Sept. 19, 2015
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - San Diego State used a balanced offensive attack plus a season-high 17 team blocks to register a three-set win at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. With the victory the Aztecs improved to 3-8 on the year while the Gauchos saw their record drop to 4-7.
Alexandra Psoma led the SDSU offense with a dozen kills as she recorded a personal-best .435 hitting percentage over the three sets. The freshman from Greece also had three digs and block.
Sophomore outside hitter Alexis Cage also ended the contest in double figures in kills with 10 while registering three blocks, six digs and a service ace.
On the blocking front, redshirt freshman Deja Harris had a career-high 10 total blocks, a figure that included a pair of solo efforts and eight assists. Senior Kaja Sandberg added a season-best six blocks while Emma Fuzie chipped in with five.
On defense, 11 of the 12 Aztecs who competed in the match recorded at least one dig led by setters Lauren Utchen and Hailey Jones with seven and six respectively. The two first-year Aztecs spilt time at their position with Utchen notching 17 assists while Jones had 14.
The opening set saw San Diego State trailing by three at 11-8 before working its way to within one at 12-11. From there the Aztecs scored 10 of the next 12 points to build a 21-14 advantage and take control en route to the six-point set victory. SDSU had only 11 kills in the contest, but hit .345 to UCSB's .081.
Set number two was a set that almost got away from the visitors. Leading 24-19 with five chances to close out the contest, the Aztecs saw UC Santa Barbara fight back to tie the set at 24-24. Each team had a couple chances to win the game and it was the visitors who would eventually prevail. With the score knotted at 29-29, a Gaucho service error followed by a UCSB attack miscue gave the Aztecs the 31-29 win.
In the third set, UCSB built a 14-9 lead midway through the contest only to see SDSU rally and take a two-point lead at 17-15. The Gauchos replied by tying the game at 18-18, but from there neither team could forge more than a one-point lead until the set was deadlocked at 27-all. The Aztecs then got a kill from Fuzie and a Gaucho hitting error to complete the 29-27 set victory and claim the match win.
San Diego State will wrap up its weekend road swing with a visit to Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept, 20, where it will face Loyola Marymount in a match set to get underway at 3:00 p.m. at LMU's Gersten Pavilion.