternoon soiree.
UC Davis enters riding a six-match win streak, while UC Santa Barbara has been victorious in their last five, and 10 of their last 11.
Also hosting a pair of games on the week are streaking UC Riverside, CSUN, Hawai’i and Cal State Bakersfield. The Highlanders, off to their best Big West start in program history have the tough task of taking on UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly.
Cal State Fullerton is at home to start the week, welcoming UC Irvine to Titan Gym before both sides head to O’ahu to take on the defending champion Rainbow Wahine.
Ten of 11 Big West contests are set to air on ESPN+ this week. Check listings for specific match information.
Last Week, Today
- Five teams ran through the second weekend of Big West play with a 2-0 mark: league co-leaders UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, Long Beach State, Cal Poly and UC Riverside.
- Long Beach State took center stage on Friday, downing Hawai’i in three in a nationally televised ESPNU contest. The victory was the first for the Beach in the series since 2016, snapping a string of 11 consecutive Rainbow Wahine wins. The last sweep for the Beach against UH came nearly 26 years ago, on Nov. 1, 1997. For their efforts not only against UH, but also in a sweeping victory against UC San Diego, a trio of LBSU players earned weekly acclaim. Natalie Glenn (4.67 k/s, .407 hitting, 100 b/s) picked up offensive honors as Zayna Meyer (11.83 a/s) earned Setter of the Wee, with Savana Chacon (4.83 d/s) anchoring the back court for defensive honors. All told, LBSU’s opponents hit just .116 in the pair of three-setters.
- UC Santa Barbara picked up wins against Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, with the offense paced by Michelle Ohwobete’s 3.43 kills and 4.29 points per set. Andi Kreiling was big at the net, averaging 1.86 blocks per set, including an eight-block effort in the sweep of the Anteaters.
- Yet to play a home match in 2023, UC Davis downed Cal State Bakersfield and CSUN, both four-set affairs. Olivia Utterback recorded 28 total kills, hitting .328 on the week with Ally Chandler adding nine block assists for the Aggies’ defense.
- Cal Poly’s Lizzy Markovska recorded a pair of double-doubles in victories over UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton. The outside hitter started the week with 19 kills and 13 digs in the five-setter against UCI before tallying 16 kills on a season-best .416 hitting with 13 digs in the home win against the Titans. Jolei Akima added a pair of 20-plus dig performances with Emme Bullis helping on 9.78 scoring plays per set and blocking a career-high six ball against CSF.
- UC Riverside boasts the first 3-1 Big West start in program history after wins over CSUN and Cal State Bakersfield. In Saturday’s match against the Roadrunners, Delaney Tate swung for 17 kills and added nine digs to lead the way. Defensively, freshman Jessica Dean averaged 3.56 digs per set on the weekend, posting a career-best 24 at CSUB.
- The remaining win on the weekend belonged to Hawai’i, who bounced back after the sweep at Long Beach State to post a sweep of their own at UC San Diego. Amber Igiede put down 10 kills to go along with five digs, three blocks and an ace against the Tritons, while senior Kennedi Evans finished with a career-high 13 kills on .522 hitting.
- Cal State Fullerton’s Ameena Campbell had a career outing against UC Santa Barbara with 19 kills, nine digs and three blocks to garner weekly honors. Campbell is the first Titan to pick up a Freshman of the Week award since 2019.
Poll Position
For the second straight week, UC Santa Barbara is receiving votes in the latest AVCA/Taraflex Division I Coaches’ Poll for Oct. 2. The Gauchos are 35th on the listings with eight total points.
Statistical Superlatives
Reigning Big West Setter of the Year Kate Lang of Hawai’i paces the conference with 10.75 assists per set, good for 15th in NCAA Division I. Teammate and defending Big West Player of the Year Amber Igiede is leading the league in hitting percentage at .408 and points per set with 4.71. Igiede is knotted with UC San Diego’s Ava McInnes as the duo swing for 3.76 kills per set. Fellow Triton Emily McDaniel denies an average of 1.43 balls per set, with 15 solo blocks thus far on the season. UC Santa Barbara’s Macall Peed scoops up a Big West-best average of 4.76 digs per set. UC Riverside junior libero Tylee Fuller leads the way with 0.48 aces per set.
Triple-Double Time
After recording a conference-best six triple-doubles in 2022, CSUN setter Carisa Barron notched two in the 2023 campaign. The junior from Bakersfield, Calif., recorded 13 kills, 21 assists and 12 digs in a five-set loss at Fresno State on Sept. 1. Barron picked up a second on Sept. 19, finishing with 16 kills, 12 digs and 17 assists at Cal State Bakersfield.
Road Trippin’
The Big West played women’s volleyball in 15 states during the non-conference segment of the schedule. Teams have competed in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington, along with in-state play in California and Hawai’i in 2023.
Preseason Prognostications
The Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine have been selected to go for four in a row to repeat as Big West champions in the 2023 Big West Women’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll, according to a vote of the league’s 11 head coaches.
Conference victors in five of the last seven contested seasons, Hawai’i (22-7, 19-1 BW) topped the polling with a maximum 100 points and 10 first-place votes.
The 2022 Big West runners-up UC Santa Barbara (20-10, 16-4 BW) are again slotted in second, compiling 83 total points in the voting. The Gauchos hold the slimmest of margins over third pick Long Beach State (19-9, 14-6 BW) and fourth-place vote-getter Cal Poly (17-13, 14-6 BW) with one point separating each place. The Beach received the other first-place vote from the coaches, tallying 82 points.
With 61 points, UC Davis took fifth and is followed in the polling by UC Irvine (54 points). Should the preseason prognostications ring true, the Anteaters will claim the sixth and final spot in the inaugural 2023 Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship, set for Nov. 22-25 from Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid.
An eight-player Preseason All-Big West Team was also named with four of the league’s major award winners from 2022 dotting the list.
The group includes the Hawai’i trio of third-team All-American Amber Igiede (Player of the Year), Kate Lang (Setter of the Year), and Caylen Alexander (Freshman of the Year). UC Santa Barbara boasts Macall Peed (Libero of the Year) and Michelle Ohwobete to the team. Zayna Meyer (Long Beach State), Tommi Stockham (Cal Poly), and Olivia Utterback (UC Davis) round out the preseason team.
Made for TV
The Big West was part of the robust women’s volleyball linear broadcasting coverage on the ESPN family networks, as Long Beach State hosted defending champion Hawai’i at Walter Pyramid on September 29.
The ESPNU telecast between the Beach and Rainbow Wahine saw LBSU snap a streak of 11 straight victories for UH that dated back to 2016, as the Beach claimed the sweep. The three-set victory for Long Beach State is the first in the series between the two since November 1, 1997.
Debut Postseason Prompts Schedule Shuffle
The upcoming Big West women’s volleyball season will feature a new unbalanced schedule of 18 matches to accommodate the addition of the 2023 Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship. The 2021 and 2022 women’s volleyball slates were both full 20-match double-round robins. However, this fall, all 11 matchups in Week 5 between Tuesday-Saturday, Oct. 17-21, will mark the lone meetings of the season between those squads to get the schedule to 18 conference dates.
2022 Postseason Rewind
Despite a strong start, The Big West champion and No. 8 seed Hawai’i fell to LSU, 3-1, in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship, halting a 12-match winning streak for the Rainbow Wahine.
This marked a milestone 40th appearance in the NCAA postseason for Hawai’i, and 29th in a row without taking into consideration the 2020 edition when The Big West did not compete in fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rainbow Wahine are now 82-37 (.689) in NCAA Championship matches, with three national titles in 1982, 1983 and 1987, all under the legendary Dave Shoji, the predecessor to reigning Big West Coach of the Year Robyn Ah Mow. Those three crowns rank tied for fifth all-time with USC and fellow Big West member Long Beach State.
Only three programs have qualified for more NCAA Division I tournaments than the Rainbow Wahine, with seven-time national champion Penn State a perfect 42-for-42 in all-time selections, 2021 runner-up and five-time champion Nebraska earning its 41st successive berth since missing the inaugural one, and record nine-time champ Stanford also a 41-time entrant with its only miss in 2020.
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