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Women's Volleyball:
UC Irvine Hosts UC Davis, Pacific
Nov. 3, 2008
UCI TAKES ON UC DAVIS, PACIFIC: UC Irvine (12-11 overall, 7-3 Big West) hosts UC Davis Friday (Nov. 7) and Pacific Saturday (Nov. 8) at Crawford Court. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. THE STANDINGS: UC Irvine, which has won seven of its last 10 matches, remains third in the Big West at 7-3. Long Beach State moved into first at 7-2 (.778) while Cal Poly is second at 8-3 (.727). Pacific is fourth at 7-4 while Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara are tied for fifth at 6-5. UC Riverside (3-7), UC Davis (3-8) and CSUN (1-11) round out the league standings. ANTEATERS TIE SEASON-HIGH DIGS: UC Irvine tied a season-high with 91 digs against Cal State Fullerton last week. Five Anteaters registered double-figure digs, led by Devon Sutherland (Corona/Santiago HS), who picked up 29 digs, one shy of her career-high. Taryn Roberston (Valencia/HS) was second with 18 digs. FILKINS' STREAK CONTINUES: Junior Alexandra Filkins (Seal Beach/Los Alamitos HS) has either tied or recorded a career-high five consecutive weeks. Beginning October 3 against Cal State Northridge, Filkins logged a career-high 11 digs. The next week against Pacific, Filkins' 11 kills were a personal-best. The outside hitter followed that performance with 13 digs against UC Davis and then registered five block assists against Long Beach State later that week. She then tied a personal-high with 11 kills against Cal Poly in the fourth week of the streak. Last week, Filkins totaled 14 digs against Cal State Fullerton and 12 kills against Cal State Northridge both personal-bests. Filkins also recorded her second-best average against the Matadors, putting away 12 of 24 attempts with one error to register a .458 clip On the season Filkins is averaging 1.20 kills per set and has 115 digs.
SUTHERLAND GETS TO 1600: Sutherland reached the 1600-dig milestone last week against Cal State Fullerton as the senior scooped up 29 digs. The libero then totaled 13 digs in a four-set win against Cal State Northridge to total 1,636. Sutherland, who holds the Nos. 2 and 3 spots in the season annals, needs 18 digs to break into the UCI top 10 for the third consecutive year.
Sutherland currently has 334 digs and is averaging 4.18 per set. KELLERMAN COMES UP BIG IN FIFTH SET: Lauren Kellerman (Escondido/HS) led UC Irvine to a 3-2 win against Cal State Fullerton with 19 kills and 29 digs. After squandering a two-set lead, UC Irvine was forced to five sets. The Titans prompted the side change with an 8-7 lead but the Anteaters responded by going on an 8-1 run to defeat CSF 15-8. Kellerman owned the deciding frame, putting away six of UCI's 10 kills in the set. Kellerman committed just one miscue for a .556 average in set No. 5. PESTOLESI HITS 30 ACES: Kari Pestolesi (Huntington Beach/Edison HS) recorded two service aces last week to reach 30 service aces in a season. The sophomore outside hitter has registered at least one service winner in eight of the last nine contests and is averaging 0.38 per set. ABOUT THE AGGIES: UC Davis is 11-13 overall and 3-8 in the Big West. The Aggies have won three of their last five matches and snapped a two-match losing streak last week with a 3-1 win against Cal Poly. The team is led by Renee Ibekwe, who has 325 kills and a 3.74 per-set average. Carslon Lowden has 681 assists while Avreeta Singh tops the team with 346 digs. Julie King leads UC Davis with 67 blocks. THE SERIES: UC Irvine is undefeated against UC Davis at 9-0 and defeated the Aggies earlier in straight sets. ABOUT THE TIGERS: Pacific is 7-13 overall and 7-4 in the Big West after capturing two wins against Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara over the weekend. The Tigers are led by Alexa Anderson, who has 238 kills and a 3.40 per-set average. Anderson also tops the team with 15 solo blocks. Kara Uhl has 190 digs for the team-high while Shannon Krug has handed out 746 assists. THE SERIES: The Anteaters who lost to Pacific earlier this season, 3-0, trails in the all-time series 48-6. ANTEATERS IN THE BIG WEST: Taryn Robertson tops the Big West with a 10.93 assist average and squares off this week against Pacific's Shannon Krug, who is second in the league at 10.66. Devon Sutherland matched Cal State Fullerton libero Cami Croteau with 29 digs last week to hold on to the lead in the conference at 4.18 digs per set. Kari Pestolesi is third with a 3.56 kill average while Lauren Kellerman climbed one spot to ninth at 3.28 kills per set. Pestolesi is third in service aces at 0.38. As a team, the Anteaters own the top spots in the league in assist average (12.89), kills (13.94) and digs (15.03). They are second in hitting percentage at .236. ANTEATER ALUMNAE ON KARCH'S KRONICLES: Former Anteaters Ashlie Hain, Whitney Pavlik and Kelly Wing will appear on "Karch's Khronicles" on FOX SPORTS WEST and PRIME TICKET. In the two-minute segments designed to enhance Pac-10 volleyball coverage, Olympic Gold medalist Karch Kiraly will explain offensive systems, defensive coverage and coaching strategies using former players from UC Irvine and Irvine Valley College to demonstrate the drills. Please check the local listings for more information. WEEKEND WRAPUP: UC Irvine captured two key road wins last week, defeating Cal State Fullerton 3-2 and Cal State Northridge 3-1. Against the Titans, the Anteaters won the first two sets but were forced to a fifth set for the first time this season. UCI was led by Kellerman, who had 19 kills while Pestolesi added 10. Robertson totaled 50 assists, 18 digs, four total blocks and seven kills in a solid match for the setter. Sutherland led five Anteaters in double-digit digs with 29. Against CSUN, UCI was paced by Pestolesi, who led the team with 16 kills and was one of three players to share the team-high with 13 digs. Filkins and Kellerman added 12 kills apiece while Robertson fell one dig shy of a double-double with 47 assists and nine digs. Sutherland led UCI to a 6-3 ace advantage with three service winners while scooping up 13 digs. The Anteaters also won the battle at the net, recording 20 block assists to CSUN's 12. |
