Sept. 17, 2010
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State volleyball team was unable to overcome No. 23 University of San Diego as it fell to the Toreros in four sets (25-23, 15-25, 26-28, 19-25) Friday night in Peterson Gym. The match was played as part of the USD/SDSU Challenge tournament being contested this weekend.
The Aztecs had a trio of players end the evening in double figures in kills led by junior outside hitter Kyley Sexton with 13. She also contributed seven digs, a solo block and a service ace. Senior Lauren Salisbury had a dozen kills and three blocks while freshman Summer Nash finished with 11 kills and set a personal best with four blocks.
USD's Ali Troost led all players with 23 kills while teammates Amy DeGroot and Ashton Basch had 15 and 14 respectively.
The Torero's led the Aztecs in every offensive category in the match including kills (67-52) and hitting percentage (.360-.180).
After a pair of lead changes in the opening set, SDSU went on top for good at 7-6 and built their advantage to as many as six points at 14-8. The Toreros, however, slowly closed the gap and pulled back to within a point at 24-23 before a kill by Nash ended the set in the Aztecs' favor.
The second set saw the visitors dominate from start to finish as they scored the first three points of the contest and never looked back. Troost had five kills and Basch four as USD hit .417 for the game while holding SDSU to a -.030 attack percentage.
The defining point of the match came late in the third set. San Diego State held a 24-21 lead and had three chances to go up 2-1 in the match. Instead, the Toreros scored four straight points on two kills by Troost, one by DeGroot and an Aztec hitting error to grab a 25-24 lead. After the teams traded points, Troost struck for two consecutive kills to give the Toreros the 28-26 come-from-behind win.
USD maintained that momentum into the fourth set, going ahead early at 2-1 and leading the rest of the way. They slowly built their advantage to six points at 22-16 and fittingly got kills from DeGroot and Troost to secure the set and match victory.
Tournament action continues on Saturday (Sept. 18) as San Diego State will face 12th-ranked Minnesota at 11:00 a.m. in Peterson Gym. The Toreros will face UC Santa Barbara at the same time at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the USD campus.
The evening matches on Saturday will have the Aztecs playing UC Santa Barbara at 7:00 p.m. on their home floor while Minnesota and USD will square off at USD at the same time.