San Diego State’s women’s volleyball team wrapped up its 2017 season with a three-set loss to nationally-ranked Colorado State (22-25, 20-25, 21-25).
The Aztecs finish the season one game above .500 at 16-15 and 10-8 in Mountain West Conference play.
Seniors Baylee Little, Alexis Cage and Devyn Pritchard were all honored as part of Senior Day activities.
It was an emotional game for the seniors.
“It was really surreal,” Cage said. “My time here really flew by and it didn’t feel like I was stepping onto our home court for the last time, I don’t think it really hit me until the final few points of the match.”
Sophomore outside hitter Ashlynn Dunbar led the Aztecs with 11 kills, while Pritchard had a game-high 14 digs from the back row.
Freshman setter Gabi Peoples also had a match high with 35 assists. Despite having the edge on the stat sheet with assists and digs, Colorado State outblocked SDSU 10-3 and posted an overall higher hitting percentage.
The Rams and the Aztecs battled throughout the first set. After a kill by junior middle blocker Deja Harris it was SDSU with the lead at 19-18, however the Scarlet and Black fell to a late CSU run.
The second set featured the worst offensive production for both teams, with .214 and .000 hitting percentages for Colorado State and SDSU, respectively.
Despite the low offensive production, the Aztecs kept the ball alive on the defensive side of the net and gained an early 8-4 set lead. SDSU went back and forth throughout the middle part of the set but once again came up with the lead towards the end of the set, at 20-17. However, the Aztecs could not close out the win and gave up an 8-0 run to CSU, giving them the 2-0 set lead.
“We just let them back into the game too much,” Cage said. “We had a big lead and we were not able to capitalize on our side and that really hurt us.”
Unlike the second set, the third set featured the most offensive production from both teams.
Similar to the first two sets, it was a back and forth battle with the Scarlet and Black in the lead late in the set. Similar to the previous sets, the Rams went on another late set run to close out the match with a 25-21 third set win.
“The last five years have been an amazing journey and such a blessing,” Cage said. “I really have seen myself grow as a player and a person thanks to my coaches and my teammates over the years. . . I was really happy to have Baylee and Devyn by my side on Saturday.”
