Oct. 27, 2014
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State made it three wins in its last four matches (and five in its last seven) as it needed just three sets (25-19, 25-21, 27-25) to dispose of UC Irvine Monday evening on Aztec Court. With the victory SDSU evened its record at 10-10 as it reached the .500 mark for the first time since early September. The loss ended a five-match winning streak for the Anteaters who saw their record drop to 15-8.
Halle Aiken and Alexis Cage paced the San Diego State offense with 13 kills apiece. Aiken added four blocks and nine digs to her final stat line while Cage contributed a pair of digs while hitting at a .346 clip for the match.
Senior Chaiymin Steel recorded nine kills and nine digs while teammate Cassie O'Hara, who hit .800 with no errors over the three sets, notched a career-high eight kills and tied her personal best with five blocks. In addition, freshman setter Courtney Eckenrode average over 13 assists per set with a total of 40 on the night along with seven digs and three kills.
The opening set was close in the beginning stages as the teams played to a 9-9 deadlock. From there SDSU captured three straight points on kills by Aiken and Steel plus a UCI hitting error to take a lead it never relinquished. The Anteaters were unable to get closer than two the rest of the way and the Aztec fashioned their biggest lead of the contest at 20-15. Aiken led all players with seven kills as San Diego state registered a total of 17 in the set compared to only six for the visitors.
Set number two was a game of runs and SDSU had the final say as it captured a four-point victory. The first run of the game went to the Aztecs as they ran off five straight points to turn a 6-5 lead into an 11-5 advantage. Not to be outdone, UC Irvine came from 13-9 down to take a 14-13 lead.
But it was SDSU's turn again as they took four in a row to go up for good at 17-14. The Anteaters would get no closer than three after that as the Aztecs went up two sets to none. Steel and Cage tallied four kills apiece for SDSU while Aiken and Kaja Sandberg notched three blocks apiece.
The third set proved to be the closest of the three. After UCI took the lead at 11-10, the teams went back-and forth with the sides separated by only a single point (expect when the Aztecs led 17-15) until the score was tied at 19-all. The Anteaters then scored twice to go up 21-19 and maintained their two-point advantage at 22-20. But a UCI service error followed by a ball handling error tied it at 22-22.
The teams then alternated scoring the next four points to make it 24-24 before SDSU went up 25-24 point on as kill by Aiken. UCI ended up fighting off a pair of match points, but with SDSU leading 26-25 it was Cage who notched the decisive kill to give SDSU the set and match victory.
San Diego State will continue its current three-match home stand on Thursday (Oct. 30) when it hosts league-leading No. 7 Colorado State at 6:00 p.m. on Aztec Court.