By Jonathan Schaffer — Reporter
The San Jose State women’s volleyball team have simply had their best season in the past 10 years.
Currently at 19-9 and 13-5 in the Mountain West, the Spartans have punched their ticket into the 2021 Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas which begins today.
How did they get there? There are many key factors that solidified this women’s Volleyball team as a lethal group of players looking to achieve greatness in the tournament.
With any team’s success, the head coach is always the first aspect any sports fan should look at and second year Head Coach Trent Kersten has poured this team into a winning culture.
After the departure of former head coach Jolene Shepardson, Kersten has led the Spartans to a 25-17 (19-11 MW) record for the last two seasons (going 7-9 last year).
The Spartans are currently 13-5 in the MW conference which ranks third behind Colorado State (14-4) and Utah State (14-4).
SJSU is also top three in the MW in man categories including assists (1254) and kills (1356). The Spartans however rank first in serving aces (193) and digs (1567).
Senior outside hitter Haylee Nelson has been the main staple of the women’s volleyball team with 354 kills, (ranks fifth in the MW) and 409.5 points, also adding 245 digs to her resume.
Sophomore Mia Schafer is first in the MW in assists at 1006 in 96 sets played. That is averaging 10.49 assists per set.
Senior Libero Sarah Smevog also has a first ranking in the MW in digs at 457 in 97 sets (4.44 avg).
To top it all off, SJSU has three Spartans who are in the top 10 MW rankings in total points. Nelson is fifth with 409.5, graduate student outside hitter Latahevai Lousi ranks sixth at 301.5 points and junior outside hitter Amethyst Harper ranks seventh with 213.5 points.
Lousi, who is in her sixth year at SJSU given an extra year due to COVID-19, has 256 kills, seven assists and 76 digs, Amethyst has 182 kills, 9 assists and 121 digs.
The Spartans also saw various win streaks in this silver platter season. SJSU began to put teams on notice when it won five straight matches from Sep, 16-30.
They beat big dog opponents such as Boise State (20-9, 9-7 MW) and University of Nevada Las Vegas (19-8, 10-6 MW).
That win streak snapped against the second place Utah State Aggies (20-8, 12-4 MW) and lost two more games after that.
However, the Spartans exceeded their win streak of five by winning seven in a row from Oct 12- Nov 4.
They defeated Utah and Boise State in the seven match win streak which were key wins in the MW divisional rankings with just a few games left until the playoffs begin.
Like all sports teams do, the Spartans do have some kinks to work on if they want to make a deep tournament playoff run.
They only ranked eighth in the league as a team in hitting percentage at .205 and are second to last in blocks with only 182 (1.77 avg) in 103 total sets. Boise State is first with 356.5 (2.84 avg).
Now, I believe any player on this roster would agree with me on this that the home crowd has been a huge factor in the Spartans’ home success this season.
SJSU is 10-2 at Yosh Uchida Hall against a road record of 8-6 away.
I covered the game against Fresno State (11-13, 7-9 MW) on Sat, Oct 16 and the atmosphere was just electric as the game went on.
Every single play, the crowds consist of students, parents, alumni and even fellow SJSU student-athletes. set them ablaze as their excitement fuels the team no matter what the score is. Even players from the football team have been seen at their games after their evening practices.
The women’s volleyball team has become the spotlight of Spartan Athletics this fall season with one of their best seasons in recent memory. They will look to make it even better with a hoist of the conference crown by the time the tournament is finished in Sin City this week.
The Spartans play Boise State today at 1 p.m. in Las Vegas. The first round match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
Follow Johnny on Twitter @jonny_schaffer