Nov. 16, 2007
PROVO, Utah - Brigham Young, led by four players in double figures in kills, defeated San Diego, 3-1 (30-25, 27-30, 30-21, 30-23), Friday evening at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah. The loss was the fourth in a row for the Aztecs (12-14, 4-11 MWC) and insured that they will finish eighth in the Mountain West Conference final standings.
BYU, meanwhile, improved to 19-6 overall and 11-4 in league play as it kept alive its hopes of finishing as the MWC regular-season co-champion.
SDSU freshman Lauren Salisbury was the Aztecs' offensive star as she recorded her first career double-double with 12 kills and 10 block assists. Her block assist total was a career best and tied for the top mark on the squad this year with senior Lindsey Mahan, who had 10 in that match against Northern Illinois on Sept. 8.
Hannah Evans finished with nine kills, four digs, two blocks and a service ace while teammate Sydney De Turk had seven kills and six blocks. Senior Kelley Wahlin chipped in with a half dozen kills and five blocks, her best blocking total in match since early September.
In addition, right side hitter Iva Gosnjak made her first career start in her final season as an Aztec and recorded personal bests in kills, digs and blocks. Libero Aime Cordeiro also had 22 digs to lead all players in the contest.
Brigham Young was led by an 18-kill, 11-dig performance from Erica Lott, who also had three blocks and a pair of service aces. Fellow Cougars Bryn Porter and Rachel Dyer had 17 and 16 kills respectively. Porter hit .467 over the four games while Dyer had a .462 attack percentage for the match. Chelsea Goodman also had 14 kills for the home side.
BYU led the match in every stat category except blocking, where the Aztec led for the 21st time in their 26 matches this season. The Cougars recorded 71 kills to 54 for SDSU and compiled a .283 attack percentage while limiting the Aztecs to .148.
In the opening game, San Diego State fell behind early and could never catch up. SDSU did make a late run, scoring five straight points after BYU had taken a 29-20 lead, but the comeback ended there as the Cougars claimed the five-point win.
The second game saw the roles reversed as the Aztecs trailed at the beginning, but won six consecutive points to take an 8-6 lead, an advantage they kept for the remainder of the contest. They built that lead to as many as six points at 25-19, but the Cougars crept back to within two at 27-25 before SDSU closed out the contest on a kill by Cordeiro.
Game three was tightly contested over the first half of the contest as BYU held a slim 14-13 lead near the halfway point. However, from there the Cougars scored six of the next seven points on kills by Dyer, Porter and Lott plus three SDSU errors to take a 20-14 lead. They slowly added to that lead to take the game by a nine-point margin.
In the fourth game, Brigham Young opened a quick 9-4 advantage and never looked back as the Aztecs could get no closer the rest of the way. The Cougars secured the match victory on back-to-back kills by Dyer and Goodman to send the crowd of 905 fans home happy.
San Diego State concludes it 2007 regular season on Saturday (Nov. 17) with a match at Utah scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. (MST) start.