Oct. 8, 2009
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State gave Mountain West co-leader Colorado State a scare before eventually falling to the Rams 20-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-19 Thursday evening in Peterson Gym. Four Aztecs finished the match in double figures in kills, but it wasn't enough to see off a CSU team that is receiving votes in the AVCA national poll.
The loss was the third straight for SDSU, which saw its record drop to 6-10 overall and 1-5 in league play. Colorado State, which won for the ninth straight outing, improved to 13-3 (5-0 MWC).
Aztec middle blocker Lauren Salisbury led all players with 19 kills while hitting .421 over the four sets. She also contributed four blocks, a dig and an assist. Hannah Evans finished with 15 kills and added 11 digs to record her third double-double of the season. Her kill total was one shy of her Aztec career high.
In addition, Kelsey Manasco (12) and Andrea Hannasch (11) also reached double figure in kills with the latter hitting .350 and adding a pair of blocks. Setter Lauren Van Orden recorded 49 kills and was SDSU's leading blocker on the night with five.
For Colorado State, Danielle Minch led the way with 17 kills while teammates Megan Plourde and Jacque Davisson had 11 and 10 respectively.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair as the lead changed hands five times before the score was knotted at 10-10. At that point SDSU scored three straight points on a pair of kills by Salisbury and one by Manasco to take the lead for good. Evans led all players in the game with eight kills while Minch had six for the Rams.
In set two, the Aztecs held a 14-12 lead before Colorado State ran off five consecutive points. Although SDSU got back to within a point on six occasions after that it couldn't catch up and dropped the set by four points. Salisbury led all players with seven kills in the contest while Tessa Nelson and Minch tallied four apiece for the visitors.
Set number three saw Colorado State take its first lead at 5-4 and never be caught. SDSU trailed by as many as five at 20-15, but rallied to get within a point a 24-23 before a kill by Katelyn Steffan secured the win for the Rams.
The fourth set again saw the teams stay within a point of each other up until 9-9 when CSU took advantage of a pair of Aztec hitting miscues and a kill by Minch to grab the lead for good. A kill by Evans brought SDSU to within two at 12-10, but that's as close as they would get the rest of the way.
San Diego State returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Wyoming for a conference match at 1:00 p.m. (PT) in Peterson Gym.