Nov. 21, 2002
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Buoyed by the hitting of Rochelle Curruer, Aspen McPartland and Zlatina Anguelova, San Diego State defeated New Mexico 3-0 (30-23, 30-23, 30-27) in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Championship in Fort Collins, Colo., Thursday afternoon. The win improved the Aztecs to 21-11 on the year while the Lobos dropped to 8-20.
After squeezing out a hard-fought five-game win over UNM in Albuquerque last Friday, SDSU was determined to take control of the match from the start. The Aztecs got 18 kills from senior Rochelle Currier, just two under her season high of 20 set ealry in the year.
Aspen McPartland (13 kills, 17 digs) and Zlatina Anguelova (13 kills, 12 digs) recorded their 16th and 13th double-doubles of the season respectively in the winning cause.
In addition, senior setter Melissa Wright contributed 47 assists to bring her total to 1,359, the fourth-most ever in a single season for an Aztec. She also served up five kills with no attack errors for a perfect 1.000 hititng percentage on the afternoon.
The Lobos, who hit .241 over the three games, were led by a match-high 19 kills from Anna Reines and a seven-kill, 11 -dig outing from Blaire Burns.
San Diego State jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first game of the match and were never caught, although New Mexico rallied to make it close on more than one occasion. The Lobos closed to within two points at 25-23, but the Aztecs ran off the final five points of the game.
During that run, SDSU got a pair of kills from Rochelle Currier, one from Melissa Wright, a block by Aspen McPartland and a game-winning kill from the back row by Sara Engstrom. Currier led the Aztecs with nine kills while UNM's Anna Reines and Chelsea Sondrup had five apiece. As a team, the Aztecs hit .349 compared to .225 for the Lobos.
Game two began as a tight affair with the teams trading the first 11 points and SDSU holding a 6-5 advantage. The Aztecs then went on a 5-0 run, led by three kills from McPartland. The Lobos were only able to get as close as four points the rest of the way (19-23) before SDSU closed out the contest on another McPartland kill, her seventh of the game. Reines again led UNM with six kills as her team's hitting improved to .289.
In the third game, San Diego State ran off four straight points early to take a 12-8 lead, only to see UNM come back and grab a 14-12 advantage with six consecutive points of its own. The game remained close, with SDSU taking the lead for good at 26-24 and ending the match on a pair of kills by Megan Schauermann. Anguelova ( seven kills) and Currier (six kills) led the Aztec offense while McPartland came up with nine digs.
Up next for the Aztecs is a semifinal match against 24th-ranked Utah on Friday (Nov. 22). That match will be televised live on Channel 4 San Diego beginning at 3:00 p.m. (PST).