It was a night of celebration that turned into a night ofdisappointment. A rough night capping an all-around rough weekend.
The San Diego State women’s volleyball team went into lastweekend’s matches without any worries of dropping in the MountainWest Conference standings and only the possibility of moving up inthem.
However, back-to-back shutout losses to Utah and BYU have cementedits spot in the conference. SDSU fell to Utah 3-0 last Friday night,as well as to BYU (20-7, 10-4) last Saturday night, which was SeniorNight for the Aztecs as well.
“We were ready to play and we were excited that it was SeniorNight,” senior middle blocker Aspen McPartland said. “I just wish wewould have played better.”
The Cougars led for all three games in the match, jumping out tobig leads at the start of each game. SDSU (17-13, 7-7) would fighthard to stay in the match, pulling together a late rally at the endof each game, but it would be too little too late for all threegames.
“We made a lot of unforced errors,” senior middle blocker MeganSchauermann said. “You have to give them credit, they played well. Itwas our last game here and we really wanted to win, but we didn’tmake the plays.”
Schauermann led the Aztecs with 11 kills. She also finished thematch with a hitting percentage of .318 along with five blocks.
Senior Zlatina Anguelova also had a strong match for SDSU.Anguelova finished with eight kills, eight digs and a hittingpercentage of .269.
It wasn’t the way the seven seniors on the team wanted theirSenior Night to go. The list of seniors includes: Schauermann,Anguelova, McPartland, Sara Engstrom, Melissa Cansdale, Natalie Sandeand Robyn Gregg.
“It was really sad. We’ve all played together for most of our fouryears here,” Schauermann said. “It’s going to be hard not playingwith these girls. We’re like a family, and it’s been a blessing toplay with them.”
The good news for the Aztecs is that although last Saturday wasSenior Night, they will be returning to Peterson Gym next weekend forthe MWC Tournament.
“It’s not really our last match here,” McPartland said. “We willbe fired up. We want to win all of those matches and we think wecan.”
Last Friday night against Utah (17-7, 11-2) was a similar patternfor SDSU. The Aztecs had an early and short-lived lead in game one,but after that, the Utes led for the rest of the match. SDSU wouldstay in the first two games before getting blown out in game three.
“The first two games were more indicative of how the whole matchshould have gone,” head coach Mark Warner said. “I thought we had achance to win. I always think we have a chance to win.”
Next it’s on to the MWC Tournament for the Aztecs, which kicks offThursday night. Fourth seed SDSU will face fifth seed UNLV in thefirst-round match at 7 p.m. in Peterson Gym.
“We’re hoping to play better,” Schauermann said. “We’ve got theadvantage playing the tournament at home. We’ve got another shot,it’s not over.”
