Spartan Volleyball Hits The Road For Three-Match Swing
9/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 16, 2009
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - After a three match homestand, the USC Upstate volleyball team will hit the road for a three-match road swing, taking the Spartans to River City for a pair of Atlantic Sun Conference matches, facing Jacksonville on Friday at 7 p.m. before taking on North Florida on Saturday at 3 p.m. To wrap up the trip, Upstate will face off with I-26 rival Presbyterian on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The three-match swing should give plenty of time for senior Morgan Bucciferro and junior Megan Healey to reach a pair of milestones, as Bucciferro needs 18 assists to become the sixth player in school history to reach 2,000 career assists and Healey needs 18 digs to become the 12th to reach 900 digs.
Quick Hits
• The Spartans posted a D-I era record 12 blocks in a four-set match against Kennesaw State on Saturday. Sophomore Morgan Thomas led the way with six blocks and junior Erin Jacobsen added five.
• Junior Erin Jacobsen posted a season-high 17 kills, hitting .464, to go with five blocks against Kennesaw State.
• Sophomore Morgan Thomas needs 22 blocks to become the first Upstate player to reach 150 rejections at the Division I level.
• USC Upstate and North Florida have squared off four times at the Division I level and each match has gone all five sets. Upstate came out on top the last time in 2008, in the third-place match at the Provisional Invitational and North Florida won the first three matches, once in 2007 and twice in 2008.
• It's been two years since, but junior Katie Downey posted one of her best collegiate matches against North Florida on Sept. 21, 2007, posting 17 kills and 15 digs against the Lady Ospreys while playing with a torn meniscus. This will be the first time Downey has played against the Ospreys since that match.
Block Party
Through its first 11 matches, the Spartans are averaging 2.00 blocks per match, the top mark in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The threatening front row of Upstate is led by junior Erin Jacobsen, who is third in the A-Sun with an average of 1.02 blocks per set. Sophomore Morgan Thomas isn't far behind, averaging 0.90 blocks per set and both freshmen Mindy Quimby and Paige Weiland each average 0.48 rejections per set. The Spartans have posted three matches with 10 or more blocks, notching 10 at Bradley, 16 against The Citadel and adding 12 rejections against Kennesaw State.
Daily Double
Senior Morgan Bucciferro has been as steady as they come for the Spartans during the early part of the 2009 season. In 11 matches, Bucciferro has posted five double-doubles. Her string started against IUPUI on Aug. 29 with 11 assists and 10 digs. She followed that with 34 assists and 11 digs against The Citadel on Sept. 4 and 32 assists and 13 digs against N.C. State on Sept. 5 before posting 17 assists and 11 digs against ETSU on Sept. 8. She added 13 assists and 10 digs against Florida Gulf Coast on Sept. 14. Bucciferro has 12 career double-doubles in D-I play and 19 in her career.
Bucciferro is also closing in on a career milestone, entering the weekend just 13 assists from becoming the sixth player in school history to reach 2,000 career assists. Bucciferro, who has been in a 6-2 setting rotation during all of her time at Upstate, is just 58 assists away from passing her former teammate, Holly Mauldin (2005-08), who posted 2,045 career assists.
Fresh Faces
Through the first 11 matches, it's clear that USC Upstate's three freshmen will make a valuable imprint on the team this year. Paige Weiland, an outside hitter from Atlanta, Ga., is second on the team with 2.21 kills per set and 2.21 digs per stanza. She posted her first career double-double with 14 kills and 16 digs against The Citadel on Sept. 4. Emily Sanders, a setter from Sullivan, Ill., has nicely stepped into a 6-2 setting rotation to average 4.02 assists and 2.10 digs per set. Sanders also has four double-doubles. Mindy Quimby, an outside hitter from Keenesburg, Colo., has also played in every set and started all 11 matches for the Spartans, averaging 1.90 digs, 0.93 kills and 0.32 assists per set. She posted 15 digs against The Citadel and added 13 more against N.C. State, plus she notched eight kills at ETSU.
