Game Notes
San Marcos, Texas – The Texas State volleyball team saved the best for last – competition, that is. This weekend, the Bobcats travel to the University of Arizona for a two-day tournament against three teams that have all flirted with the AVCA Top-25 this season.
Coming off a 3-0 win against UT Pan American, Texas State (6-5) will face its toughest test of the season against Arizona (7-2) on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. The Bobcats then have the quickest turnaround of any team in the tournament as they play against on Friday evening at 7 p.m. against New Mexico State (6-4).
The tournament wraps up on Saturday as the Bobcats play Pepperdine at 12:30 p.m. before Arizona and New Mexico State play in the final match of the invitational at 2:30 p.m.
Live stats and live video (for the match against Arizona) will both be available through Arizona's athletics website, www.arizonawildcats.com. Additional in-game coverage will be provided at www.txstatebobcats.com with a live chat from the site of the tournament at the McKale Memorial Center.
Scouting Texas State
The Bobcats depth, which was recently bolstered by the return of Mo Middleton to the lineup, has been a key for the team early in the season. Head coach Karen Chisum's team has the highest hitting percentage of any team in the Southland Conference by a substantial margin. Texas State is hitting .271 on the season as a team, while the next closest team (UTSA) is hitting .209. Defensively, Texas State has out-blocked its opponent in eight of the team's 11 matches. The Bobcats are 6-2 when holding an advantage in blocks.
Scouting Arizona
Head Coach: David Rubio
Conference: Pac-10
All-Time Series: Arizona leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Arizona won, 3-0 (9/5/08)
The Wildcats recently dropped out of the AVCA Top-25 after spending the past two weeks as the No.24 team in the country. After falling to Cal Poly to begin the season, Arizona won five consecutive matches before losing to Paciic in last weekend's Wolf Pack Invitiational. This will be the second tournament of the season hosted by Arizona. The Wildcats went 3-0 in their first home tournament.
Scouting New Mexico State
Head Coach: Mike Jordan
Conference: Western Athletic
All-Time Series: New Mexico State leads, 3-2
Last Meeting: Texas State won, 3-0 (9/11/98)
New Mexico State enters the Arizona Invitational with a three-match losing streak after falling to North Carolina and No. 21 LSU last weekend and New Mexico on Tuesday. The Aggies other loss this season came against another ranked team, No. 15 Florida State. Five of the team's six wins this season have come in three-set sweeps. Kayleigh Giddens averages 4.52 kills per set, tied for 14th most in the country.
Scouting Pepperdine
Head Coach: Nina Matthies
Conference: West Coast
All-Time Series: Pepperdine leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Pepperdine won, 3-0 (9/20/08)
Pepperdine has played a competitive schedule thus far, including matches against newly No. 1 Stanford and No.13 UCLA. The Waves took a set off of Stanford before falling in four. Entering this weekend, Pepperdine has won three consecutive matches, most recently defeating Eastern Kentucky in three sets. The Waves' freshman setter Kellie Woolever leads the WCC with 11.29 assists per set.
Top Notes
SLC Offensive Player of the Week
In addition to earning CenturyLink Premier All-Tournament Team honors, junior Amber Calhoun was named the Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week a week ago. She hit .500-or-higher in three of the teams four matches for the week, including a career-high 13-kill performance in which she hit .619 against North Texas. Calhoun had seven kills and four blocks while hitting .500 against Prairie View A&M to start the week then led the team with 26 kills and a .468 hitting percentage over three matches at the CenturyLink Premier. She committed just four errors on 47 attempts during the tournament. The middle blocker led the team with 42.5 points scored during the week as she also averaged 1.14 blocks per set.
CenturyLink Premier All-Tournament Team
Joining Calhoun on the CenturyLink Premier All-Tournament Team was senior Melinda Cave. One of the team's three captains, Cave finished the tournament with 21 kills, the third most on the team, while recording a .348 hitting percentage. Cave led the team with a 2.62 kills per set average while also tallying 15 digs, five blocks and a pair of aces during three matches.
2,000 Assists
Senior Shelbi Irvin recently surpassed the 2,000 career assists mark with her 36th assist in the team's 3-1 victory over North Texas.
CenturyLink Premier Results
The Bobcats finished the CenturyLink Premier 2-1 with victories against Tennessee-Martin and North Texas before falling to Alabama in the championship match.
Victory 700
With the team's third victory in 2010, Chisum reached 700 career victories in her storied tenure at Texas State. She became one of just seven active NCAA Division I coaches with 700 wins. The Bobcats provided win 700 in a blowout of Prairie View A&M, sweeping the match 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-6).
15th All-Time
Coach Chisum ranks 15th all-time for the most NCAA Division I coaching victories with 703 in her 31-year career.
At Tucson
The Bobcats traveled to Tucson, Ariz., for a tournament at the University of Arizona two seasons ago. Texas State finished 1-3 in four matches with the team's lone win coming against Texas Tech. Coincidentally, the Bobcats also had a tournament at Pepperdine, one of the team's opponents this weekend, during the 2008 season.
