The San Diego State volleyball team opened its final home stretch with a sweep over New Mexico last night following a tough two-game road series.
Last night’s win pushed the team to the double-digit win column in the conference with a 10-7 record. This is also SDSU’s fifth sweep win during conference play. With one game remaining, head coach Brent Hilliard has his focus on finishing the season strong.
“Going into the conference championship next week, we want to be playing good ball,” Hilliard said. “That’s what we told the girls and that’s what we did tonight.”
The defense takes the spotlight after holding the Lobos to a .173 hitting percentage. Gianna Bender, Sarena Gonzalez, and Andrea Campos protected the court, generating 23 of the 32 digs of the night. The defense also tallied nine team blocks with Kat Cooper contributing on four of those blocks.
Offensively, Jasmine Davis led the team with 13 kills and made it her third consecutive game with double-digit kills. Back in the spotlight after missing last week with an injury was Taylor Underwood who was behind Davis with 10 kills.
“I was itching to come back because I did not want to be sitting out, but I am a lot better now,” Underwood said.
“We are trying to get (Underwood) reacclimated, so she’s playing at about 80% right now,” Hilliard said. “We are trying to get her back to 100%, and she has been tough and diligent about rehab, and we are excited to have her back.”
Set one had both teams shooting early. The Lobos were the first to take a two-point advantage 7-9. Two points later, the Aztecs responded with 6 consecutive points to make the score 14-10. The six-point run included a pair of service aces from Keira Herron and a pair of kills from Davis.
SDSU maintained its sizable gap through the rest of the set and ended the set with a block from Natalie Hughes 25-17. The first set alone had SDSU generating 17 kills, 10 of which were split by Davis and Underwood.
The momentum of the first set carried to the second as the team created a gap early 9-4, forcing the Lobos to call an early timeout. The timeout proved to be crucial as the Lobos were able to close the gap to a point after five unanswered points.
Despite the Lobos tying the game, SDSU regained a five-point lead in the late stage of the set 18-12. This time the Lobos did not find an answer to close the gap, and the Aztecs closed set two with Davis’ tenth kill of the night 25-18.
The start of the third set was not different from the second as SDSU was able to build an early cushion of 9-3. The Lobos were forced to take a second timeout following a pair of service aces from Campos to make the advantage 14-7. From that point, the Aztecs sailed smoothly to the match point where Shea Rubright ended the match with a kill 25-17.
“It is a big confidence booster,” Underwood said. “We came in, and we were ready to dominate. We all were in the same mindset, and we knew what we needed to do.”
The Scarlet and Black ends its series with the Lobos this season 1-1 and breaks a six-game losing streak with the team. New Mexico came back in the fifth set to escape with a win at home back in September.
The Aztec faces Air Force (2-15) in its final game of the regular season. SDSU began its season with a win over the young Falcon’s team 3-1.
“That’s someone we don’t want to overlook,” Hilliard said. “We want to continue to play at a certain level, and we are not worried about who is in front of the shirt.”
The final home match is this Saturday at noon, and SDSU will be celebrating its senior class before the match.
