Sept. 8, 2012
HONOLULU - Defending national champion UCLA lived up to its No. 3 national ranking as it defeated San Diego State in three sets (25-11, 25-20, 25-18) Saturday evening at the Verizon Challenge being held this weekend at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu. With the loss the Aztec fell to 5-2 on the season while the Bruins improved to 5-1.
Summer Nash led the Aztecs with seven kills while four others finished with five kills apiece. That foursome included Andrea Hannasch, Michelle Waber, Emily Harris and Raegan Shelton. Hannasch, Waber and Harris added two blocks apiece while Waber led SDSU with seven digs.
UCLA was led by Rachael Kidder and Karsta Lowe who ended the evening with 13 and 10 kills respectively. The Bruins ended the night with a .350 hitting percentage while holding San Diego State to just a .111 percentage.
The first set saw UCLA get out of the gate quickly as it opened a 10-2 lead and never looked back en route to the 14-point victory. The Aztec could muster only five total kills in the contest including three by Nash as the Bruins hit .500 for the set.
In the second set San Diego State finished with 13 kills to 11 by UCLA, but it also committed 11 errors to just four by the Bruins and that proved to be the difference. SDSU trailed by only two points late at 18-16, but UCLA scored the next three points to open a five-point advantage and went on to win the set.
Set number three was a tight contest early as the teams were even at 8-8in the early going. UCLA, however, again put together a run that slowed them to take control of the contest as it scored six of the next seven points to take a 14-9 lead. SDU got back to within three at 19-16, but that's as close as it would get as he Bruins won six of e set's final eight points to secure the set and match victory.
San Diego State wraps up lay at the Verizon Challenge with a match against Idaho on Sunday (Sept. 9) at 3:00p.m. (HT) in Honolulu.