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WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE: The 11th-ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team (22-4, 13-2 WCC) will hit the road this week to begin a three-match road swing. On Thursday, USD will travel to Northern California and take on Santa Clara in a 7 p.m. WCC match. USD will then remain in the Bay Area, and head over to take on the Dons of San Francisco in a 1 p.m. match on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT: The Toreros posted a 1-1 record this past week, dropping a stunning 3-2 decision to Portland, and then bouncing back with a 3-0 win over Gonzaga. USD moved to 22-4 overall, and remind in a 2-way tie for first place in the WCC with BYU at 13-2. In Thursday's loss to Portland, Lisa Kramer recorded a match-best 27 kills on 48 swings, while committing eight errors to hit for a .396 clip. Jayden Kennedy was the second of four Toreros in double digit kills, as she had 15, while hitting .314. Thana Fayad recorded 12 kills, and had 14 digs to post a double-double, while Lauren Fuller recorded 10 kills. Kristen Gengenbacher also recorded a double-double, as she had 30 assists and 12 digs, while Hunter Jennings recorded 19 digs. As a team, USD hit for a .269 clip, while the Pilots hit .173. San Diego recorded 75 kills to Portland's 52, and USD out dug the Pilots 74-56. On Saturday's sweep of the Zags, Kramer recorded her 12 kills on 25 swings, to hit for a .240 clip. Kaity Edwards chipped in with eight kills, while Thana Fayad and Jayden Kennedy each had seven kills. Kristen Gengenbacher had 23 assists, while Anna Newsome added in 18 more assists, and Hunter Jennings led the defense with 14 digs, while Addie Picha recorded six blocks. As a team, USD hit for a .233 clip, while Gonzaga hit .136. The Toreros out dug the Bulldogs 43-32, and San Diego recorded 45 kills to GU's 32. USD will return to action on Thursday, as they head up to Santa Clara tot ake on the Broncos in a 7 p.m. WCC match.

THEW.TV: This season San Diego will once again be featured on the West Coast Conference's digital platform, TheW.tv, in 14 home matches, and a few select road matches. All 14 plus of those productions will have a multi-camera high definition broadcast with a play-by-play announcer. All watch links for those matches can be found on the USD women's volleyball schedule page.

SCOUTING THE BRONCOS: Santa Clara enters the week with an overall record of 15-12, and they are 6-9 in the WCC, after dropping a 3-1 decision to Pepperdine, then bouncing back with a 3-1 win over Loyola Marymount this past week. The Broncos lead the all-time series at 34-30, but the Toreros did win the first meeting this season in San Diego, 3-0. The Broncos offense is paced by Nikki Hess, who has a team-leading 337 kills (3.47 kps), and is hitting .197. The floor leaders for the Broncos are setters Callie Jones (579 assists) and Kristen Mead (438 assists). Combined these two ladies helped steer the SCU team to an attack percentage of .219.

SCOUTING THE DONS: San Francisco enters the week with an overall record of 4-24, and they are 0-15 in the WCC after being swept by Loyola Marymount, and dropping a 3-1 decision to Pepperdine this past week. The Dons are currently riding a 19-match losing streak. USD leads the all-time series at 47-18. USF's offense s paced by Tyna Adamcikova, who has a team-leading 335 kills (3.53 kps), while hitting .174. The floor leader for the Dons is setter Trish Koutsoukos, who has a team-leading 344 assists, while helping steer the USF offense to a .150 attack percentage.

RPI UPDATE: After picking splitting a pair of matches this past week, USD's RPI dropped three spots to No. 8. BYU now becomes the highest rated West Coast team at No. 6, followed by Stanford (No. 7), then USD, UCLA (No. 12) and Washington (No. 13).

RECORD WATCH: A few Toreros are breaking into the all-time top-10 lists in a few categories. Senior libero Hunter Jennings has moved herself into the top-10 list for career digs, now with 1,424, which places her second all-time, 40 behind the all-time leader, Jackie Bernardine, who has 1,464. Senior middle hitter Lauren Schad is closing in on breaking into the top-10 list in career blocks, as she currently has 278, which is just one away from cracking into the top-10 list.

KRAMER, KENNEDY BOTH SETS SEASON HIGH: Senior opposite Lisa Kramer and junior middle hitter Jayden Kennedy both set season-highs in USD's loss to Portland this past Thursday. Kramer recorded a season-high 27 kills on 48 swings, while committing eight errors to hit for a .396 clip. On the season, Kramer has recorded 319 kills, and is hitting .303. Kennedy recorded a season-high 15 on 35 swings, to hit for a .314 clip. On the season, Kennedy has recorded 150 kills, and is hitting .251.

CAN YOU DIG IT?: San Diego senior libero Hunter Jennings has been hot for the Toreros as of late. Over the last 14 matches, Jennings has recorded double-digit digs in all but one of them, and is currently riding a 10-match double-digit digs streak. On the season, Jennings has recorded 368 digs (4.00 dps).

LEADING THE NATION: San Diego, as a team, is currently leading the nation in kills-per-set at 14.99, and in assists-per-set at 13.96. As a team, USD has recorded 1,379 total kills, and 1,284 total assists.

RECRUITING CLASS RANKED NO. 9: Volleyball magazine has released its top-10 recruiting classes in the country, and the University of San Diego checks in at No. 9, the only non BCS school on this list. Here is what they had to say about USD's class... Two interesting names in this group are foreign players Thana Fayad and Anna Newsome "These two are much further along than most freshman," longtime San Diego associate head coach Brent Hilliard said. "Thana has a chance to be the best outside hitter to ever come through San Diego. She is a full six-rotation player who can hit out of the front and back row. Anna played in the top level of the Italian Series at 18 years of age. She has been setting athletes almost twice her age and is more developed then 99 percent of the setters coming into college." San Diego is also high on Payton Douglass, a libero from a lesser-known Washington club. Megan Jacobsen will help the team in the middle. "She's the best middle-hitting prospect we have had in a long time," said Hilliard. "She can hit hard off one or two feet and has an internal battery that already is tops on our team." Eylers can set and play the right side, while Priest will help on the defensive end. "This is the best class we've had in over a decade," said Hilliard.

A PAIR OF TOREROS NAMED PRESEASON ALL-WCC: Senior setter Kristen Gengenbacher, and senior outside hitter Lisa Kramer were both named to the preseason All-WCC team. Gengenbacher had a breakout season in her sophomore campaign, recording a career-high 1,095 assists (9.69 aps), while helping steer the Torero offense to a .220 attack percentage. Gengenbacher recorded a team-best 10 double-doubles, and a career-high 68 assists in a win against Pepperdine on Sept. 29. Gengenbacher recorded 30 or more assists on 20 occasions. Kramer, an AVCA All-American last year, paced the USD offense last season with a career-high 494 kills, which moves her into 10th on the single-season kills list at USD. Kramer managed to also set a modern-era record for kills in a match with 31. Since the NCAA switched to the 25-point sets in 2008, no Torero has been able to crack the 30-kill plateau, until Kramer did it on September 29, 2015 against Pepperdine. Last season, Kramer was named WCC Player of the Week twice, and was named to the All-tournament team of the UC Santa Barbara Tournament. Kramer finished the regular-season with 127 digs and 73 blocks.

PICKED TO WIN IT: After making its sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament and 19th overall, San Diego was picked as the favorite to win the 2016 West Coast Conference Volleyball Championship in the annual preseason poll of the WCC's 10 coaches. The top three teams were separated by 11 votes, with 10 points separating the Toreros from the three-time defending WCC champion and 2015 NCAA Sweet-16 participant, BYU. San Diego collected 78 points and seven first place votes, while the Cougars collected 68 points with one first place vote. Fresh off its second straight NCAA Tournament berth, Santa Clara was tabbed third with 67 votes and picked up the remaining two first place votes. Loyola Marymount marched to the 2015 NCAA Sweet-16 and was picked to finish fourth with 59 points.

23 YEARS OF DOMINATION, AND COUNTING: As we begin the 2016 schedule, lets take a look back over the last 23 years of Torero volleyball, and their impact on the WCC. Since 1994, USD has made the NCAA Tournament 19 times...they have won 15 NCAA Tournament matches...Produced 12 All-Americans...won nine WCC championships...had nine WCC Players of the Year...45 All-WCC honorees...four WCC Defensive Players of the Year...three Sweet 16 appearances...and have taken down one No. 1 ranked team. USD has won seven of the last 10 WCC championships.

I NEED STATS STAT!: All San Diego volleyball home matches can be followed via Gametracker, on the Toreros athletic web site at usdtoreros.com. Gametracker is a real time update of the action. Selected San Diego road matches are also available via Gametracker and Statbroadcast. To see if live stats are available for a match, go to San Diego volleyball schedule page, and if any type of live stats are available, you will see those links there.