LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The 20th-ranked UC San Diego women's volleyball team played its fourth consecutive five-game match, defeating Sonoma State 23-30, 30-22, 22-30, 30-28, 15-11 on Friday night in RIMAC Arena. For much of the night, it was SSU's Kristy Sather (21 kills) and UCSD's Rebecca Bailey (29 kills) exchanging points. It was Bailey's fifth kill of game five, which put away the Seawolves. Natalie Facchini nearly broke her single-match record, recording 39 digs in the match. With the win, UCSD improves to 18-7, 12-5 CCAA while the Seawolves drop to 13-13, 9-8 CCAA.
In addition to Bailey's career-high 29 kills on .390 hitting, Sylvia Schmidt added 13 kills, five digs and four aces while Amber Ries chipped in with 11 kills and two blocks. Kimberly Carpenter added nine kills for UCSD. Kim Adams recorded 50 assists and nine digs.
SSU's Sather recorded her 21 kills in 62 attempts while Marianne Fox added 12 kills and Kaylee Aizenstadt added 11 kills. Taylor Manton recorded 32 digs. SSU outblocked UCSD 17-5.
SSU owned the first game, hitting at a .281 clip, compared to .091 for the Tritons. SSU led 19-17 and went on an 11-6 run to close out game one 30-23 SSU.
Game two was a reversal of game one with UCSD leading 20-18 before the Tritons scored six of the next eight points to lead 26-20, UCSD closed out the game on a Hannah Gary kill to win 30-22.
Game three was not close as UCSD was forced to use two early timeouts. The Tritons fell behind 18-10 and could only pull as close as 23-18. From that point, SSU scored seven of the next 11 points to take the 2-1 lead in the match.
Game four featured 15 ties and six lead changes as neither team could pull away. With the score tied at 26-26, a UCSD attack error gave SSU the lead, its first lead since 14-13. After an SSU service error, Fox sent down a kill to give SSU a 28-27 lead. Back-to-back kills by Carpenter and Bailey gave UCSD game point at 29-28. After a timeout, UCSD went to Schmidt for the game winning kill, 30-28 and forced game five.
In the fifth game, Carpenter starting things off with an ace, only to have SSU score the next four points to take the 4-1 lead. The Tritons came back with three straight points of their own on two Bailey kills and a Schmidt ace to tie it at 4-4. Tied at 6-6, a Gary kill and SSU error gave UCSD an 8-6 lead as the teams changed sides. SSU responded with two quick points to tie it at 8-8, the last tie of the game. An SSU service error followed by two Carpenter kills pushed the Tritons ahead 11-8. Leading 12-10, Carpenter sent down a kill, followed by a huge block by Schmidt and Adams to force game point at 14-10. After an SSU kill, Adams set Bailey for the match ending kill.
UCSD is back in action on Saturday night when it hosts its last home match of 2007 against Cal State Monterey Bay. There will be a brief ceremony before the 7:00 p.m. first serve to honor UCSD's five seniors.
