Sept. 19, 2016 Complete Release in PDF Format 
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE: The 7th-ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team (8-2) will close out non-conference play on Tuesday with a 6 p.m. match at cross-town rival San Diego State. USD then opens WCC play on Thursday as San Francisco comes to town for a 7 p.m. match, and then Saturday, USD will host Santa Clara in a 12 p.m. match to close out the week.
LAST TIME OUT: USD posted another perfect 3-0 record this past week, defeating Long Beach State, 3-1, then sweeping both Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara. These three wins move USD to a perfect 6-0 at home. In Friday's win over LBSU, senior outside hitter
Lisa Kramer led the USD offense with 22 kills, while hitting .264 and picking up one dig.
Lauren Schad had 15 kills, while hitting .500, and she chipped in with three blocks.
Lauren Fuller posted a double-double, as she had 13 kills, and recorded 11 digs.
Jayden Kennedy was the final Torero in double digit kills with 10, while hitting .318.
Kristen Gengenbacher also notched a double-double with 33 assists and 15 digs, while
Hunter Jennings paced the USD defense with 23 digs. Then in Saturday's sweep of the Titans, USD's offense was paced by sophomore outside hitter
Lauren Fuller's 13 kills, while hitting .370, and she recorded three digs.
Lauren Schad was the only other Torero in double digit kills, as she had 11, and hit for a .474 clip.
Kristen Gengenbacher recorded 25 assists, and had seven digs, while
Hunter Jennings recorded a match-best 17 digs. Finally, in the Toreros sweep over UC Santa Barbara, Senior middle hitter
Lauren Schad, who had 11 kills, while hitting .444 with three blocks, one solo, paced USD's offense.
Lisa Kramer also had a great match, as she recorded a match-best 12 kills, while hitting .226, and she also recorded three blocks, two solo.
Jayden Kennedy was the final Torero in double digit kills, as she had 10, while hitting .450 with one block and one dig.
Kristen Gengenbacher recorded 22 assists, and had eight digs, while
Hunter Jennings chipped in with nine digs.
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 as well. 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 AZTECS: San Diego State enters the match with an overall record of 8-5, after sweeping Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State this past week in the USD/SDSU Tournament. USD leads the all-time series at 28-23, and have won 13 of the last 14 meetings. The Aztecs offense is paced by Alexandra Psoma, who has a team-leading 146 kills, while hitting for a .253 clip. SDSU runs a two-setter system, splitting time between Indigo Thompson (267 assists) and Hailey Jones (176 assists). The Aztecs are under the direction of head coach Deitre Collins-Parker.
SCOUTING THE DONS: San Francisco enters the week with an overall record of 4-9 after closing out its preseason being swept by UC Irvine, then dropping a 5-set thriller to UC Riverside, then closing the week being swept by Northern Arizona. USD leads the all-time series at 46-18, and have won eight of the last nine meetings. USF's offense is paced by Tyna Adamcikova, who has a team-leading 128 kills, while hitting .216. The Dons also use a 2-setter system, with Montana Green (129 assists) and Trish Koutsoukos (165 assists) both seeing time and helping steer the team to an attack percentage of .194.
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS: Santa Clara enters the week with an overall record of 9-3 after dropping all three matches this past week to Arizona State, Boise State and UC Davis. The Broncos lead the all-time series at 32-31. SCU's offense is paced by Nikki Hess, who has a team-leading 160 kills, while hitting for a .213 clip. Setters Kirsten Mead (249 assists) and Callie Jones (224 assists) have helped steer the team to an attack percentage of .232
THE RANKINGS: The University of San Diego women's volleyball team jumped up to No. 7 in the latest AVCA top-25 poll. This marks the second consecutive week USD has been ranked in the top-10, and San Diego is the only non-BCS school in the top-10. USD's highest ranking ever was No. 2, back in the 2013 season.
SCHAD HAS MONSTER WEEK: Senior middle hitter Lauren Schad had a huge week for the Toreros, as she helped lead USD to a perfect 3-0 record. For the week, Schad recorded a team-best 37 kills, while hitting .477, and she had eight blocks, one solo. She began the week with a 15-kill performance against Long Beach State, while hitting for a .500 clip. She then recorded 11 kills in each of the next two matches against Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara, hitting .474 against the Titans and .444 against the Gauchos. On the season, Schad leads the team with 110 kills, while hitting .392, and she is second on the team with 20 blocks.
GOING STREAKING: With USD's 3-0 record this past week, the Toreros have increased their winning streak to seven. During this streak, Lisa Kramer has led the team with 86 kills (4.78 kps), while also hitting .296. Lauren Schad has also been impressive with 78 kills, hitting .450 and has 14 blocks. Hunter Jennings has been a defensive stalwart, recording a team-leading 124 digs, (5.17 dps). As a team, USD is hitting for a .301 clip, while holding opponents to a .196 attack percentage.
Hunter Jennings is currently 6th all-time in career digs with 1,219.
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 lists for career digs, now with 1,219, which places her sixth all-time. Senior middle hitter Lauren Schad is closing in on breaking into the top-10 list on career blocks, as she currently has 234, which is just 45 away from cracking into the top-10 list.
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 the 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 recorded 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 also 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. Now over the last 13 years, USD has won seven of the 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.
