Sept. 16, 2011
CHICAGO - San Diego State was unable to shake off the cob webs of a two-week layoff as it dropped a four-set decision to Kansas Friday evening in the opening match of the DePaul Invitational in Chicago. The Jayhawks improved to 9-1 with the 20-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-18 win over the Aztecs, who saw their record fall to 4-2.
Although San Diego State finished the match with five more kills than its opponent (53-48), the telling stats were the errors and blocks for each team. The Aztecs committed almost twice as many errors as their opponent while KU finished with 13 team blocks to just four for SDSU.
Three Aztecs finished the evening in double figures in kills led by outside hitter Paije Pearson with 15. The senior from Chandler, Ariz., also had five digs, three assists and a block while hitting .423 for the match.
Sophomores Raegan Shelton and Summer Nash recorded 12 and 10 kills respectively. In addition, setter Johnna Fouch notched her fourth double-double of the young season with 47 assists and 14 digs.
Kansas' Allison Mayfield led all players with 19 kills with fellow Jayhawk Caroline Jarmoc added 12 kills along with four blocks.
An evenly matched opening set had the teams tied at 19-19 before San Diego State went on a four-point run fueled by three Kansas errors and a kill by Pearson. After a KU point, Shelton and Pearson recorded back-to-back kills to hand SDSU the first-set victory.
The second set saw the Jayhawks open up a five-point advantage at 15-10 en route to the five-point win. SDSU was able to get back to within two on two occasion, but Kansas was too strong as it finished the contest with a .367 hitting percentage to just .172 for the Aztecs.
Set number three was another close affair that had the score knotted at 19-all. From there a combination of three kills (two by Mayfield and one by Jarmoc), two service aces and an SDSU attack error gave the Jayhawks six of the final seven points as they took a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set looked priming for San Diego State as it built a 12-9 lead, but the Jayhawks put together12 straight points to take control of the game and match. Included in that run were seven Aztec hitting errors as SDSU hit .048 in the contest.
San Diego State continues action at the DePaul Invitational with a match against the host school Saturday morning, Sept. 17, at 11:00 a.m. (CT). The Aztecs will conclude tourney play that evening with a contest against Valparaiso at 5:00 p.m. (CT).