Oct. 6, 2007
SAN DIEGO - Wyoming rallied from a game down to defeat San Diego State, 3-1 (28-30, 30-21, 31-29, 30-26) Saturday afternoon in Peterson Gym. The victory was the Cowgirls' first on SDSU's home floor in 16 attempts.
The loss dropped the Aztecs to 11-6 overall on the season and evened their Mountain West Conference ledger at 3-3. Wyoming, meanwhile, ended a five-match losing streak as it improved 7-8 overall and 2-5 in league play.
Senior Lindsey Mahan led San Diego State with 16 kills while setting a personal season-best with a .562 hitting percentage over the four games. Stephanie Darnall added 14 kills for the Aztecs while Hannah Evans also reached double figures with 10.
Junior setter Leah Lathrop recorded her third double-double of the year with 25 assists along with 11 digs. Fellow setter Kristen Castillo contributed 25 assists as well as seven digs.
Wyoming's Rachel Smith was the top attacker of the match as she recorded 29 kills. Smith added a dozen digs to complete a double-double effort while teammates Angie Hellbaum and Lauren Scott finished with 15 kills apiece.
The opening game was a tight affair with the score being tied on 18 occasions and neither team being able to gain more than a three-point advantage. Trailing by a point at 28-27, the Aztecs ran off three straight points on a kill by Sydney De Turk and a pair of Cowgirl hitting errors. Wyoming's Smith led all players with six kills while Mahan had four for San Diego State.
Game two saw the teams within a point or two of each for most of the game with Wyoming eventually taking a 19-18 lead. From there, three kills from Smith and four SDSU hitting errors helped the visitors win 11 of the final 14 points to even the match at one apiece. Smith again led all players, this time with nine of her team's 15 kills in the contest. Lauren Salisbury and Mahan had three apiece for the Aztecs.
San Diego State had a chance to take control of the match in the third game as it led 29-27 with two chances to close out the game. However, a pair of kills by Smith knotted the score and an SDSU attack error followed by a kill by Hellbaum put the visitors up two games to one. Smith added nine kills to her total during the game while SDSU was led by seven from both Darnall and Mahan.
In the fourth game, Wyoming took the lead for good at 18-17, slowly building on that advantage as it closed out the match with a four-point win. Smith and Hellbaum had five kills apiece for the Cowgirls with Evans leading the Aztecs with four.
Wyoming hit .289 for the match compared to .216y for San Diego State and led in kills by a 76-60 margin.
Up next for the Aztecs is a trip to Albuquerque where they will face MWC foe New Mexico on Friday, Oct. 12, at 7:00 p.m.