Nov. 7, 2015
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - San Diego State concluded a two-match home stand with its second consecutive three-set victory as it took care of visiting UNLV Saturday evening on Aztec Court. The Aztecs downed the Rebels by set scores of 26-24, 25-22, 25-23 to improve to 9-18 overall and 6-8 in the Mountain West.
Baylee Little led the San Diego state offense with 11 kills while hitting at a .500 clip. She added three blocks and a dig to her finals tat line as well.
Sophomore Alexis Cage finished the evening with 10 kills and completed her first double-double of the season by adding 10 digs. She also contributed two blocks, an assist and a service ace to the winning cause.
Setter Lauren Utchen notched her third double-double of the year with 18 assists and 10 digs while Hailey Jones ended the match with 24 assists and seven digs. In addition, Alex Saba had a match-high 19 digs from her libero position.
Although San Diego State had the lead for much of the opening set, it was never able to pull away from the Rebels (13-12, 6-7 MW). The contest featured 10 tie scores with the last coming at 24-24. From there the Aztecs used a kill by Kaja Sandberg and another from Danielle Bolden to claim the two-point set win. Cage led SDSU with four kills while Deja Harris and Little contributed two blocks apiece.
Set number two was as close as the first as neither team could forge more than a two-point lead over the first half of the contest. SDSU eventually went up by four at 19-15 only to see the visitors come back to knot the score at 19-19. The teams then alternated the ensuing six points when, at 22-22, the Aztecs got consecutive kills from Little, Sandberg and Emma Fuzie to claim the set. Little led all players in the contest with six kills with Fuzie adding three of her won.
UNLV came out with renewed purpose after the break and jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead in the third set. The Rebels held onto that lead throughout most of the contest, building it to as much as six points at 20-14. But from there SDSU began a comeback that saw it narrow the margin to three thanks to a trio of UNLV hitting miscues.
The teams went back and forth, and the Rebels eventually held a 22-18 advantage, but thanks to a pair of kills by Bolden and a service ace by Hailey Jones, the Aztecs found themselves within a point at 22-21. A point by UNLV put the visitors up by two (23-21), but the Aztecs then scored four in a row thanks to two Rebel attack errors and kills by Bolden and Cage to capture the set and match.
Up next for the Aztecs is a trip to Idaho where they will face Mountain West foe Boise State on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7:00 p.m. (MT) in Bronco Gym.