Aug 30, 2013
BATON ROUGE, La. - San Diego State opened its 2013 campaign with a five-set win (25-17, 22-25, 25-16, 13-25, 15-5) over UC Davis in the opening match of the LSU Tiger classic in Baton Rouge, La., Friday afternoon. It marks the fourth straight year that the Aztecs have begun their season with a victory.
Senior outside hitter Summer Nash lead SDSU with 19 kills and six blocks assists while also contributing a career-high three service aces. Fellow senior Emily Harris added a career-best 16 kills along with five blocks while hitting at a .448 clip. Chaiymin Steel also finished the match in double figures in kills with a dozen and also had three blocks.
All-American setter Johnna Fouch recorded her 34th career double with a performance that included 52 assists and 16 digs. In addition, Courtney Vaccarello and Christie Ring both had career-highs in digs with 19 and 13 respectively.
San Diego State got off to quick start in the opening set as it ran out to a 9-3 lead with five of those points coming on kills by Nash, who finished the game with nine. The Aztecs built their lead to as many as 12 points at 21-9 and coasted to the win.
The second set was a tight affair with the teams staying close and eventually facing a tied contest at 22-22. From there, the Aggies reeled off a pair of kills and those, combined with an SDSU attack error, gave UC Davis the 25-22 win to even the match at one set apiece.
Set number three proved similar to the opening game as San Diego State grabbed a 9-4 lead en route to a nine-point win. Nash again led the way with four kills as the Aztec hit .393 as a team while holding Davis to a .067 hitting percentage.
The Aggies turned the tables in the fourth set as they took the early 9-3 advantage and never looked back in what would be a one-sided contest. SDSU fought back to within four at 11-7, but UC Davis scored seven of the next eight points to go up 18-8. Harris had five kills for the Aztecs, but the team committed 11 hitting errors to none for the Aggies and that helped UCD complete the 12-point victory to make it two sets apiece in the match.
The fifth and deciding set belonged to San Diego State as it benefitted from three Aggie attack errors and three kills from Steel that helped them race out to a 12-3 lead. The Aztecs also got combination blocks by Nash and Kaja Sandberg (2), Nash and Harris (1) and Steel and Harris (1) plus a kill by Nash and service ace by Ring to account for their first 12 points of the set. The teams traded points the rest of the way with Michelle Waber's kills finishing off the 15-5 win to secure the match victory for SDSU.
The Aztecs continue action at the Tiger Classic on Saturday (Aug. 31) with a contest against Texas-San Antonio at 12:30 p.m. (CT) before concluding tourney play that evening against LSU at 7:30 p.m.