Nov. 1, 2014
SAN DIEGO - For the second straight match San Diego State went to five sets, but unlike Thursday night the Aztecs prevailed as they defeated Wyoming 25-14, 15-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-8 Saturday afternoon on Aztec Court. With the victory SDSU evened its overall record at 11-11 and improved to 6-5 in the Mountain West.
The loss ended a six-match win streak for the Cowgirls who saw their record fall to 10-6 overall and 8-4 in the Mountain West.
Redshirt freshman Alexis Cage led both teams with a career-high 19 kills over the five sets. Her kill total was the highest by an Aztec this season as she hit .356 in the match while adding a block and three digs.
Chaiymin Steel also reached double figures in kills as she tied her career high of 15. She completed a double-double with a career-best 14 digs and chipped in five blocks and a pair of assists. Fellow Aztec Halle Aiken contributed 10 kills, eight digs and a block along the way.
Setter Courtney Eckenrode notched her sixth double-double of the year (and third in four matches) with 47 assists and 13 digs while also registering a career-high four kills. Other SDSU team leaders on the day included Dani Bolden with five service aces and libero Alexa Saba with 20 digs.
Bridget Shanahan led Wyoming with 15. The Cowgirls hit .217 in the match, slightly better than SDSU's .209 mark. The teams were evenly matched statistically in the match with the Aztecs holding a small edge in total kills (59-55), assists (57-52), service aces (9-6) and digs (84-82). Wyoming finished with 12 team blocks to eight for SDSU.
Despite the final score of the opening set it was close in the early stages as the teams played to a 10-10 tie. From there, however, San Diego State scored six straight points on a kill by Steel, service ace by Devyn Pritchard, two combination blocks from Steel and Cassie O'Hara plus four Wyoming attack errors. Cage led all players with seven kills, one more than the entire Cowgirl team. In addition, Dani Bolden recorded four of her service aces in the contest.
Set number two was again close early before Wyoming turned a 9-8 lead into a 14-8 advantage with five consecutive points. The Aztecs got back to within five on a couple of occasions, but could get no closer as the Cowgirls controlled play over the second half of the contest. Shanahan had six kills for the visitors while Aiken led SDSU with four. Wyoming hit .529 for the game with 19 kills while the Aztecs hit just .167 with nine kills.
The third set was close for a majority of the contest with the score eventually tied at 20-20. At that point the Aztecs scored four straight on a kill from Steel, a pair of combination blocks from Steel and Jensen Cunningham plus a Cowgirl hitting error. After Wyoming got a point back, Cunningham ended the set with a kill. Steel had seven kills in the game for the Aztecs with Cunningham adding four.
In the fourth set, Wyoming took the lead for good at 5-4 and built its advantage to as many as eight points at 21-13 before closing out the contest on a kill by Erin Kirby. SDSU hit just .021 for the game with Steel and Cage leading the way with three kills apiece.
In the deciding set San Diego State took a 2-0 lead and was never caught is it led from start to finish. The teams stayed within two points of each other until the Aztecs took an 8-5 lead. After the teams switched ends the visitors scored two quick points to trail by just one at 8-7, but SDSU took control with five in a row to go up 13-7. That run included two kills by Cage, one each from Aiken and Steel plus a service ace by Pritchard. Fittingly Cage ended the contest with her 19th kill of the match.
San Diego State will next embark on a two-match conference road trip next week that begins with a match in Colorado Springs, Colo., against Air Force on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6:00 p.m. (MT).