Sept. 3, 2016
San Diego State opened day one at the Oregon Classic in Eugene, Ore., by splitting a pair of matches. The Aztecs began play with a three-set (25-21, 25-22, 25-17) victory over UC Davis before falling in three sets (25-10, 25-12, 25-20) to Oregon.
With the results, SDSU saw its early-season record move to 2-3. The Aggies, meanwhile, evened their season edger at 2-2 while the Ducks ended the day with the same overall record.
Against UC Davis, the Aztecs found themselves on the winning side of a pair of close contests in the first two sets, winning by four and three points respectively. They found the going a bit smoother in the third set as they jumped out to a big lead early and coasted to the eight-point win.
Sophomore middle blocker Deja Harris led San Diego State with 12 kills and a .611 hitting percentage along with four blocks. Alexi Cage and Alexandre Psoma chipped in with nine and eight kills respectively with Cage recording the blocks and five digs while Psoma while added a block and three digs to her stat line.
Senior Emma Fuzie contributed seven kills to go along with her .333 attack mark and she also set a career high with seven total blocks (one solo, six assists).
Danielle Bolden made her season debut at the libero position and responded with a career-best 17 digs along with three assists. In addition, setter Hailey Jones turned in another double-double with 20 assists and 13 digs.
In their second game of the day, the Aztecs had no answers for Oregon's attacking and blocking as they fell to the Ducks in three sets. Oregon ran out to double-digit wins in the first two sets before SDSU made them battle for a five-point victory in the third contest.
Psoma was San Diego State's offensive leader vs. the Ducks, finishing with nine kills, a block and two digs. No other Aztec recorded more than four kills over the three sets as Oregon finished with a .366 hitting percentage compared to a .020 mark for the Aztecs.
The Ducks recorded 42 kills in the match while SDU could only come up with 27. They also ended the contest with 13 team blocks while the Aztecs had five.
Jones led San Diego State with 10 assists while libero Devyn Pritchard ended the evening with nine. Setters Lauren Utchen and Hailey Jones had 12 and nine kills respectively.
San Diego State will wrap up play at the Oregon Classic on Saturday, Sept. 3, with a match against Murray state scheduled to get underway at 3:30 p.m. (PT). Earlier on Saturday, the Racers dropped a three-set match to Oregon and lost to UC Davis in four.