Nov. 29, 2013
LARAMIE, Wyo. - The San Diego State volleyball team concluded its 2013 as it suffered a four-set loss at Wyoming Friday evening with the Cowgirls prevailing by set scores of 25-22, 21-25, 25-20, 25-22. With the loss, the Aztecs finish with an overall record of 16-14 and an 11-9 ledger in the Mountain West as they tie for fourth in the final league standings.
Seniors Emily Harris and Raegan Shelton paced the Aztec offense as they finished the night with 13 kills apiece. Harris added five blocks to her final stat line while Shelton recorded three blocks and five digs.
Fellow Aztec Summer Nash registered 11 kills plus five blocks and five digs. Freshman Baylee Little also notched 11 kills and turned in her personal season high of seven blocks with five digs.
Defensively Halle Aiken and Christie Ring had 14 and 12 digs respectively with senior setter Johnna Fouch contributing 52 assists, three kills two blocks, eight digs and a service ace.
Although San Diego State fished with 59 kills to 48 for Wyoming (21-13, 11-9 MW), it was 37 attack errors by the visitors that proved to be the main difference in the match. SDSU finished the night with a team hitting percentage of just .134 while the Cowgirls compiled a .225 mark.
The early portion of the opening set was even as the teams battled to a 9-9 tie before Wyoming ran off five straight points to take the lead for good. The Aztecs crawled back to within a point on two occasions, the last time coming at 17-16, before the home side extended its lead to four and held off SDSU the rest of the way for the three-point win.
Set number two saw the score tied 13 times before the contest settled in at 20-20. SDSU then scored three consecutive points on kills by Little, Harris and Shelton to go up 23-20. After a Cowgirl point, the Aztecs got a kill and service ace from Chaiymin Steel to win the set 25-21 and even the match at one set apiece.
In the third set, San Diego state fell behind early by a 7-3 count, but fought its way back into the contest and eventually knotted the score at 16-16. The Cowgirls, however, ran off the next four points to take control of the set as they did not allow the Aztecs to get closer than three over the remainder of the set.
The fourth set went back and forth with five lead changes and 12 tie scores as SDSU tried to fight back from the 2-1 set deficit. SDSU went up 21-18 late in the contest, but Wyoming re-tied the game at 22-22. With the match on the balance, the Cowgirls got back-to-back blocks followed by an Aztec hitting error to win the set 25-22 and secure the match victory.