Oct. 13, 2012
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State needed five sets to defat a stubborn Air Force squad by set scores of 25-9, 21-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-9 Saturday night in Colorado Springs. It marked the eighth time this season that the Aztecs have been involved in a five-set match and they improved to 6-2 in those contests.
For the fourth game in a row junior outside hitter Raegan Shelton led SDSU (11-7, 4-3 Mountain West) in kills as she finished the night with personal season-high of 20 along with four blocks and two service aces. Teammate Andrea Hannasch also ended the evening in double figures in kills with 16 as she also added four blocks and eight digs to her stat line.
Setter Johnna Fouch contributed 48 assists and 10 digs to record her team-leading fourth double-double of the season. In addition, Emily Harris had 10 blocks to tie her career high.
Air Force (8-12, 2-4 MW) was led by 14 kills from Felicia Clement as the Flacons hit .086 over the five sets compared to .223 by San Diego State. SDSU led the match in total kills (62-45), assists (57-44), blocks (14.0-10.0) and digs (63-57), but Air Force was able to get their offense going at the right times as the teams split the first two sets.
After the Aztecs won the first and third sets and the Falcons took the second and fourth, the match came down to a fifth and deciding contest. San Diego State would make quick work of wrapping up the match victory as it won the first nine points of the set behind two kills by Shelton, one each by Fouch and Chaiymin Steel, a service ace by Fouch and four Falcon hitting errors.
The Aztecs enjoyed a 10-3 advantage before scoring five of the ensuing six points. Those points came on a kills by Steel, a Falcon hitting error, two kills by Hannasch and a service ace by Courtney Vaccarello as they took the contest 15-4.
San Diego State will now step out of Mountain West play as they travel to UC Irvine for a match against the Anteaters on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7:00 p.m. at the Bren Center in Irvine, Calif.