Nov. 21, 2016 Complete Release in PDF Format 
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE: The 11th-ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team (24-4, 15-2 WCC) will close out the regular-season on Tuesday, as they head up to Malibu, to take on the Waves of Pepperdine University. The match is set to begin at 6 p.m. and will be streamed live on TheW.TV.
LAST TIME OUT: The Toreros posted a 2-0 record this past week, as they swept both Santa Clara and San Francisco on the road. In Thursday's win over the Broncos, Lisa Kramer led the Torero offense with 14 kills on 23 swings, while only committing two errors, to hit for a .421 clip. Kaity Edwards was the final Torero in double digit kills, as she had 10 on 19 swings, while hitting for a .421 clip. Anna Newsome had 24 assists, while Kristen Gengenbacher added in 18 assists. Hunter Jennings recorded 11 digs to lead the Torero defense. As a team, USD hit for a .303 clip, while the Broncos hit .190. USD recorded 38 digs, and SCU recorded 35 digs. The Toreros recorded 48 kills to the Broncos 37. Each team had 6.0 blocks. Then in Saturday's win over the Dons, Lisa Kramer led the Torero offense with a match-best 13 kills on 24 swings, while only committing one error, to hit for a .500 clip. Kaity Edwards added in nine kills, while hitting .727. Kristen Gengenbacher recorded 18 assists, and added in 10 digs to post a double-double. Hunter Jennings paced the USD defense with 12 digs. As a team, USD hit for a .348 clip, while the Dons hit a dismal .040. USD recorded 41 digs, and SCU recorded 28 digs. The Toreros recorded 42 kills to the Dons 26, and Dons out blocked the Toreros, 7.0-2.0.
THE RANKINGS: The University of San Diego women's volleyball team held steady at No. 11 in the latest AVCA top-25 poll. Pepperdine is not ranked in the top-25 tis week.
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 WAVES: Pepperdine enters the week with an overall record of 12-17, and they are 6-11 in the WCC after dropping a 3-1 decision to Loyola Marymount this past week. The Waves have won two of their last three matches however. Pepperdine's offense is paced by Hannah Frohling, who has a team-leading 279 kills (2.47 kps), while hitting .177, and she has 288 digs on the season as well. Heidi Dyer (539 assists) and Jenna Tunnell (328 assists) have helped steer the Pepperdine offense to a team attack percentage of .192. The Waves are under the direction of second-year head coach Scott Wong.
SERIES VS. PEPPERDINE: Pepperdine leads the all-time series at 33-31. The series was dominated by the Waves in the 1980's through early 1990's, as USD was 0-20 against Pepperdine until 1992, when USD finally got a win in the series. Since then,the Toreros have been the dominate one, as they have win 30 of the last 43 contests, including winning the last nine consecutive meetings. USD has posted a 11-23 record against Pepperdine in Malibu, and a 16-15 record in matches played in San Diego.
WHERE WE STAND: Entering the final match of the regular-season, USD currently sits tied for first place in the WCC with BYU. USD can win a share of the WCC title with a win on Tuesday. However, if USD defeats Pepperdine, and BYU falls to Loyola Marymount on Tuesday evening, then the Toreros would win the WCC title outright. But should USD lose, and BYU win on Tuesday night, then the Cougars would capture the WCC crown outright.
RPI UPDATE: After winning a pair of matches this past week, USD's RPI dropped five spots to No. 13. BYU remains the highest rated West Coast team at No. 8, followed by Stanford (No. 9), then UCLA (No. 12) and then comes San Diego.
RECORD WATCH: Senior libero Hunter Jennings has moved herself into the top-10 list for career digs, now with 1,435, which places her second all-time, 29 behind the all-time leader, Jackie Bernardine, who has 1,464. In fact, over the last 16 matches, Jennings has recorded double-digit digs in all but one of them, and is currently riding a 12-match double-digit digs streak. On the season, Jennings has recorded 391 digs (3.99 dps).
SCHAD CRACKS ALL-TIME BLOCKS LIST: Senior middle hitter Lauren Schad has cracked into the USD all-tome career blocks list at No. 10, as she recorded her 279th block this past week. Schad is currently tied with Jennifer Lofftus (1991-94), and is now 17 blocks behind ninth place.
KRAMER STAYS HOT: Senior opposite Lisa Kramer has been red hot for the Toreros all season long, and is not showing any signs on slowing down. Kramer helped lead USD to a 2-0 record this past week. Kramer paced the USD offense with 27 kills (4.50 kps), and she hit for a .460 clip. She began the week with a 13-kill outing against Santa Clara, and she hit .423. She then followed that up with a 13-kill performance in a sweep over USF. She was the only player in the match to record double-digit kills against USF.
LEADING THE NATION: San Diego, as a team, is currently leading the nation in kills-per-set at 14.99, and second in assists-per-set at 13.96. As a team, USD has recorded 1,469 total kills, and 1,368 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.