SAN DIEGO — The Toreros (6-6, 1-1 WCC) host Denver (8-6, 1-1 WCC) at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Saturday afternoon in the programs' first meeting as West Coast Conference opponents. Both teams had Thursday off and come in with matching league results: a sweep of Pacific and a loss to Saint Mary's. San Diego has hit .319 over its last four matches and leads the WCC in opponent hitting percentage (.152).

First serve is set for noon on Saturday, Oct. 3. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+, with Torero broadcaster Braden Surprenant on the play-by-play call.

Live statistics will be available on StatBroadcast.

LAST TIME OUT: SAN DIEGO SWEEPS PACIFIC IN DOMINANT 3-0 WIN AT THE JCP

• San Diego swept Pacific 25-20, 25-17, 25-15 on Sept. 26 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion for its first WCC win of the season, two days after dropping its league opener to Saint Mary's in five sets.

• The Toreros hit .360, their second-best mark of the season behind .457 against Arizona, and held the Tigers to .126. They out-killed Pacific 44-26, served seven aces to one and doubled up the Tigers in team blocks, 8.0-4.0.

• Pacific led 15-12 at the first set's media timeout before Ryann Knuth's kill started a 4-0 run that she served out, finishing it with an ace for a 16-15 lead. After the Tigers tied it at 17, a Nemo Beach kill and four straight points on Kylie Munday's serve made it 22-17, and BayLea Sparks had five kills on six swings in the set.

• Kierstyn Barton's kill put San Diego ahead for good at 10-9 in the second set, the last of five lead changes. Emma Brewer ended four straight rallies — three kills and a solo block — during a 5-0 run that stretched a 16-13 lead to 21-13, and Munday closed the set with an ace.

• A 7-0 run in the third set turned a 7-6 lead into 14-6, with Knuth serving the last six points, two of them aces. Pacific got no closer than seven the rest of the way.

• Barton led all players with 10 kills and 12.0 points on .304 hitting, adding two aces and six digs. Sparks hit .750 (9-0-12), Brewer had nine kills in two sets, Knuth added six kills and a match-high three aces, Munday handed out 26 assists over the first two sets and Lauren Lynch had a match-high 11 digs.

BELLE'S BIG DEBUT

• Sophomore setter Belle Groomes had seven assists, two kills, five digs, an ace and a block assist in the third set against Pacific on Sept. 26, her college debut after an injury kept her out of her entire 2025 freshman season. She took over at setter with San Diego up two sets to none, and the Toreros won the set 25-15.
 

• Her first college assist set up an Emma Brewer kill on the set's opening rally, and both of her kills came during a 7-0 run that broke the set open.
 

• Groomes had a hand in each of San Diego's last four points: a stuff of Nicole Zake with Allie Dunnion, set-ups of kills by Brewer and Kierstyn Barton, and an ace on match point.
 

• San Diego and Denver have met just once before in volleyball, with the Toreros taking the lone previous matchup back on Sept. 12, 2009, by a score of 3-1 at Hamilton Gymnasium.

•Saturday will mark the Pioneers' first-ever trip to the Jenny Craig Pavilion for volleyball.

FRESH FACES IN THE WCC

• After announcing its move to the West Coast Conference on Oct. 31, 2025, the University of Denver officially joined the league as a competing member effective July 1, 2026.

• Denver, which was previously a member of the Summit League, will compete in the West Coast Conference in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's and women's golf and men's and women's tennis.

• The Pioneers' ascension to the WCC comes after the conference's addition of Seattle U (effective July 1, 2025), and ahead of nearby UC San Diego's WCC debut (effective July 1, 2027).

2026 WCC WEEKLY HONORS

• Kylie Munday, Setter of the Week (Aug. 31): 115 assists (11.50 per set), 33 digs, 6.0 blocks and three aces as USD went 2-1 in Honolulu. Fifth career weekly honor.

• Emma Brewer, Freshman of the Week (Sept. 21): 23 kills (3.29 per set), 16 digs, 7.0 blocks and two aces in wins over Arizona and San Diego State. First career weekly honor.

NATIONALLY RELEVANT NUMBERS

• San Diego is holding opponents to .152 hitting, ninth in the nation according to NCAA statistics through Sept. 30. The Toreros were 15th through Sept. 24.

• Nationally, San Diego also ranks 49th in digs per set (15.18), 59th in blocks per set (2.47) and 65th in attacks per set (35.49).

• Three Toreros rank in the national top 50 in an individual category: Kylie Munday is 37th in assists per set (10.16), and Lauren Lynch (4.40 digs per set) and Meghan Scholz (1.34 blocks per set) are both 46th.

• The attack has picked up over the last four matches: San Diego has hit .319 (196-50-458) since Sept. 17, nearly double its .163 mark through the first eight matches.

HOW THEY STACK UP IN THE WCC
• San Diego's .152 opponent hitting percentage leads the WCC by 34 points over second-place LMU (.186), and no other league team ranks higher than 86th nationally in the category, according to NCAA statistics through Sept. 30.

• The Toreros are second in the league in digs per set (15.18), blocks per set (2.47) and assists per set (12.04), third in attacks per set (35.49) and total blocks (111.0), and fourth in kills per set (12.91).

• Five Toreros rank among the WCC's top five in at least one category. Kylie Munday is second in assists per set (10.16), Meghan Scholz is second in blocks per set (1.34) and third in total blocks (51.0), Lauren Lynch is third in digs per set (4.40), and Ryann Knuth (0.42 aces per set) and BayLea Sparks (1.05 blocks per set) are both fifth. Kierstyn Barton just misses the cut, sixth in points per set (4.10).

• Saturday puts the WCC's busiest attack against its stingiest defense. Denver leads the league in attacks per set (37.11, 13th nationally) and kills per set (13.21), and is the only WCC team ahead of San Diego in digs per set (15.74) and assists per set (12.26).

• The clearest contrast is at the net, where San Diego ranks second in the WCC in blocks per set and Denver ranks 10th (1.64). Denver's Madison Winkler leads the league and is 12th nationally with 4.87 digs per set, and Alicia Thibodeau is ninth in the WCC with 3.22 kills per set.
 

• Barton leads the Toreros in kills (157, 3.49 per set) and points (184.5, 4.10 per set) through 45 sets. Her points per set rank sixth in the WCC, a hundredth behind San Francisco's Petra Fritz, and her kills per set rank seventh. She is hitting .221.

• She led all players with 10 kills and 12.0 points in the sweep of Pacific, hitting .304 with two aces and six digs, and her kill at 10-9 put San Diego ahead for good in the second set.

• Against Saint Mary's, she had a match-high 16 kills on .375 hitting with five aces, seven block assists and seven digs for 24.5 points, tying the most by a Torero in a match this season. The five aces are a Torero season high, and she served back-to-back aces to close the first set and again for a 14-10 lead in the fifth.

• Her season high is 20 kills against SMU, followed by 19 in her USD debut against Baylor and 18 against San Diego State, and she had double-doubles in all three matches leading into WCC play. She has 107 digs and 33.0 blocks and has been charged with just four reception errors on 113 serve-receive attempts (.965).

#12 Kylie Munday | Junior | 5-10 | Setter | Post Falls, Idaho | Post Falls HS

• Munday has 447 assists through 44 sets. Her 10.16 assists per set rank 37th nationally and second in the WCC, behind Santa Clara's Macy Hinshaw (10.46), and she was named WCC Setter of the Week for Aug. 31 after the season-opening weekend in Honolulu.

• Her 55 assists against UC Davis are a season high and one shy of her career high of 56, set in the five-set win over Arizona on Sept. 13, 2025. She set a season high with 25 digs in that match and added 5.0 blocks and two aces while running an offense that produced 66 kills.

• According to Evollve/Avid Volleyball, that line made her just the second player in the past seven seasons to finish a match with at least 55 assists, 25 digs and five blocks.

• She has six double-doubles in 2026 — 39 assists and 12 digs against Baylor, 42 and 19 against Georgia Southern, 55 and 25 against UC Davis, 35 and 10 against Oregon, 38 and 10 against San Diego State, and 43 and 16 against Saint Mary's.

• She handed out 26 assists in two sets against Pacific, served four straight points for a 22-17 first-set lead and closed the second set with an ace. Munday ranks second on the roster with 129 digs (2.93 per set) and third with 10 service aces, and has added 23.0 blocks and 14 kills.

#1 Nemo Beach | Senior | 5-11 | Outside Hitter | Chandler, Ariz. | Hamilton HS

• Beach reached 1,000 career kills, all at San Diego, in the Sept. 6 match against USC. She ranks second on the team with 129 kills through 43 sets, and her 3.00 kills per set rank 10th in the WCC. She is hitting .206.

• Her season high is 22 kills, set against UC Davis on a season-high 61 attempts, and her 12 digs that night made it one of her three double-doubles in 2026. The other two came in sweeps, with 11 kills and 11 digs apiece at Hawaii and against Arizona.

• She had 13 kills and nine digs against Saint Mary's, including three straight kills to tie the second set at 14. Against Pacific, she stuffed Hanna Vorhies on back-to-back rallies, once solo and once with Meghan Scholz, during a 4-0 first-set run that erased a 15-12 deficit.

• Beach ranks second on the team with 146.0 points (3.40 per set) and 176 serve-receive attempts (.909), and has added 87 digs, eight aces, nine assists and 14.0 blocks. She served a season-high three aces against Arizona, two of them to cap a 6-0 start to the third set.

#13 Emma Brewer | Freshman | 6-1 | Outside Hitter | Salem, Ore. | Sprague HS

• The WCC Freshman of the Week for Sept. 21, Brewer ranks third on the team in kills (84, 2.27 per set) and points (99.0, 2.68 per set) through 37 sets, and has added 61 digs and 21.0 blocks.

• She had nine kills in two sets against Pacific. In the second, she put down six kills on eight swings and ended four straight rallies — three kills and a solo block — during a 5-0 run, and her kill on the third set's first rally came on Belle Groomes' first college assist.

• Her first two career double-doubles came in back-to-back matches: a career-high 13 kills on .440 hitting with 14 digs against San Diego State, then 12 kills and 13 digs against Saint Mary's. She had three kills in a span of four rallies to put USD ahead 5-3 in the fifth set against the Gaels.

• Against Arizona on Sept. 17, she checked in with the Wildcats ahead 13-12 in the first set and had four kills in the 8-1 run that followed, finishing with 10 kills on .474 hitting off the bench.

• Brewer started the season opener against Baylor on the left side and finished with nine kills and nine digs. At Arizona State, she closed out San Diego's second-set win with a kill and a set-winning ace awarded on a successful challenge.

#8 Ryann Knuth | Freshman | 6-2 | Outside Hitter | Glenview, Ill. | Glenbrook South HS

• Knuth leads San Diego with 14 service aces, and her 0.42 aces per set rank fifth in the WCC. She has 85.0 points (2.58 per set) through 33 sets.

• The freshman outside hitter set a career high with 17 kills against SMU and added 13 digs in the same match. She has 65 kills and 59 digs on the season.

• Against Pacific, her kill out of the first set's media timeout started a 4-0 run that she served out, ending with an ace for a 16-15 lead. She served four straight points during a 5-0 run in the second set and the last six of a 7-0 run in the third, finishing with six kills, six digs and a match-high three aces.

• Her four aces against Georgia Southern, three of them in a row as San Diego opened the fourth set on an 8-0 run, are the second-most by a Torero in a match this season. She has also served three in a match twice, against UC Davis and Pacific.

#2 Lauren Lynch | Sophomore | 5-5 | Libero | Burbank, Calif. | Sierra Canyon HS

• Lynch leads the Toreros with 198 digs (4.40 per set), 46th nationally and third in the WCC behind Denver's Madison Winkler (4.87) and Pepperdine's Laine Briggs (4.42). She has taken 248 serve-receive attempts, far and away the most on the team, with 12 errors for a .952 mark.

• The libero had at least 14 digs in each of the first 11 matches, topped by a season-high 26 against SMU, then led all players with 11 against Pacific without a reception error. She has added 47 assists out of the back row.

• She had 14 digs against Saint Mary's after leading all players with 18 against San Diego State. At Arizona State, she passed 24-for-24 in serve receive.

#18 BayLea Sparks | Redshirt Senior | 6-2 | Middle Blocker | Grand Junction, Colo. | Fruita Monument HS

• Sparks leads San Diego in hitting percentage at .409, turning 137 swings into 68 kills with 12 attack errors through 44 sets. She hit .750 against Pacific with nine kills on 12 swings and no errors, including five kills on six swings in the first set.

• Her 10.0 blocks against Saint Mary's (one solo, nine assists) are the most by a Torero in a match this season, and she hit .625 with five kills and no errors against the Gaels.

• She ranks second on the team with 46.0 blocks (1.05 per set), fifth in the WCC, and leads it with six solo blocks — three of them against San Diego State, the most solo blocks by a Torero in a match this season.

• Her 8.0 blocks against UC Davis, two of them solo, came with a season-high 14 kills on .542 hitting for 19.0 points, also a season best. She has 94.0 points in 2026, fourth on the team.

#15 Meghan Scholz | Senior | 6-3 | Middle Blocker | Tomahawk, Wis. | Tomahawk HS

• Scholz leads the team with 51.0 blocks through 38 sets. Her 1.34 blocks per set rank 46th nationally and second in the WCC, behind Pepperdine's Ella Piskorz (1.52), and her block total ranks third in the league.

• She has put up at least 5.0 blocks in six matches — Georgia Southern, Hawaii, UC Davis, Oregon, San Diego State and Saint Mary's. Her 9.0 blocks against San Diego State are her season high, and she added 7.0 blocks and six kills on .417 hitting against Saint Mary's, including a fifth-set stuff of Layne Dent with Kierstyn Barton.

• Her top offensive showing came against Georgia Southern, with 10 kills on 15 swings and no attack errors for a .667 clip. She hit .429 against Pacific with four kills, including the one that ended the first set, and three block assists, and has 49 kills on the season.

#3 Ella Fulton | Freshman | 6-2 | Middle Blocker | San Carlos, Calif. | Saint Francis HS

• Fulton has played 12 sets across six matches with one start, posting 11 kills and 5.0 blocks for 13.5 points.

• She was on the floor for the deciding set against UC Davis and had a block assist on the set's second point, and she teamed with Brewer on a fourth-set stuff of Grace Martin at Arizona State.