The San Diego State women’s volleyball team is set to kick off the Mountain West regular season this Thursday after an 8-2 start. With non-conference play in the books, what can SDSU fans expect from the team during the Mountain West regular season?
The Aztecs finished second to last in the Mountain West with a 4-14 conference record and a 5-6 non-conference record last year; however, a dramatic turnaround has SDSU making a case to be a contender in the conference.
The Aztecs are second in the conference only behind San Jose State (8-0), the only team remaining undefeated in the Mountain West. SDSU is still expected to battle against the rest of the Mountain West as the five teams behind SDSU have records above .500.
Offensively, SDSU leads the Mountain West in hitting percentage and assists and it is second in kills and service aces, according to the Mountain West website.
SDSU has multiple weapons generating kills for the team during non-conference play. Taylor Underwood has proven to be the Aztecs’ go-to weapon on offense. Underwood alone accounted for 23% of the Aztecs’ kills with 134 kills generating154 points.
Shea Rubright, Madison Corf and Jasmine Davis have also proven reliable weapons for the Aztecs. The middle blocker, Rubright, is second in kills, tallying 98 kills. Meanwhile, the opposite hitters, Corf and Davis, have both generated 60-plus kills for the Aztecs.
SDSU can’t go wrong with the setter trio of Fatimah Hall, Sarena Gonzalez and Andrea Campos. Campos leads the trio with 184 assists, and Gonzalez came off a career game against Eastern Washington. Gonzalez earned her fourth career double-double and 60 assists- a career-high.
Defensively, Gianna Bender leads the team with 134 digs and 17 receptions. Her performance in the Gonzaga Tournament awarded her with the Mountain West Freshman of the Week. Bender had 37 digs in the tournament and recorded a career-high 20 digs against Gonzaga.
In the blocking category, Rubright accounted for half of the team’s blocks with 45, 11 of which were solo blocks. While SDSU is sixth in the conference in blocks, it has improved significantly compared to last year.
In the non-conference games last season, the team struggled to generate blocks averaging 4.7 blocks per game, and it carried on to the regular season, being out-blocked 124-198 by their opponents. This year, the team has almost doubled the number of blocks, averaging nine per game for a record of 90-72 against their opponents.
SDSU will open on the road against Air Force (1-10) this Thursday at 5 p.m. The Aztecs were 0-2 against the Falcons last year, but SDSU has proven to be road warriors as the team is 6-1 in away and neutral site games.
Following a meeting with the New Mexico Lobos on Sept. 28, SDSU will return home on Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. to face the reigning regular-season champion Utah State.
