Oct. 16, 2012
IRVINE, Calif. - San Diego used a balanced offense and solid defense to defeat UC Irvine, 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 28-26) Tuesday night at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif. It was the Aztecs' fourth win in their last five outings as they improved to 13-7 on the year.
For the fifth straight match it was junior outside hitter Raegan Shelton who led SDSDU in kills as she finished with 11 on the evening. She also contributed five digs, two service aces, a block and an assist to the winning cause.
Michelle Waber chipped in with nine kills and also had a pair of blocks and two digs. Four others had six kills apiece including Andrea Hannasch, Johnna Fouch, Emily Harris and Chaiymin Steel. Harris added a team-high five blocks while Fouch had 28 assists to go along with her season-high kill total.
In addition, senior libero Kristi Jackels tied her season best with 26 digs and also had three assists and an ace.
Aly Squires and Marisa Bubica led the way for the Anteaters (9-13) with 16 and 14 kills respectively as the home side finished with one more total kill than SDSU (45-44).
All three sets were close affairs with the score tied in the latter stages. In the opener it was 20-20 before San Diego State pulled away by taking five of the final six points helped by kills from Waber, Fouch and Steel plus a service ace by Courtney Vaccarello.
Set two saw the score knotted at 22-22 when the Aztec benefitted from a UCI attack error, a kill by Shelton and a service ace by Fouch to claim the three-point victory.
In set three the Aztecs faced set point at 24-23, but a kill by Shelton evened the score at 24-all. After the teams traded two points apiece, SDSU put the match away courtesy of an ace by Vaccarello and an Anteater hitting error.
San Diego State resumes Mountain West action on Thursday, Oct, 18, when it hosts conference foe New Mexico at 7:00 p.m. on Aztec Court in Peterson Gym.