No. 20 San Diego (16-4, 10-1 WCC)  •  Portland (2-10, 5-16 WCC)  •  Gonzaga (3-9, 5-13 WCC)

Nov. 4 | Chiles Center (4,852) • Portland, Oregon

Nov. 6 | Martin Centre (2,000) • Spokane, Washington

Live Stream  •  WCC Network |  Live Statistics  • PortlandPilots.com/GoZags.com

Social  •  Facebook.com/USDVolleyball  •  Twitter.com/USDVolleyball  •  Instagram.com/USDVolleyball

PORTLAND, Ore. — After notching back-to-back sweeps, maintaining its ranking in the AVCA Top 25, and earning its seventh West Coast Conference weekly award of 2021, No, 20 San Diego volleyball is set to hit the road again this week, traveling to Portland, Oregon to take on the Pilots before squaring off with Gonzaga in Spokane, Washington.

The Toreros will play Portland at the Chiles Center in a 6 p.m. matchup on Thursday, then play the Bulldogs at the Martin Centre at 12 pm on Saturday. Both matches will be streamed live on the WCC Network, and live statistics will be available on PortlandPilots.com and GoZags.com.

ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS PORTLAND
• USD is 59-9 against the Pilots all-time, with the two programs' most recent meeting coming in February as part of the Spring 2021 campaign, a 3-0 San Diego win at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

• The Toreros have won each of their last eight matchups versus Portland, a span that dates back to October of 2017.

• USD has won four consecutive matches at the Chiles Center dating back to October 2016 and is 28-6 there all-time.

LAST TIME OUT VERSUS PORTLAND…
• The Toreros swept the Pilots 3-0 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

• Junior Grace Frohling matched a career high of 19 kills with four blocks, while senior Katie Lukes added 12 kills.

• Redshirt sophomore Isadora Tercariol ended with 29 assists and 10 digs.

• Senior Annie Benbow led the team with 15 digs.

ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS GONZAGA
• The Toreros are 57-9 versus the Bulldogs all-time, with the two programs' most recent meeting coming in February as part of the Spring 2021 campaign, a 3-0 USD win in Spokane.

• USD has won each of its last 51 matches against Gonzaga, a streak that dates back to October of 1994.

• The Toreros have won 26 consecutive matches at the Martin Centre dating back to September 1994 and are 29-5 there all-time.

LAST TIME OUT VERSUS GONZAGA…
• The Toreros swept the Bulldogs 3-0 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

• Junior Grace Frohling led the way with 10 kills, while senior Katie Lukes ended with seven.

• Redshirt sophomore Isadora Tercariol finished with a game-high 20 assists.

• Libero Annie Benbow added 19 digs.

LAST TIME OUT
• USD finished another successful homestand last time out, taking down San Francisco in straight sets to earn its second consecutive sweep at the Jenny Craig Pavilion by scores of 25-14, 25-14, and 25-19.

• The Toreros did so behind 15 kills from senior Katie Lukes, 13 from junior Grace Frohling, and a breakout performance from freshman Haylee Stoner (Mission Hills High School).

• Stoner added seven kills of her own and a pair of blocks assists in what marked the San Marcos, California native's first college start, complementing three block assists from fellow local talent Leyla Blackwell (La Jolla High School) and redshirt sophomore Isadora Terçariol.

• Libero Annie Benbow led the way for USD with 14 digs, and Terçariol wasn't too far behind with 10, as well as a game-high 38 assists. 

How It Happened
First Set - (San Diego, 25-14)
• Stoner got USD on the board first with a kill, then Lukes tossed a filthy changeup over the net to make it a 2-0 San Diego lead.

• Blackwell notched her first kill of the afternoon a few minutes later, expanding the USD advantage to five.

• Freshman Emily Wilson checked in and hammered a kill to make it 10-5 in favor of the Toreros, before Lukes demolished a kill to move the score to 15-7.

• Stoner showed off her prowess once again midway through the first, delivering her third kill of Saturday's match to make it an 11-point, 18-7 Torero lead.

• Lukes ended the first set with a kill, locking in a 25-14 USD win in the set to put them ahead 1-0 in the match as a whole.

Second Set - (San Diego, 25-14)
• After trading points with the Dons early in the second set, Lukes was a factor again in the second, hammering a kill to pull the Toreros ahead by two, 9-7.

• Stoner maintained the two-point USD lead a few plays later, making it 12-10 with a kill of her own.

• Frohling notched her 22nd service ace of 2021 to make it 20-12, then Stoner got her team on the board again to make it 24-14.

• It would be Frohling again to finish the second set, securing a 25-19 win to pull USD ahead 2-0 with another kill.

Third Set - (San Diego, 25-19)
• A back-and-forth battle early in the third set saw the set tied 7-7, but USD quickly pulled ahead to earn a 8-7 advantage that swelled to as many as four before the Dons reeled them in.

• San Francisco made it as close as 20-17 USD late in the set, but two kills by the Toreros earned them a 24-19 lead before Frohling finished things off with a service ace.

LUKES NAMED WCC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• After recording 30 kills and a service ace across two matches versus Santa Clara and San Francisco last week, senior outside hitter Katie Lukes was named the West Coast Conference Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced on Monday afternoon.

• The San Clemente, California native was key in both of No. 20 San Diego volleyball's victories last week, posting 15 kills against the Broncos on Thursday night in the Jenny Craig Pavilion before she added another 15 versus the Dons as the Toreros concluded their two-match homestand by winning six straight sets.

• Lukes, who also earned WCC Player of the Week honors on October 4 for her 28-kill and two-service ace performance also against Santa Clara and San Francisco, ranks second on the USD roster with 224 total kills through 17 matches so far this season, and her 12 service aces are tied for second. She's tallied the 10th-most kills in the conference, and has the most of any WCC player who's participated in 17 matches or less.

• Her selection marks the seventh for the Toreros in 2021 after sophomore Kylie Pries, Lukes herself, and junior Grace Frohling earned the conference's offensive honor (Sept. 13, Oct. 4, and Oct. 18), and sophomore Leyla Blackwell earned the conference's defensive honor on three occasions, including back-to-back weeks (Sept. 13, Oct 11 and 18).

HOW SWEEP IT IS
• USD's sweeps over Santa Clara and San Francisco this past weekend marked the team's ninth of 2021, and its eighth out of 11 WCC games.

• The Toreros have swept Hawaii (Sept. 3), Cal Poly (Sept. 4), Saint Mary's (Sept. 23), Pacific (Sept. 25), San Francisco (Sept. 30), Gonzaga (Oct. 7), Portland (Oct. 9), Santa Clara (Oct. 28), and San Francisco again (Oct. 30).

• They have only been swept twice in 2021, both by Top-10 teams — No. 1 Texas on August 27 and No. 8 BYU on Oct. 22.

IN THE RANKINGS
•The Toreros held steady in the AVCA Weekly Coaches' Poll on Monday (November. 1), maintaining the No. 20 spot in Week Ten.
 
• The ranking marks USD's highest since August, when they began the 2021 campaign as the preseason No. 20 team in the ACVA Top 25.

• The Toreros have appeared in the national top-25 poll for 24 consecutive seasons, with 22 top-10 appearances. USD's highest ranking was No. 2 overall (Sept. 16, 2013).
 
• USD's highest-ranked victory came on Sept. 13, 2013 against No. 1 USC (3-1) in the Jenny Craig Pavilion. It marks the only time the Toreros have defeated a top-ranked team.

BLOCK PARTY FOR BLACKWELL AND TOREROS
• Through 20 games in 2021 so far, middle blocker Leyla Blackwell and the Toreros have found themselves near the top of the national leaderboards for blocks.

• Blackwell, a 6-4 sophomore from San Diego, California, leads the Toreros and the WCC with an average of 1.51 blocks per set, a mark that ranks third in all of NCAA Division I.

• As a team, USD has totaled an average of 2.91 blocks per set, a mark that leads the conference and also ranks fourth in all of NCAA Division I.

FROHLING FLOURISHING
• Junior opposite/setter Grace Frohling has paced the Torero offense with a team-best 266 kills so far in 2021, a mark that leads the roster by 42 kills and ranks sixth in the WCC.

•The Los Angeles, California native has tallied a team-leading 24 service aces in addition to her wealth of kills, and her 69 total blocks and 123 digs rank second and third on the team.

LUKES LEADING
• Senior outside hitter Katie Lukes has provided a potent one-two punch for the Toreros this year in addition to Frohling.

• She's totaled 63 kills in her last four matches, including 21 at LMU on October 16, 12 at No. 8 BYU on October 22, and 15 in both matches last week versus Santa Clara and San Francisco.

• Despite having only played in 17 of the Toreros' 20 matches so far this year due to a mid-season injury, the San Clemente, California native ranks second on the USD roster with 224 kills in 2021, a mark that tied for 10th in the WCC and the most among conference players who have played 17 matches or less.

CAN YOU DIG IT?
• Libero Annie Benbow has been a mainstay for the Toreros on defense, totaling a team-best 297 digs through USD's 18 games so far in 2021, a mark that ranks fourth in the WCC.

• She added to that total last week against Santa Clara and San Francisco, notching 11 against the Broncos and 14 against the Dons.

• The Frisco, Texas native is now in her fourth year with USD, and has earned All-WCC honors on three occasions (2019, honorable mention, 2020-2021 and 2019, academic honorable mention).

A HELPING HAND
• Setter Isadora Terçariol has been at the center of the Toreros' success so far this season, with 595 assists under her belt in 2021.

• She added 65 assists across two matches versus Santa Clara and San Francisco last Thursday and Saturday, totaling 27 against the Broncos and 38 against the Dons.

• Terçariol, a redshirt sophomore from Bauru, Säo Paulo, Brazil, has already bested her assists total from a season ago (239), and has appeared in 19 of USD's 20 matches.