San Diego State volleyball fought a close battle but came up short of winning its season-opening tournament, the Louisiana State University Tiger Classic.
SDSU took to the court in Baton Rouge, La. on Friday with a five-set win (25-17, 22-25, 25-16, 13-25, 15-5) against the University of California, Davis marking the fourth-straight year the Aztecs opened the season with a win.
Senior outside hitter Summer Nash led the Aztecs with 19 kills, six block assists and a career-high three service aces, while All-American senior setter Johnna Fouch collected her 34th career double recording 52 assists and 16 digs.
Saturday afternoon four Aztecs collected double figures in kills to move them past the University of Texas at San Antonio in four sets (25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19). Nash tied her career high in 21 kills and 16 digs to mark her first double-double of the season.
Senior middle blocker Emily Harris and senior outside hitter Raegan Shelton finished the match with 12 kills each while junior right side hitter Chaiymin Steel added 11. Fouch recorded her second double-double in two matches finishing with 13 digs and 49 assists.
The final match for SDSU came Saturday evening against LSU to decide the tournament champions. After rallying back and forth for four sets the host team took an early lead in the fifth and final set to come out on top. LSU won the match and tournament by set scores of 25-17, 18-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-11.
Junior outside hitter Michelle Waber led the Aztecs with 14 kills and Harris contributed with 12. Defensively, three Aztecs recorded double-figure totals in digs. Senior libero Courtney Vaccarello led with 25 while junior and senior defensive specialists Justine Ricigliano and Kyla Oropeza had 13 apiece.
[quote]“The teams we played this weekend were great competition and provided us with experiences that we can learn from in our future matches,” Shelton said. “It was nice to see what our strengths and weaknesses were in game situations so we can continue to work hard in practice and keep improving. At times we performed a little off and different than we usually do, but overall I think we fought hard and stuck together as a team.”[/quote]
Fouch, Shelton and Nash were chosen to participate on the eight-player all-tournament team.
Starting this Friday, SDSU will compete in the Northern Arizona University Fiesta Bowl Tournament in Flagstaff, Ariz.
