SAN MARCOS, Calif. - The first-ever meeting between two San Diego County collegiate women's volleyball teams went in favor of UC San Diego Thursday as the Tritons defeated Cal State San Marcos in straights set at Hunter Gym. Scores were 25-17, 25-18 and 25-20.
With its third-straight victory, UCSD improved to 6-4 overall. It was also the first-ever California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) contest between the two teams, with the Tritons moving to 2-0 in league play.
"It was tight for quite some time in all of those games and we never got rattled and kept performing," said UCSD head coach Ricci Luyties. "I'm really happy with how we're handling all of the tight situations. I think in the past, we've kind of panicked a little bit and this year we've been really good at dealing and just playing the way we can."
For the fourth time this season, UC San Diego hit over .300 as a team, finishing at .312 with 47 kills and 13 errors in 109 attack attempts. The Tritons started strong, hitting .393 (15-4-28) in the opening set and improving to .421 in the second (18-2-38).
Rebecca Seaberry hit .615 (8-0-13), Heidi Sierks hit .571 (4-0-7) and Kameron Cooper ended at .471 (8-0-17), with none of the three committing a hitting error.
Danielle Dahle (La Mesa/Grossmont HS) recorded a match-high 12 kills and hit .310 (12-3-29). She also added nine digs, two assists and a service ace. The senior moved up to second on UCSD's career kills list. Now with 1,223, she needs 142 more to take over the top spot.
Meagan Wright (San Diego/Bonita Vista HS) was just behind with 11 kills and seven digs. Libero Amanda Colla (Carlsbad/San Dieguito HS) led all players defensively with 14 digs.
UCSD held a 50-43 lead in digs.
"Coming off that high of playing well at San Bernardino (Tuesday), it's really easy to get sucked in to going out and just relaxing, but we came out ready to play," said Luyties. "If we didn't come out ready to play, San Marcos could have beaten us easily."
CSUSM hit .155 (35-18-110) on the night. Lauren Lee had 11 kills to lead the Cougars, while Brooke Butler totaled 10. Samantha Flores picked up 12 digs.
Cal State San Marcos fell to 3-7 on the year and 0-2 in the CCAA. It is the Cougars' inaugural season in the conference.
UCSD opens its home season on Sept. 22 by hosting No. 14 Cal State San Bernardino in the third annual Reis Cup (7 p.m.). Tuesday, the Tritons swept the Coyotes, who are favored to win the CCAA this season, for the first time since 1993.
"It's going to be tough to go out and duplicate how we played Tuesday because they're a good team," said Luyties. "They're going to be ready to play us again, so we have to be ready to play better."
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