LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The 9th-ranked UC San Diego women's volleyball team dropped its home opener to 20th-ranked Cal State L.A. 30-27, 30-28, 25-30, 32-30 on Saturday night in RIMAC Arena. Each game came down to the wire as both teams held small leads in the latter portions of the games. The Tritons trailed 29-26 in the fourth game and came back to tie the game before the Golden Eagles closed it out. UCSD was led by Amber Ries with 17 kills, while Lauren Bradley added eight kills, 10 blocks and four digs. Cal State L.A. was paced by Bianca Gorospe's 17 kills, while Kha Tara Steen and Ursula Vieira added 12 kills apiece. The loss drops UCSD to 7-3, 1-1 CCAA while CSULA improves to 6-3, 2-0 CCAA.
In game one, UCSD led 9-3, but Cal State L.A. put together a run to lead 20-16. The Tritons would respond with six straight points, with the help of four CSULA errors. With the scored tied at 27-27, the Tritons had two attack errors and a Golden Eagle ace closed game one in favor of CSULA, 30-27. CSULA hit .025 while the Tritons hit -.071.
UCSD took a five point lead in game two at 12-7 on four consecutive CSULA errors. The Tritons would continue to lead at 20-15 after back-to-back Ries kills. CSULA would tie the game at 23-23 and score the next point after a UCSD timeout to take the lead. The Tritons rebounded and took a 27-25 lead after a Bradley kill. CSULA would tie the game at 27 and 28, before an ace and a block would give CSULA game two 30-28.
The Tritons hit at a .297 clip in game three, by far their most efficient game of the night. UCSD did trail late at 23-22 before five straight points, four coming on CSULA errors would give UCSD control of the game and force game four.
Neither team would muster more than a three point lead in the fourth game as the teams would tie at 25-25. CSULA went on a small run to set up match point, leading 29-26. CSULA committed two errors and a block by Sylvia Schmidt, Bradley and Ries would tie the game at 29-29. After the teams exchanged side outs, CSULA's Vieira recorded a kill and a Triton attack error ended the night in favor of CSULA 32-30.
UCSD is back in action on Friday, September 14 when it travels to take on Chico State. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Chico, Calif.
