Nov. 24, 2009
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - After dropping the first two sets, UC Santa Barbara stormed back to defeat San Diego State, 3-2 (25-27, 17-25, 25-19, 25-18, 15-11), Tuesday night in the Thunderdome on the UCSB campus. The match was the final regular-season contest for both teams.
With the victory, the Gauchos, who are receiving votes in this week's AVCA national poll, improved to 22-7. The Aztecs, meanwhile, saw their record drop just below the .500 mark at 14-15.
Hannah Evans led San Diego State with 13 kills and added 11 digs to notch her seventh double-double of the 2009 campaign. Middle blocker Andrea Hannasch, this week's Mountain West Conference Player of the Week, finished with a dozen kills along with three blocks.
Other Aztecs in double figures in kills included Lauren Salisbury and Kyley Sexton with 11 apiece. Salisbury, who was named to the MWC all-conference team earlier today, also contributed five blocks while Sexton added three service aces, six digs and three blocks to her final stat line.
SDSU redshirt freshman libero Kristi Jackels finished off her season by notching a career-high 29 digs along with a pair of assists and a service ace. It marked the seventh time this fall that Jackels recorded 20 or more digs in a match.
UCSB senior Rebecca Saraceno led all players with 21 kills and spearheaded the Gauchos' comeback effort as 16 of her kills came over the final three sets. She was assisted by teammates Stacey Schmidt and Lily Lopez who recorded 13 and 12 kills respectively.
The opening set saw San Diego State come back from the edge of defeat to claim a win in extra points. The Gauchos held a 24-19 lead with five chances to close out the contest, but the Aztecs got a pair of kills from Evans, one from Paije Pearson and a pair of UCSB hitting errors to tie the set at 24-all. After Santa Barbara scored the next point, the visitors ran off three straight on another UCSB hitting miscue, a kill by Evans and a service ace from Pearson.
The emotional loss seemed to take a toll on the Gauchos as San Diego State jumped out to an 8-4 lead in set two and did not allow UCSB to get closer than three the remainder of the contest. Salisbury led the way with six kills as the Aztec hit .250 while Santa Barbara could muster only a .000 attack percentage.
After the intermission, Saraceno came out and put away five kills to lead her side to a win in the third set. The contest was a close one with the teams even at 11-all when UCSB scored six straight to take control. The Gauchos hit .335 while holding SDSU to a .100 attack percentage. Although the Aztecs recorded more kills (15-12) than Santa Barbara, it also had 11 attack errors compared to just one by the home side.
UCSB's momentum carried over into the fourth set as Saraceno had six kills while SDSU could muster only 10 as a team. A two-point Gaucho lead at 8-6 quickly became a 15-7 advantage and the Aztecs were unable to mount a comeback.
In the fifth and deciding set, UC Santa Barbara went ahead 2-0 and held the lead the entire way. SDSU found itself down by six at 8-2, but fought back to within two at 12-10 before the Gauchos scored three of the set's final four points to secure the match.
Despite the loss, San Diego State concluded its 2009 season with its most wins and highest winning percentage since the 2005 campaign.