Oct. 21, 2000
San Diego - In game featuring innumerable momentum shifts, athletic skill on both sides, and high drama, San Diego State came back to defeat 18th-ranked Utah in five games (15-7, 16-18, 11-15, 16-145, 19-17) Saturday night at Peterson Gym.
The Aztecs (13-11, 5-4 Mountain West Conference) came out aggressively in game one, jumping out to a 10-3 lead before going on to win 15-7. Katie Magnuson had a pair of kills down the stretch that helped SDSU put the game away.
Utah (16-4, 7-2 MWC) got over the shock of game one in a hurry, taking a 6-1 lead in game two only to see SDSU knot the score at seven-all. From there, the Utes took control again, going up 14-9 and serving for game point. However, the Aztecs were in no mood to give in as they came back to tie the game at 14-14. From there, the teams traded points to 16-all before Utah won the game on a kill by Brook Barton.
The third game provided much the same scenario, with Utah taking a 10-3 lead only to see SDSU see come back once again to tie the Utes at 11-11. This time, Utah made sure of the win, getting kills from Barton, Kim Tuner and Katrena Ellet to put the game away.
Game four saw Utah take a 5-0 lead, SDSU come back to even thing up at 6-6, then Utah going on a run and serving for the match with a 14-9 lead. But the Aztecs refused to concede, getting a pair of kills from senior Monet Solberg and a service ace from setter Melissa Wright on the way to tying the game at 14-14. From there, an Amy Hallquist kill and a combination block from Erin Grady and Hallquist gave SDSU a hard-fought 16-14 win.
It came down to game five as the teams traded points with Utah having leading by one or two points throughout. Facing match points, SDSU tied the contest at 15-15 on a kill by Wright. Again the teams traded points to 17-all. At that point, a kill by Nicole Akporiaye followed by a combination block by Grady and Hallquist gave San Diego State a 19-17 win and the match victory.
Hallquist led all players with 25 kills as she established a new personal best for a single match. Solberg also set a career best with 20 kills. In addition, three other Aztecs reached double figures: McPartland (16), Akporiaye (12) and Grady (12).
Senior Erin Grady finished with a match-high 13 blocks to improve her season average to 1.81 blocks per game. She began the week ranked second in the NCAA Division I statistics in blocking. Grady and Solberg tied for team honors in hitting, each finishing the match with a .333 kill percentage.
BYU got 21 kills apiece from Lenka Urbanova and Kim Turner. Setter Lenka Turkova had 15 kills and hit .583 over the course of the five games.
Up next for San Diego State is its final conference road trip of the year as it travels to Colorado Springs to face Air Force on Friday Oct. 27, then visits New Mexico the following night (Saturday, Oct. 28). The Aztecs return home in two weeks (Nov. 4) to meet UNLV at 7:00 p.m. in Peterson Gym.
San Diego State 3, Utah 2 1 2 3 4 5 FinalUtah 7 18 15 14 17 2SDSU 15 16 11 16 19 3Kills: Utah-99 (Urbanova, Turner-21), SDSU-92 (Hallquist-25)Digs: Utah-100 (Urbanova-21) SDSU-99 (McPartland-22)Assists: Utah-94 (Turkova-76), SDSU-84 (Wright-76)Service Aces: Utah-8 (Turkova, Adrianne Bradley-Drake-3), SDSU-7 (Wright, Solberg-2)Total Blocks: Utah-13 (Turner-5) SDSU-36 (Grady 13)Attendance: 346