Sept. 25, 2011
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - San Diego State got double figures in kills from four players as it defeated UC Riverside, 3-1 (28-26, 25-27, 25-18, 25-16) Sunday afternoon at UCR's Student Recreation Center. The win allowed the Aztecs to improve to 7-4 on the season while the Highlanders saw their record fall to 3-12.
Sophomore transfer Emily Harris (Western Michigan) led SDSU with a season-high 15 kills while hitting .481 for the match. She also contributed a personal-best seven blocks and her 18.5 points was a new season high as well.
Raegan Shelton recorded with 13 kills and equaled her season best effort with 16 points. Other Aztecs in double figures included Chaiymin Steel and Andrea Hannasch with 10 apiece. Steel's seven blocks were her best as an Aztec while Hannasch added five of her own.
Riverside's Amanda Vialpando finished with 19 kills for match-high honors while teammates Shelby LeDuff and Bianca Endersby had 12 each.
Both of the first two sets in the match went to extra points with each side prevailing once. In the opener, UCR recovered from a 20-16 deficit to tie the score at 21-21. After the teams alternated points up to 26-all, the Aztecs got kills from Shelton and setter Johnna Fouch to claim a 28-26 win.
The second was tied at 15-15 after which neither team could manufacture more than a one-point advantage until it was 25-all. From there the Highlanders got back-to-back kills from Vialpando for the 27-25 win as they knotted the match at one set apiece.
Set three began as another tight contest with the teams even at 10-10. From there SDSU scored three straight points courtesy of a trio of Highlander errors. UCR got back to within one at 13-12, but the Aztecs were able to extend their advantage of seven points at 20-12 en route to the set win.
San Diego State maintained the momentum heading into the fourth set as it built a 10-6 lead and was never caught while closing out the set and match with a nine-point win. Shelton paced the Aztecs with seven kills in the game while Harris had four kills and four blocks. SDSU now returns home for a pair of matches that begins with a contest against Mountain West opponent Wyoming on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7:00 p.m. on Aztec Court in Peterson Gym.