SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - The 3rd-ranked UC San Diego women's volleyball team saw its season come to an end against No. 19 Cal State L.A. in a 25-21, 25-21, 25-22 loss on Friday night at the NCAA West Regional semifinals in San Bernardino. The Golden Eagles hit at a .333 clip and the Tritons could not muster a rally as CSULA ended UCSD's season for the second consecutive year. "I thought they played well and we did not do much to stop them," said head coach
Tom Black.
Sylvia Schmidt led UCSD with 12 kills while
Katie Condon added 10 kills.
UCSD's season comes to a close with a record of 29-3.
Cara Simonsen added seven kills on .583 hitting, her second highest total on the year. Julia Freidenberg finished with six kills and her .390 hitting percentage is the second highest single-season mark in school history.
Roxanne Brunsting added 14 digs, giving her a career-best total of 494 digs which is second in school history. Schmidt ends her outstanding Triton career with a UCSD single-season record of 478 kills.
In the first set, UCSD had a small lead and led 15-12 after a Schmidt kill. The Golden Eagles went on an 8-0 run to take a 20-15 lead, the largest of the set. After a CSULA error, Condon sent down a kill, followed by a Brunsting's second ace of the set to pull the Tritons within 20-18. The Tritons could not pull closer than two points the rest of the way as CSULA took the first set 25-21.
UCSD scored seven of the first 10 points in the second set but CSULA came back with a 10-3 run and the Golden Eagles led 13-10. After back-to-back kills by Freidenberg and Condon tied the game at 16-16, CSULA got three consecutive kills to go back on top by a 19-16 score. UCSD scored three straight points to retie the set at 19-19 on two CSULA errors and a kill by Karen Reis. UCSD took its first lead since 9-8 on a Schmidt kill at 21-20. CSULA went on to close the set on a 5-0 run including a series of blocks to take the 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set, CSULA jumped out to an early five point lead at 9-4. UCSD scored four straight points as Lauren Bradley, Simonsen and Condon had kills while Janessa Werhane had an ace to pull UCSD within 9-8. CSULA would regain a four point lead at 16-12 and the Tritons had to take their final timeout. CSULA would build its largest lead at 18-12 before the Tritons scored four straight to pull back within 18-16. CSULA did not let the Tritons any closer than two points the rest of the way, closing it out at 25-22.
