Aug 31, 2013
BATOIN ROUGE, La. - San Diego State came up just short of winning its season-opening tournament, the LSU Tiger Classic., as it dropped a five-set match to host Louisiana State late Saturday evening at the Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, La. The loss was the first of the young season for the Aztecs as they dropped to 2-1 while host LSU finished the weekend with a perfect 3-0 ledger.
SDSU placed three players on the eight-person all-tournament team including setter Johnna Fouch along with outside hitters Summer Nash and Raegan Shelton. Fouch averaged 11.21 assists and 2.64 digs per set over her team's three matches and also hit .409 with 11 kills. Nash ended the weekend with marks of 3.83 kills and 2.00 digs per set and led the Aztecs with five service aces while Shelton averaged 3.23 kills per set.
The contest against LSU was a seesaw affair that saw the host team win the first and third sets with SDSU capturing the second and fourth contests. The fifth set saw the Tigers jump out to an 8-3 lead as they went on to the 15-11 win to take the match by set scores of 25-17, 18-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-11.
Michelle Waber led San Diego State with 14 kills while Emily Harris also ended the night in double figures in that category with 12. Fouch finished with 56 assists and Kaja Sandberg has a career-best eight blocks over the five sets while three Aztecs recorded double-figure totals in digs including Courtney Vaccarello (25), Justin Ricigliano (13) and Kyla Oropeza (13)
Earlier Saturday afternoon SDSU dispatched Texas-San Antonio in four sets (25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19) to set up the tourney title meeting with LSU. Four Aztecs finished in double figures in kills against the Roadrunners led by a career-high tying 21 from Nash, who also had 16 digs to mark her first double-double of the season.
Emily Harris and Shelton had 12 kills apiece while Chaiymin Steel chipped in with 11. Defensively Vaccarello contributed 14 digs while Ricigliano added 11. In addition, Fouch added her second double-double in two matches with 49 assists and 13 digs.
Up next for San Diego State is a trip to Flagstaff, Ariz., next weekend for the NAU Fiesta Bowl Tournament. The Aztecs will open play against host Northern Arizona on Friday, Sept. 6, at 7:00 p.m. They will then face Cal State Northridge on Saturday (Sept. 7) at 1:00 p.m. followed by Idaho at 4:00 p.m.