Fresno State gets first postseason volleyball victory in 23 seasons

Check another box on the Fresno State volleyball renaissance.

The Bulldogs got their first postseason victory since 1995 on Thursday night, beating UC Santa Barbara 3-2 in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship first round at Las Vegas.

Fresno State advances to play host UNLV on Friday at 7 p.m. in the second round of the 32-team tournament. The Bulldogs swept the Rebels during the Mountain West season, winning 3-1 each time including Nov. 10 at UNLV.

UC Santa Barbara is the school that bounced the Bulldogs the last time they were in the postseason, the 2002 NCAAs. So if there’s such a thing as revenge after 16 years, Thursday’s 25-23, 22-25, 25-16, 28-26, 15-11 victory qualifies.

Fresno State swung the match at the net with 15 blocks (Haile Watson had nine) to UCSB’s three.

The Bulldogs’ Madelyn Halteman had a solid all-around game with 44 assists, three blocks, two aces and 13 digs. Aubrey Folk had a team-leading 15 kills and Reagan Leonard led with 16 digs.

Fresno State hadn’t won a postseason match since the 1995 NIVC. The NIVC went dormant after that season until it was restarted last year.

All-Mountain West

Earlier in the week, Fresno State celebrated another volleyball superlative with four all-conference honorees, the most in any Bulldogs season. Halteman, Watson and Taylor Slover made the 18-player first team and Leonard was honorable mention.

This story was originally published November 29, 2018 at 9:42 PM.