Sept. 13, 2009
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State experienced a bit of déjà vu as it fell to Saint Mary's in four sets (25-18, 23-25, 26-24, 25-20) Sunday afternoon in Peterson Gym. The loss was reminiscent of the meeting between the teams last Monday (Sept. 7) in which the Gaels prevailed in the same manner on their home floor in Moraga.
The victory was the sixth in a row for St. Mary's as it improved to 7-1 on the season. SDSU, meanwhile, saw its record fall to 4-4.
San Diego State right side hitter Kelsey Manasco led all players with 19 kills as she recorded her Aztec career high in that category, besting her previous 14 against Texas-Arlington during the 2008 season. In addition, she also turned in a career-best 11 digs, surpassing the nine she had against Cal State Northridge earlier this month.
Junior middle blocker Lauren Salisbury has her usual strong outing with 14 kills and seven blocks along with a team-best .379 hitting percentage. Freshman Andrea Hannasch added seven kills and four blocks while setter Lauren Van Orden recorded 43 assists, seven digs and four blocks.
Saint Mary's was led by an 18-kill performance by Chanteal Satele while Lauren Copp chipped in with 11 kills and eight digs.
In the opening set, San Diego State took a quick 5-1 lead only to see St. Mary's tie the contest at five apiece. The teams traded points until 10-10 when the visitors took three straight on a kill by Megan York and pair of SDSU hitting errors. The Aztecs could get no closer than two the rest of the way as St. Mary's claimed the seven-point victory. SDSU's Manasco and SMC's Satele shared match honors with five kills each.
Set number two saw each team put together small runs without being able to pull away. With the contest knotted at 19-all, the Aztecs scored back-to-back points on a kill by Salisbury and a Gael hitting error. SDSU was then able to maintain that two-point advantage, winning on the final kill by Paije Pearson.
The third set, San Diego State rallied from a 23-20 deficit with kills by Salisbury, Manasco and Caitlin McMillan plus a Gale setting error to take a 24-23 lead. But the Aztecs were unable to close out the set as Saint Mary's got back-to-back kills from Shannon Lowell and an SDSU error to take the set 26-24 and go up 2-1 in the match.
The final set was another close affair that had the score tied at 19-19. St. Mary's took control from there, however, scoring six of the contest's final seven points to nail down the match victory. Two of the Gaels' final half dozen points came on kills by Satele with the other four a result of Aztec hitting errors.
Up next for San Diego State is a trip to the Beehive state for the 2009 Mountain West Conference opener against Brigham Young in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7:00 p.m. MT. That game may be viewed live on the Internet at BYUTV.org.