Sept. 26, 2016 Complete Release in PDF Format 
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE: The 6th-ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team (11-2, 2-0 WCC) will travel to Los Angeles on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. West Coast Conference match against Loyola Marymount. This match will be televised live nationally on ESPNU. USD then returns home on Friday to take on the defending WCC champion, and No. 11-ranked, BYU Cougars at 7 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT: USD posted another perfect 3-0 record this past week, defeating San Diego State, 3-0, then sweeping both San Francisco and Santa Clara. These three wins move USD to a perfect 8-0 at home, and runs their winning streak up to 10. In Tuesday's win over SDSU,
Lisa Kramer led all players with 12 kills to pace the USD offense, and she hit for a .375 clip. Both
Lauren Schad and
Lauren Fuller had nine kills apiece, while
Kristen Gengenbacher had 20 assists and Ana Newsome added in 17 more assists.
Hunter Jennings led the team's defense with nine digs. As a team, USD hit for a .337 clip, while SDSU hit for a .230 clip. The Toreros recorded 29 digs, and SDSU had 22. SDSU did out block the Toreros, 9.0-5.0. Then on Thursday against San Francisco,
Lisa Kramer paced a balanced offense for San Diego with nine kills, while hitting .571.
Lauren Schad added in seven more kills, while
Lauren Fuller,
Jayden Kennedy and
Merve Tanyel all had six kills apiece.
Kristen Gengenbacher and
Anna Newsome each had 16 assists, and
Hunter Jennings led the defense with 11 digs. As a team, USD hit for a season-high .427 clip, while the Dons hit .099. USD recorded 35 digs, while USF only had 22 digs. The Dons narrowly out blocked USD, 3.0-2.0. The Toreros then closed out the week with a sweep of SCU, and in this match
Lisa Kramer led all players with 14 kills, while hitting .226, and she had a pair of blocks and two digs.
Lauren Schad was the final USD player in double digit kills with 13, while hitting .500 and recording three blocks.
Kristen Gengenbacher recorded 29 assists, while also picking up seven digs.
Hunter Jennings recorded 14 digs to lead the USD defense. As a team, USD hit for a .273 clip, while SCU hit .202. San Diego recoded 45 digs, while SCU had 35. The Broncos did out block the Toreros, 11.0-8.0
ESPNU: USD's Tuesday match against Loyola Marymount will be aired live on ESPNU. Paul Sunderland will be calling all the live play-by-play for this match, and Kevin Barnett will provide color commentary. This is the first of two televised matches USD will be in during WCC play this year, with the other coming against BYU on Oct. 28.
SCOUTING THE LIONS: Loyola Marymount enters the match with an overall record of 10-1, and they are 1-0 in the WCC after sweeping WCC rival Pepperdine this past week in their WCC opener. LMU leads the all-time series at 39-35, with both teams splitting last seasons meetings, each winning on the others floor. The Lions offense is paced by Sarah Sponcil, who has a team-leading 172 kills (4.00 kps), while hitting .311, and she has the second most digs on the team with 123. LMU is under the direction of seventh-year head coach Tom Black.
SCOUTING THE COUGARS: BYU enters the week with an overall record of 13-1, and they are 2-0 in the WCC after sweeping both Santa Clara and San Francisco this past week. USD and BYU are 6-6 all-time against each other, with the Cougars taking both meetings this past season. BYU's offense is paced by McKenna Miller, who has a team-leading 210 kills (4.38 kps), while hitting for a .296 clip. The Cougars are under the direction of second-year head coach Heather Olmstead.
THE RANKINGS: The University of San Diego women's volleyball team jumped up to No. 6 in the latest AVCA top-25 poll. This marks the third 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.
Lauren Schad leads the WCC in hitting percentage at .399.
SCHAD NAMED WCC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: The West Coast Conference has named its Volleyball Player of the Week for September 26, 2016, and it was the University of San Diego's Lauren Schad. Schad helped lead San Diego to a perfect 3-0 record this past week, to help run USD's winning streak to 10. All three wins were by the sweep. Schad recorded 29 kills, while hitting .429, to go along with eight blocks, two of them solo. Schad began the week with a nine-kill and two solo block performance against cross-town rival San Diego State. She then opened up WCC play with seven kills, and two blocks against San Francisco. She closed out the week with 13 kills and three blocks in the sweep against Santa Clara.
KILLING THE NATION: San Diego, as a team, is currently leading the nation in kills-per-set at 15.92 Tuesday's opponents are not too far behind USD in fourth place with 14.79. The Toreros have 702 total kills as a team this season, and that ranks second in the WCC, only trailing Pacific, who has 706.
GOING STREAKING: With USD's 3-0 record this past week, the Toreros have increased their winning streak to 10, marking the longest winning streak since 2013, when USD won 17 consecutive matches. During this streak, Lisa Kramer is leading the USD offense with 121 kills (4.65 kps), while hitting .310. Lauren Schad is not far behind with 107 kills (3.24 kps), while hitting .445, and she has 22 total blocks. As a team, USD is hitting .309, while holding opponents to just a .192 attack percentage. USD has recorded 541 kills, to its opponents .356, and USD is out digging the competition 489-393.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: San Diego's senior middle hitter Lauren Schad leads the WCC in hitting percentage at .399, while senior outside hitter Lisa Kramer leads the WCC in kills-per-set at 4.48, and Hunter Jennings is third in digs-per-set at 4.38.
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.
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 1,253, which places her fifth all-time. Senior middle hitter Lauren Schad is closing in on breaking into the top-10 list on career blocks, as she currently has 242, which is just 38 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 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.
