Sept. 27, 2012
LARAMIE, Wyo. - San Diego State rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Wyoming in five sets Thursday evening at the UniWyo Sports Complex in Laramie. In claiming the victory by scores of 17-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11, the Aztecs improved to 9-5 on the season and evened their Mountain West record at 1-1.
Four SDSU players finished the night in double figures in kills led by 16 from Raegan Shelton, who also added five blocks, six digs and a pair of service aces to her final stat line. Senior Andrea Hannasch ended the night with 15 kills along with eight blocks, three digs and two service aces.
Other Aztecs in double figures in kills included Summer Nash and Chaiymin, each of whom had 10. Nash also had four blocks and six digs whole Steel contributed three blocks.
San Diego setter Johnna Fouch turned in her second consecutive double-double effort and third of the season with 49 assists and 10 digs. Senior libero Kristi Jackels led all players with 24 digs.
UW's Jodi Purdy was the lone Cowgirl in double figures in kills as she finished with 14 along with 10 digs. Over the five sets, SDSU had a total of 61 team kills compared to 46 for Wyoming.
The opening set saw the Cowgirls (11-5, 0-2 MW) take the lead for good at 2-1 and open that margin to as many as eight points (15-7) before SDSU fought back to within two points at 17-15. But that was as close as the visitors would get the rest of the way as UW won the next five points en route to the eight-point victory.
The second set was close in the early stages and saw the score tied at 9-9 before SDSU took control, scoring three points in a row and going on to win the contest by seven. Hannasch led the way for the Aztecs in the contest with six kills and two blocks.
Set number three was the closest of the night with the sides separated by no more than three at any point in the game. With the score knotted at 22-22, the Cowgirls got a kill and an SDSU hitting error to take a two-point led after which the teams traded points to give the host team the two-point win.
The fourth set would belong to the Aztecs, who jumped out to a 12-6 lead and opened up an eight-point advantage at 18-10. Wyoming came back to within four at 19-15, but a pair of kills by Hannasch and three straight Cowgirl hitting errors paved the way for SDSU to claim the set and even the match at two games apiece.
In the fifth and deciding set, San Diego State trailed 8-5 before kills by Shelton and Hannasch sandwiched around a UW attack error tied the contest at 8-8. After the squads exchanged points to make it 9-9, the Aztecs tallied four in a row on a bad Cowgirl set, kills by Shelton and Emily Harris plus a service ace from Hannasch to go up 13-9. The sides alternated points from there with Chaiymin Steel provided the final kill to capture the set and match for SDSU.
San Diego State will now move on to Fort Collins, Colo., for a conference match against Colorado State on Saturday, Sept. 29, at 1:00 p.m. (MT) in Moby Arena.