Oct. 22, 2015
San Diego State came back from a two-set deficit only to fall by two points at the final hurdle as it dropped a five-set contest to Air Force Thursday night on Aztec court. The Falcons prevailed in the match by scores of 25-22, 25-17, 19-25, 22-25, 17-15. It was the second time in the last three matches that the Aztecs rallied from behind only to come up agonizingly short at the finish.
Freshman Alexandra Psoma was SDSU's offensive leader, finishing with 16 kills and a .278 hitting percentage. She also contributed a pair of service aces, two blocks and two digs.
Two other Aztecs also ended the evening in double figure in kills. Emma Fuzie recorded 11 along with five blocks and two digs while Baylee Little had 10 kills to go along with five blocks as well.
Libero Devyn Pritchard led all players with 18 digs while sophomore outside hitter Alex Cage established a career high with 16. Setters Lauren Utchen and Hailey Jones had 27 and 25 assists respectively.
Air Force's Akokwe Clement was the offensive star of the night, however, as she registered 28 kills, almost half of her team's total of 60 in the match. She hit .345 over the five sets and added eight digs, two blocks and a pair of service aces to her final stat line.
The opening set had three tie scores with the last coming at 9-9 at which time Air Force took the lead for good with two consecutive points. The Aztecs got to back to within one at 11-10, but the Falcons scored the next five points to go up 16-10. SDSU was able to close the gap to two points late in the contest (22-20), but was unable to overcome the hitting of Clement, who finished with eight of her team's 14 kills in the game. Deja Harris led SDSU with four kills.
Set number two was similar to the first as the score was tied on four occasions early until, at 8-8, Air Force ran off four consecutive points and led the rest of the way. SDSU closed the gap to two points at 14-12, but found itself behind by at least three the remainder of the contest. Clement again led the visitors with four kills as the Falcons hit .444 in the set while holding the Aztecs to a .161 attack percentage.
The third set saw San Diego State break a 3-3 deadlock with two straight points and this time it was the home team that would lead the rest of the way. The Aztecs expanded their advantage to as many as five points at 10-5, but the visitors climbed back to within two late on at 21-19. SDSU, however, then scored the final four points to capture the set. Psoma led San Diego state with four kills while Little contributed five blocks.
In the fourth set, San Diego State fell behind at 11-9 and trailed until finally knotting the score at 18-all. The teams then went back and forth, trading the next eight points until, at 22-22, the Aztecs got a kill from Little and a Falcon attack error to go up 24-22. They then got the set-winning point on an Air Force ball handling error to even the match at two sets apiece.
In the fifth and deciding set, San Diego State opened with the first four points, but Air Force struck back to score the next four in a row to even the contest at 4-4. The Aztecs then forged a three-point lead at 8-5 only to see the Falcons tie it up at 8-8. SDSU continued to stay of top, however, and regained a three-point advantage at 13-10, but once again the visitor fought back to tie it at 13-all.
San Diego State had a match point opportunity at 14-13, but Clement, who totaled eight kills in the contest, took over from there. She proceeded to record three consecutive kills to give her side the two-point set win and with it the match victory.
San Diego will return to Aztec Court on Saturday, Oct. 24, when it hosts New Mexico for a match set to get underway at 6:00 p.m. (PT).