Oct. 27, 2012
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State notched its fifth straight win as it defeated Wyoming in four sets (25-21, 30-28, 20-25, 25-18) Saturday afternoon on Aztec Court in Peterson Gym. With the victory the Aztecs improved to 16-7 overall and moved within half a game of first place in the Mountain West with a 7-3 league record.
Michelle Waber led SDSU with 18 kills and also contributed three service aces and three digs. Teammate Raegan Shelton had 14 kills and a pair of blocks while Andrea Hannasch chipped in with 12 kills and nine blocks.
Aztec junior setter Johnna Fouch recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 57 assists and a dozen digs while also notching two blocks. Kristi Jackels led the Aztecs in digs with 19 with Courtney Vaccarello ended the afternoon with 11. In addition, Summer Nash finished the match with a career-high seven blocks.
For Wyoming, Jodi Purdy led the way with 18 kills while fellow Cowgirl Erin Kirby led all players with 12 blocks.
Wyoming had the advantage through the first half of the opening set as it led from the outset until San Diego State knotted the score at 15-15. After the teams exchanged two points apiece, the Aztec tallied three in a row on kills by Emily Harris and Shelton plus a Cowgirl attack error. SDSU held off UW the rest of the way with Andrea Hannasch finishing off the contest with a kill.
The second set saw four lead changes and the score tied on 10 occasions is a tightly contested affair. SDSU found itself trailing throughout the middle of the set and was behind 23-20 late in the contest before rallying for four straight points to go up 24-23. That run came courtesy of four hitting errors by the Cowgirls, who would tie the match at 24-all and send it to extra points. Both teams had chances to win it before a Cowgirl attack error followed by a kill by Waber allowed SDSU to claim the two-point victory and go up 2-0 in the match.
In set number three, the score was tied at 7-7 when the visitors took the lead for good, building it to as many as four points at 16-12. SDSU was only able to get within two the remainder of the set (20-18) before the Cowgirls finished off the contest on a kill by Katherine Feldman. SDSU's Shelton led all players with five kills in the set, but the Aztecs hit only .068 as a team compared to .263 for Wyoming.
The fourth set looked to be going either way as the teams battled to a 13-13 tie midway through the game. At that point, however, San Diego State ran off eight straight points to go up 21-13 behind the serving of Vaccarello and four kills by Waber, who finished the set with seven. Andrea Hannasch's four blocks in the game contributed to the win while Nash added three.
Up next for San Diego State is a trip to UNLV to meet league-leading UNLV on Thursday, Nov. 1, at 7:00 p.m. at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.