Oct. 20, 2014
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State found itself playing catch-up all match long, but was unable to overcome UNLV as the Rebels downed the Aztecs in three sets (25-22, 25-19, 25-20) Monday night on Aztec Court.
The loss was the fourth in their last five matches for the Aztecs, who saw their record fall to 8-10 overall and 4-4 in the Mountain West. UNLV, meanwhile won for the fifth straight time to improve to 18-5 (6-2 MW).
San Diego State's Alexis Cage led all players with 11 kills and she added five digs and two blocks to her final totals. It marked the third game in a row that the freshman led SDSU in kills.
Junior middle blocker Kaja Sandberg ended the evening with 10 kills as she and Cage were the lone players on either side to register double figures in that category.
Libero Alexa Saba registered 19 digs over the three sets while Halle Aiken had a career-high 14 digs in the match. In addition, setter Courtney Eckenrode turned in a career best with four kills while adding 39 assists on the night.
San Diego State led UNLV in kills, assists, service aces and digs, but could not get its offense going as it finished with a .088 hitting percentage. UNLV, which averaged a league-leading 3.09 blocks per set coming into the match, finished with 10 team blocks to five for the Aztecs and turned in a .210 attack mark.
The opening set was an evenly contested affair with both sides taking short-lived leads over the first portion of the contest. With the score tie at 16-16 UNLV took the lead for good thanks to an SDSU service error and a pair of Aztec hitting miscues. San Diego State could not get closer than two the rest of the way as the Rebels went on to the three-point victory. SDSU's Sandberg led all players with six kills, but the visitors hit .310 in the set compared to just .178 for SDSU.
The second set saw UNLV take control early as it raced out to a 6-1 lead on kills by Daryn Glenn and Bree Hammel plus four Aztec hitting errors. SDSU clawed its way back into the game and eventually knotted the score at 13-13. After the teams traded points, however, the Rebels re-took control of the contest by scoring three straight points. From there they maintained at least a two-point advantage over the remainder of the set. Both teams tallied just 10 kills in the contest, but 12 attack errors doomed the Aztecs who hit -.048 for the set.
Set number three looked much like the second with SDSU trailing early and coming back to tie the contest at 17-17. UNLV took the lead for good with a pair of points to go up 19-17 and the Aztecs were unable to draw even after that. Cage had six kills to lead both teams as SDSU actually finished with 16 kills to 13 for the Rebels. Again it was the attack errors that cost the home side as it recorded 10 to just three for the visitors.
Up next for San Diego State is a trip north to Fresno where they will take on Mountain West foe Fresno State on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7:00 p.m.