Sept. 8, 2007
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - San Diego State captured the tourney championship at the Islanders Holiday Inn Emerald Beach Invitational with a 3-1 (30-25, 30-27, 28-30, 30-26) victory over Northern Illinois Saturday evening in Corpus Christi, Texas. In the process, Aztec senior libero set a new Mountain West Conference and San Diego State record with 46 digs. In addition to her record-setting performance, Cordeiro had a pair of kills (on three attempts), three assists and a two service aces.
The win was the fourth in a row for SDSU, which improved to 7-2 on the year. The Aztecs are off to their best start since the 2001 season and the four-match winning streak is the team's best since 2003.
One of the primary differences in the match came in the blocking department where San Diego State recorded a season high 20 team blocks compared to seven for the Huskies.
Freshman Lauren Salisbury led San Diego State with 17 kills and nine blocks while hitting .341 for the match. In addition, senior Lindsey Mahan contributed a career-high 10 blocks along with 10 kills and a .320 attack percentage.
Northern Illinois (5-6) got 22 kills from Dani D'Ambrose and 18 from Laura Baetzel, but only 16 from its other players as the Huskies were edged 65-56 by the Aztecs in total kills. NIU hit just .090 as team, the second match in a row in which SDSU held its opponent to an attack percentage under .100.
The opening game was the first of four tightly-contested affairs that saw the momentum swing back and forth between he teams. In game one, the score was tied at 11-11 when San Diego State scored four straight points to take the lead for good. A pair of kills by Salisbury and one by Hannah Evans keyed the SDSU run. Kelley Wahlin and Evans had four kills apiece during the contest while Cordeiro had 19 digs.
In the second game, Northern Illinois held a 21-18 lead when the Aztecs struck for seven consecutive points behind three kills from Sydney De Turk and one each from Darnall and Evans. De Turk was the key to SDSU's win with a total of six kills on a .600 attack percentage.
Game three featured 14 ties and seven lead changes as the team battled all the way to 28-all before a pair of Aztec hitting errors opened the way to a win for the Huskies. SDSU totaled just 12 kills in the game led by three each from Darnall and Evans.
The fourth game was similar to the previous contest with the teams dueling to a 19-19 draw before NIU scored twice to take a two-point lead at 21-19. San Diego State fought back to knot the game at 23-23, then scored three straight on a pair of Salisbury kills and a Huskies hitting error to take3 a 26-23 lead and go on to the four-point win to take the match three games to one.
San Diego State now returns home for a three-game home stand that begins with a contest against Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 6:00 p.m. in Peterson Gym. The Aztecs will then open Mountain West Conference play with matches vs. Utah and Brigham Young on Thursday (Sept. 13) and Saturday (Sept. 15) respectively.