POMONA, Calif. ? The 15th-ranked UC San Diego women's volleyball team handed No. 20 Cal Poly Pomona its first loss on its home court, defeating the Broncos 24-26, 25-19, 26-24, 20-25, 15-8 on Friday night at Darlene May Gym. Rebecca Bailey led the way with 23 kills and Kimberly Carpenter recorded all five of her kills in the decisive fifth set. It was the third consecutive meeting between CPP and UCSD to go the maximum five sets. With the win, UCSD moves into second place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association with an 18-4, 12-3 CCAA mark. The Broncos drop to 15-6, 12-4 CCAA.
Bailey recorded all 23 of her kills in the first four sets. Sylvia Schmidt added 11 kills and Hillary Williamson had seven kills and a team-high 16 digs. Roxanne Brunsting had 14 digs, Karen Reis with 10 digs and Elaine Chen with 50 assists and eight digs.
Earlier this year in RIMAC Arena, the Tritons defeated CPP in five sets, with UCSD taking the fifth set 15-9. CPP entered the match with a perfect 7-0 mark at home, including a win over No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino this past Wednesday night.
CPP took the first set 26-24. In the second set, the Tritons trailed 12-11 and went on a 5-0 run. Bailey had a stretch of scoring five consecutive kills for the Tritons. UCSD opened up a 20-16 lead and would not let CPP back into the set, taking the set 25-19.
With the match at 1-1, the Tritons saw the Broncos jump out to a 12-6 lead in set three. The Tritons rallied back to trail by a 13-12 margin. CPP would look to gain the upper hand in the match when it took a 23-20 lead. Schmidt recorded a kill, followed by an ace to pull within one. Bailey sent down a kill to tie the set at 23-23. Tied at 24-24, Bailey and Williamson connected on back-to-back kills give UCSD the set win at 26-24.
After the Broncos won the fourth set, the Tritons and CPP began the fifth. CPP took its first lead of the fifth set at 5-4. From that point it was all Tritons as Carpenter recorded consecutive kills, followed with a block assist and UCSD was ahead 7-5. The run continued after a CPP error and two more Carpenter kills pushed UCSD ahead 10-5. Another Carpenter kill and a Williamson ace pushed the Tritons to their largest lead of the set at 13-6. Carpenter and Schmidt finished the match off with kills for UCSD at 15-8.
UCSD is back in action on Saturday night when it faces No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. on the CSUSB campus.
