Sept. 9, 2016
KINGSTON, R.I. - After dropping two of the first three sets, San Diego State came back to win the next two and defeat Rhode Island, 3-2 (18-25, 27-25, 15-25, 25-15, 17-15), Friday evening at the Art Carmichael Invitational in Kingston, R.I. The result left both teams with identical 4-4 records.
Alexandra Psoma led the Aztecs with 19 kills and a .581 hitting percentage, both of which represented career highs for the sophomore from Athens, Greece. She also added a pair of blocks, five digs and a service ace to her final stat line.
Freshman Hannah Turnlund also turned in a career-high 14 kills in the match while teammate Deja Harris added 13 and recorded six blocks along the way. Senior Danielle Bolden, meanwhile, tied her season and career best with 17 digs as she made her second start of the season at the libero position.
SDSU used a three-setter rotation over the five sets and saw Hailey Jones and Indigo Thompson end the evening with 17 assists apiece with Lauren Utchen picking up 16. The trio also notched eight, five and four digs respectively.
Freshman Tamia Reeves continued her solid start to the season recording five kills and a .357 attack mark with no hitting errors. She also tied her season best with five blocks.
The opening set was close early and remained that way until Rhode Island took the lead for good at 10-9. The Rams took control of the contest when they ran off seven consecutive points to go up 19-11 and from there coasted to the 11-point set victory. Harris had three kills and a block for SDSU, but her effort wasn't enough to offset URI's .472 hitting mark and 20-8 advantage in kills.
The second set was a different story with neither team able to forge a sizeable lead although the Rams did go up 19-15 late in the contest. San Diego State, however, tied it at 21-21 and after the teams won two points apiece to make it 23-23, the Aztecs won the ensuing point and would have had two chances to put the set away, but were unable to do so. With the score knotted at 25-all, SDSU got back-to-back kills from Psoma and Harris to claim the two-point win and even the match at one set each.
The third and fourth sets were mirror images of each other with the Rams taking the third 25-15 and the Aztecs winning the fourth by the same score. In each contest, the winning team jumped out to an 11-4 lead and was in control the rest of the way. In set three URI had a .370 hitting percentage to .067 for SDSU while in set four the Aztecs recorded a.417 attack mark to -.037 for the home side. Turnlund led San Diego State in the fourth set with five kills, only two fewer the URI's team total.
In the fifth and deciding set, Rhode Island held an 11-8 lead only to see the Aztecs fight back to tie the contest at 12-12. The Rams won two of the next three points and were looking at match point with a 14-13 lead, but a kill by Psoma tied the score and kept SDSU alive. The teams traded points to 15-15 before another kill by Psoma and one by Alexis Cage gave San Diego State the set and match win.
The Aztecs will continue play at the Art Carmichael Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 10) when they face Notre Dame at 11:00 a.m. (ET) followed by a match vs. Stony Brook at 4:00 p.m. (ET).