UC SANTA BARBARA OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

Oct. 8, 2008

• The Schedule
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008
Match No. 16: UC Santa Barbara at Long Beach State, 7 p.m.
at Walter Pyramid (4,200)
Gametracker
Live Video Stream

• This Week in Gaucho Volleyball
Coming off of a split during its home-opening weekend, the UC Santa Barbara women's volleyball team will once again hit the road this week for a single Big West Conference match at Long Beach State on Saturday. The Gauchos and 49ers will face off at 7 p.m. at Long Beach's Walter Pyramid.

• How to Catch the Action
Saturday's match will be video streamed live on the internet and can also be followed on Gametracker. Visit the links above for further information on both these services.

• For the Record
UCSB split a pair of conference matches at home last week. The Gauchos battled through five sets with Pacific on Friday, but came up short, falling to the Tigers, 23-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-23, 15-13. The next evening, the Gauchos rebounded and swept visiting UC Davis by way of 25-16, 26-24, 25-11 scores. Saturday's set three score marked the second time this season that UCSB has held a team to just 11 points. With the split, UCSB currently holds a 7-8 overall record and a 3-1 mark in the Big West, marking its best conference start since 2005 when it ended up posting a 12-2 league mark. The Gauchos have also won four of their last five matches.

• The Gregory File
The Sept. 6 win over Utah State marked the 800th career victory for Gaucho head coach Kathy Gregory. The only coach UCSB women's volleyball has ever known, Gregory has guided the program to a 805-354 (.695) record since accepting the reigns of the team in 1975, making UCSB the 20th winningest Division I program. In her 33 years at the helm - the longest tenure in the history of Gaucho Athletics - "The Queen" has guided Santa Barbara to 20 or more victories 26 times, while her teams have finished the season ranked amongst the nation's top-25 on 28 occasions. She boasts five NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in the past 11 years (including three Elite Eights) as well as National Coach of the Year honors in 1993. Gregory, a member of the Volleyball Hall of Fame and currently the sixth-winningest coach in the Division I ranks, has also earned Big West Coach of the Year acclaim in four of the last six seasons. Gregory is one of only six coaches in NCAA history to surpass the 800-win career mark.

• Serial Killer
Sophomore Charlene DeHoog had a terrific weekend at the Thunderdome. The outside hitter led the Gauchos for kills in both contests including a career-high 22 kills in the five-set loss to Pacific on Friday. DeHoog also collected a solid .362 clip (5e, 47 att) in the match with the Tigers, which she topped the following night as she hit .786 against UC Davis with a team-leading 11 kills on 14 attempts with no errors. She averaged 4.12 kills per set across the two home contests. This season she leads the team with her 3.22 kills per set average, ranking eighth in the Big West, and she leads the Gaucho outside hitters with her .249 season clip, though she has hit .290 across UCSB's four Big West pairings.

• McLaughlin Is Money
Senior Lauren McLaughlin leads the Gauchos in Big West contests with an average of 4.00 kills per set in conference matches. Overall this season, she is second on the team behind DeHoog with 3.21 kills per set, ranking ninth in the conference, and is second on the squad with 2.42 kills per set. In Friday's match with Pacific, McLaughlin tied her season-high of 20 kills and 16 digs for her fifth double-double of the year and her third straight. Against UC Davis the following evening, she tallied 10 kills while also posting a season-best three service aces and five block assists. She is currently 20 kills away from making the UCSB top-10 list for kills in a career.

• Kipp, Kipp, Hooray!
Sophomore middle blocker Kasey Kipp continues to lead UCSB with her .295 season clip, ranking sixth amongst Big West players. More impressive than her hitting is her ranking as the No. 2 blocker in the conference with her 1.17 stuffs per set. Against Pacific on Friday, Kipp recorded a career-high 10 block assists, which ties as the second most by a Gaucho in a single match since the inception of the rally scoring format in 2001 (the school rally scoring record is 11). For the match, she had a total of 11 blocks and the following evening she tallied six total blocks (five assisted, one solo) in the sweep over UC Davis. Against the Aggies, Kipp recorded her third best clip of the year as she tallied seven kills on 11 attempts with no errors for a .636 hitting percentage.

• Block Party
Between last weekend's two contests, the Gauchos outblocked their opponents 27-16.5. Against Pacific, the team recorded a season-best 28 block assists, tying as the fifth most during the rally scoring era. The next night, they notched 22 block assists in the three sets against UC Davis. Both of the UCSB block solos over the weekend were notched by Kasey Kipp. Prior to last week, UCSB had only outblocked their opponents on three previous occasions and had only tallied double-digit total blocks on two prior occasions.

• Leigh-bero
Senior libero Leigh Stephenson was just one dig shy of matching her season-high on Friday night as she tallied 21 scoops in the narrow loss to Pacific. She also chipped in a season-high four assists and a service ace. The following night she tied her season-high of two aces in the sweep over UC Davis. Currently she averages 4.09 digs per set and ranks second in the conference. Stephenson is the conference record-holder for digs in a single season with her 650 tallied in 2007 and currently has 221 so far this year.

• The Vargas View
Sophomore setter Dana Vargas chipped in 45 assists, four shy of her season-high, in the match with Pacific along with seven digs and a block assist. On Saturday, she had 27 assists, four digs, and two block assists. Vargas ranks ninth in the Big West for assists per set with her team-leading 8.19 average and seventh for aces per set with an average of 0.30.

• Smokin' Aces
The Gauchos are currently ranked second in the Big West with their 1.46 service aces per set average with two players - Dana Vargas and Rebecca Saraceno - ranking in the top-10 for aces per set. Saraceno ranks fifth with 0.31 and Vargas is seventh with 0.30. Last weekend, the Gauchos tallied a total of 14 aces across the two matches including 10 against UC Davis. Three players - Lauren McLaughlin, Leigh Stephenson, and Chelsea Pavlik - each tallied three aces last weekend.

• 49er Factoids
Long Beach State enters the week with an 11-3 overall record and a 1-1 mark in the Big West. After taking last weekend off from action, the 49ers will play Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly this week before Saturday's match-up with the Gauchos. So far in Big West action, Long Beach has been swept by Pacific and has beaten UC Davis in five sets. This season, Long Beach has been led by Caitlin Ledoux who averages 2.94 kills per set and also pitches in 2.36 digs per set. Setter Nicole Vargas, sister of the Gauchos' very own Dana, averages 9.83 assists per set and Iris Murray paces the team with 3.75 digs per set. Long Beach leads the all-time series with UCSB, 54-33 and has won the last five pairings including two three-set sweeps in 2007.

• Coming Soon
The Gauchos will remain on the road next week and will play at conference-leader No. 22 Cal Poly on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. and then head south once again for a match with UC Riverside on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.