Sept. 16, 2003
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State could not overcome the hitting of University of San Diego as it lost to the Toreros, 3-0 (30-27, 30-25, 30-24), in a tightly-contested match at SDSU's Peterson Gym Tuesday evening. USD, ranked 21st in the week's AVCA collegiate poll, improved to 8-2 on the season while the Aztecs saw their record drop to 7-5.
SDSU got 13 kills from Aspen McPartland and a dozen from Kara Moriarty, but had 16 fewer (56-40) as a team than did USD.
The visitors hit at a .292 pace over the three games while the Aztecs hit .233 for the match. USD's Devon Foster led all players with 14 kills while teammate Christie Dawson chipped in with 11.
As has been the case this season, San Diego State once again showed it superiority at the net with a total of 15 team blocks compared to eight by USD. SDSU, which ranks seventh in the nation this week in blocks per game, were led by McPartland with two solo and six block assists. Megan Schauermann, who was 10th in the country in blocks per game entering the match, had six on the night to up her season average to 1.65 bpg.
San Diego State found itself battling back from early deficits throughout the match. In game one, SDSU was down 9-3, but closed to within 9-8 behind the serving of Natalie Sande. The contest went to 26-26, but the Aztecs committed four attack errors over the final five points.
Game two against saw SDSU fall behind 9-3 before rallying to knot the score at 14-14. The teams traded points with the last tie coming at 19-19 before USD took control over the final third of the game. Christie Dawson accounted for four of the Torero's final six points in the 30-25 win.
The Aztecs fell behind 8-3 to begin the final game, and could only get as close as 11-10 before USD built a six-point lead (18-12) that they maintained to the end of the match.
San Diego State returns to action on Thursday (Sept. 18) when it hosts Harvard at Peterson Gym in a match scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m.