Nov. 21, 2003
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State gave regular-season champion Colorado State all it could handle before falling to the Rams, 3-2 (30-28, 26-30, 16-30, 30-27, 10-15) in the semifinals of the 2003 Mountain West Conference Volleyball Championship Friday night in Peterson Gym. The match was remarkably similar to the one the teams played just three weeks ago in San Diego. That contest went much the same way with SDSU winning the first and fourth games and CSU winning games two and three to set up a deciding fifth game.
CSU, the undefeated regular-season MWC champ (14-0) and ranked 14th in the nation this week, improved to 26-4 on the year and it moved into Saturday's title game against Utah. The Aztecs concluded their 2003 campaign with a final mark of 18-14.
San Diego State's Kara Moriarty led all players with 25 kills on the night, eclipsing by far her previous personal best of 17. She hit .346 for the match and completed a double double with 1o kills.
Aspen McPartland finished with her 29th career double double, recording 15 kills and 13 digs while Zlatina Anguelova contributed 14 kills and nine digs.
Four Colorado State players reached double figures in kills, led by Tess Rogers with 22 and Becky Sarauer with 20. The Rams got double doubles from Bri Frech (18 kills, 15 digs) and Katie Jo Shirley (17 kills, 11 digs).
Both games one and two were tight affairs that went to the wire. In the first contest, the game went to 27-27 before SDSU scored three of the final four points on a Ram attack errors plus kills by Anguelova and Cansdale. In the second game, the score was 25-all when CSU ran off four straight points before finishing off the Aztecs on a kill by Frech.
Game three was all Colorado State as Shirley and Sarauer had seven and four kills respectively and the Rams' blocking game was in full force. However, the Aztecs rebounded to make the fourth game another close one, winning the final two points on a CSU service error and an Anguelova kill.
The deciding contest was tied at 6-6 before Colorado State pulled away, extending its lead to 10-6. Frech finished off the match with a thumping kill as the Rams hit .684 for the game. SDSU hit .429 in the final game with no errors, but couldn't overcome CSU's attack.
Saturday night's tourney championship contest between the Rams and Utes will get underway at 7:00 p.m. in Peterson Gym.