NMSU Volleyball Face Hawaii On ESPNU This Week; SJSU at 2 p.m. Saturday
This week: The New Mexico State volleyball team plays two home conference matches this week. The Aggies take on nationally ranked Hawaii, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, then face San Jose State at 2 p.m. Saturday. Fans can call the NMSU box office at 575-646-1420 for tickets.
Radio Coverage: NM State has seven regular-season matches left on the schedule to air over the radio waves by the Aggie Sports Network on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces with Kyle Doperalski giving the play-by-play action. Both matches this week are scheduled to air over the radio waves. Wednesday’s match starts at 8pm (MT) and Saturday’s match begins at 2pm (MT). Fans can listen in from anywhere around the world on the Internet by going to www.NMStateSports.com. Fans can just click on the live events link to access the coverage for a fee.
Television Coverage: The NMSU volleyball team has five home matches left on the schedule to air on television with four of those matches produced by the AggieVision Production team and one by ESPNU. The match, Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 8pm (MT) against Hawai’i is scheduled to air on TV with ESPNU producing it.
The matches produced by AggieVision will also be available free of charge on the Internet at ESPN3.com. Fans can go to www.AggieVision.tv or check local listings for airtimes. Please check with your local cable or satellite provider for airtimes.
Live Stats on the Web: Live stats will be available for fans at www.NMStateSports.com at no cost all season long. Fans can click on the Live Events link at the top of the NMStateSports.com home page to access the live stats.
Twitter/Facebook: Get all the updates of Aggie Athletics on Twitter and Facebook. Get in-game statistics and in-game updates on Twitter @NMStateAggies. Find out about all Aggie Athletics promotions and events on Facebook @NMSU Athletics.
Promotions for this Week: The Aggies invite all fans to the Pan American Center, Wednesday, Oct. 12 to try to break the single-match attendace record, which was set in 2005. On Oct. 1, 2005, 7,115 fans showed up to the Pan American Center to watch the Aggies take on Hawai’i. NM State volleyball would like to see over 7,000 fans show up this week to break that record.
The NM State athletics department is supporting “Pink Week” this week and is asking fans to join by wearing pink to the matches. Sodexo is selling a breast cancer cookies during the match, Saturday, Oct. 15 with half of the proceeds going back to Cowboys for Cancer Research.
Also, T-shirts are thrown out to fans at various times of the match, and the “loudest and craziest fans” have a chance to win a free pizza during the match, courtesy of Lorenzo’s Restaurant.
About NM State: The Aggie volleyball team heads into this week’s play riding a six-match winning streak. The Aggies are 16-4 overall and 5-0 in league play. NM State was 2-1 in the month of August and 10-3 during the month of September, while starting the month of October 4-0, which includes sweeps over Fresno State, Nevada and defending WAC Tournament Champions (Utah State). During August the Aggies averaged 12.82 kills per set and improved that averaged by posting 14.07 kills per set in September. The Aggies are averaging 13.75 kills per set so far this season and 13.50 in WAC play.
NM State is hitting .209 as a team this year while holding opponents to a .140 hitting percentage, which ranks No. 1 in the WAC.
The highest hitting percentage for a single match this year was .330, which came last week against Fresno State when the Aggies posted 38 kills on 88 attempts with only nine errors. The Aggies have tallied a season-high 62 kills in a match twice this year. The first time it happened was against Texas State, Sept. 10 and the second was against Colgate, Sept. 10.
Senior Kelsey Brennan posted the highest hitting percentage (min. 12 kills) this season when she marked 16 kills on 24 attempts without committing an error for a .667 percentage against Northwestern State, Sept. 10. Freshman Meredith Hays has the most kills in a match with 21. She accomplished the feat three times so far this season. The first time she did it was against Houston Baptist, Sept. 9 and did it again the following day against Texas State. The last time she posted 21 kills was Sept. 16 against Colgate.
The Aggies have posted two six match winning streaks this season. NM State has won its last six matches starting on Sept. 24, when the Aggies swept Louisiana Tech in the WAC season opener. The first streak was from September 9 through September 16, and included wins over Louisiana-Lafayette, Houston Baptist, Northwestern State, Texas State, UTEP and Colgate.
NM State ended the 2010 regular season with an overall record of 18-13 with a 12-4 record in Western Athletic Conference play. The Aggies return for their 38th season of play and its seventh season in the WAC.
Despite finishing in second place in league play, NM State fell to Utah State in the first round of the WAC Tournament in five sets. Former Aggie Kayleigh Giddens had 29 kills in the loss. Giddens was the team’s kill leader for the season with 542 and now holds the Aggie record for kills in a season.
Source: NMSU Athletics
