Oct. 29, 2009

UTEP Notes - Week 10

EL PASO - The UTEP volleyball team will take the road this weekend to face Tulsa, Friday, Oct. 30, and SMU on Sunday, Nov. 1 in the Miners' last two-match road weekend. UTEP will close out the regular season at Tulane on Nov. 14 after a home weekend against Houston and Rice.

The Miners are coming off a split weekend at home defeating Memphis, 3-0, on Friday night before falling, 3-1, to UAB on Sunday afternoon.

Senior Catherine Chavez led the Miners against the Tigers with 16 kills (.324) and seven digs and posted her 10th double-double of the season against the Blazers (15 kills, 18 digs).

UTEP began league play with wins over SMU and Tulsa.

With only the top eight teams qualifying for the Conference USA Championships this year, the UTEP squad finds itself tied with UCF for ninth. The Miners have five matches left on the schedule, including eighth-place Houston (7-19, 4-7 C-USA). The Cougars will travel to the Sun City next weekend along with sixth-place Rice. This weekend's competition, Tulsa and SMU, are third and fourth respectively in league standings.
 
Scouting the competition
-Tulsa (19-5, 8-2 C-USA) go into Friday night's match riding a nine-match win streak that dates back to the Golden Hurricane's 3-1 win over Marshall on Oct. 2. The Golden Hurricane's last loss was in El Paso as the Miners defeated Tulsa in five.

Tulsa picked up wins at Houston (3-0) and Rice (3-1) this past weekend. Junior middle blocker Hannah Stout was named C-USA Co-Offensive Player of the Week after producing a league-best .642 hitting percentage and averaging 3.5 kills, 39.5 points and eight blocks through the week.

In C-USA, Tulsa ranks top-five in five categories: hitting percentage (1st-.275), 12th nationally; opponent hitting percentage (2nd-.147); assists (2nd-13.09), 21st nationally; kills (2nd-14.08), 22nd nationally;  and digs (4th-15.91). Stout is first among all league players with a hitting percentage of .449 that ranks fifth in the nation, while freshman Tyler Henderson is second averaging 4.15 kills per set, 36th amongst Division I player. Libero Jessica Adams is second in the league with 5.10 digs per set to rank 24th in NCAA rankings. Against opponents, the Golden Hurricane is top five in every category.

In league matches only, Tulsa is first in hitting percentage (.267) and opponent hitting percentage (.145), second in assists (14.57/s) and kills (14.25/s), third in digs (17.28/s) and fourth in blocks (2.33/s). Stout is also tops in conference matches averaging a .452 clip.

-After beginning the 2009 Conference USA schedule with losses at UTEP (3-0) and Tulane (3-2), SMU has dropped just one match (Rice, 3-2) running to a 7-3 league record.

The Mustangs defeated Rice, 3-2, and Houston, 3-0, at home this past weekend to extend their win streak to four. Nationally, SMU ranks 32nd in digs per set averaging 16.53 and 41st in blocks with a 2.45 per set average.

SMU is top four in five statistical categories in conference rankings second in blocks (2.45/s) and digs (16.53/s), fourth in service aces (1.27/s) and fifth in opponent hitting percentage (.174). In conference matches only, the Mustangs are first in digs (19.64/s), second behind UTEP in blocks (2.89/s) and in opponent hitting percentage (.145) and third in service aces (1.33/s).

The Mustangs are led by sophomore Dana Powell and senior Kendra Kahanek. Powell leads the team in kills with 348 this season and has posted 279 digs. She ranks fifth in conference with an average 3.82 kills per set, while Kahanek is second posting 1.15 blocks per set.
 
One step up
Setter Patty Jarmoc dished out 46 assists in the Miners' contest against ECU moving her up to a fourth-place ranking in the UTEP recordbooks with 2,957 career assists. Following the UAB match, Jarmoc now has 3,030 kills.
With a year of eligibility left, Jarmoc is now 356 assists away from tying third-place Veronica Acosta with a career 3,386 assists. She will need 379 to tie for second all-time and 1,180 to match Chris Brandl's school record 4,210 set from 1988-91. The feat is reachable as Jarmoc recorded 1,105 as a freshman, 1,112 as a sophomore and is at 813 with five matches left this season.

Four service aces in the Miners match against Marshall moved Jarmoc into top five all-time in career service aces with 107 surpassing Christie Murphy `s (2004-07) 106. She needs seven more to tie for fourth, 26 to tie third, 30 for second and 41 for first.

Let's compare
The Miners' 2.57 blocks per set are tops amongst C-USA schools and 29th nationally. UTEP ranks third in service aces (1.29/s) and sixth in hitting percentage (.206). Defensively, UTEP is best in giving up the lowest average and digs (13.13/s) and second in blocks allowed (1.86/s).

Individually
Chavez has posted 23 service aces this season, for an average of .28 per set, to rank ninth amongst all C-USA players. Cassandra Burruel's 1.11 blocks per set rank third, while Aidan Mooney's 1.05 average is sixth.

In conference matches only
UTEP is also first in blocks (3.02/s) while limiting opponents to a 2.08 blocks per set for second against conference foes. Burruel's 1.42 blocks per set are a league best and her .333 hitting efficiency is fourth amongst all conference players. Mooney is seventh averaging 1.26 blocks in a set.

On the clock
Sanders' 14 kills in the Miners win against Coppin State matched and surpassed Kari Stacy's 1,218 career kills to rank second in the UTEP recordbooks. The senior entered this season with 1,086 career kills and surpassed third-ranked Cynthia Ruelas-Macias earlier this season. The currently has 1,378 and would need 133 more blasts this season to dethrone UTEP's all-time leader Jennifer Abbruzzese (1,511).

Look who joins the party!
Senior Catherine Chavez began her senior campaign with 806 career kills. Chavez downed 27 kills this past weekend, enough to pass Stacy Zimmerman's 1,047 and enter the top-five all-time.

Wait...there's more
Chavez has registered 95 service aces in her career, 23 this season. Eleven more will also put her in the top-five all-time leaders in the category.