COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – UC San Diego women's volleyball kicked off its final non-conference test of the season at the Thin Air Challenge on Friday in Cadet East Gym. The Tritons went 2-0 on day one to improve to 7-4 on the season.
 
The Tritons pulled off the reverse sweep to take the morning match over San Francisco, 3-2, fighting off five match points in the deciding set. UC San Diego held on for another tightly contested match, 3-1, against Air Force in the evening, including 31-29 in the final set.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego 3, San Francisco 2
Ava McInnes led the way for the Tritons offensively with 16 kills and added four blocks. Zaria Henderson finished with 13 kills, while Juliette Bokor added 10 kills and two blocks in her first significant playing time this season. Defensively, Shara Da Silva tallied five blocks and Natalie Repetti and Naya Dong collected 14 and 13 digs respectively. Izzi Strand finished one-dig shy of her seventh double-double, recording 43 assists and nine digs.
 
The Tritons struggled to get going offensively in sets one and two, tallying hitting percentages of -.043 and -.029 respectively. Conversely, the Dons hit .417 in the opening frame and jumped out to a 2-set lead in the match, winning 25-15 and 25-22.
 
UC San Diego rallied to avoid the sweep, taking set three, 25-22, and hitting a solid .257. The Tritons' defense came alive in set four, tallying six of their nine team blocks and holding the Dons to a .140 hitting percentage to force a deciding fifth set, 25-23.
 
In the final set, it was a back-and-forth battle from start to finish. The Tritons took the early lead 3-0 but USF tied things up at 8-all. It looked as if the Dons had it in the bag with a 3-1 scoring run that gave them match point, 14-11, but UC San Diego would not give up. The Tritons rattled off four-consecutive kills from Henderson, back-to-back from Bokor and another from Emily McDaniel to give UC San Diego its first match point, 15-14. USF rallied to take the lead two more times, but the Tritons continued to battle and eventually took the final set, 19-17.

UC San Diego 3, Air Force 1
The Tritons took the evening match over the Falcons (7-4), 25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 31-29. McInnes led the way again with 14 kills—adding 11 digs for her third double-double, while Bokor finished with 11 kills and Henderson tallied 10. Emily McDaniel and Da Silva led the team with four blocks apiece, while Dong tallied 20 digs. Strand got her seventh double-double with 44 assists and 13 digs.
 
The Tritons carried momentum into the second match, taking a tightly contested first set, 25-22, behind four kills from McInnes and three from Emily McDaniel. UC San Diego hit .233 as a team in the opening frame. 
 
UC San Diego jumped out to an early 7-2 lead in set two, and extended their lead to as many as seven before the Falcons responded. A five-point run pulled Air Force within two, 16-14, and the teams traded points to 20-18. UC San Diego closed out the set with a 5-1 run to win, 25-19, and the 2-0 lead in the match.
 
After the Tritons took an early 7-5 lead, Air Force rattled off six-straight points to take control of the third set. UC San Diego fought back to tie it up 11-all and the teams stayed close the rest of the way, but the Falcons took the third, 25-23. 
 
The fourth set saw 11 ties and four lead changes in a marathon battle that saw nine set points between the two teams. Back-to-back kills from McInnes and Strand finally sealed the victory for the Tritons, 31-29, and the match, 3-1. 

TRITON TIDBITS

• UC San Diego's match against San Francisco was the fourth-straight match the Tritons went to a deciding fifth set. UC San Diego is currently 2-3 in five-set contests.
• In both matches, the Tritons were pushed to extra points in the final set, winning the first 19-17 in the fifth set and winning the second 31-29 in the fourth set.
• UC San Diego improved to 5-0 in the all-time series with San Francisco. It was the fifth meeting with Air Force as well, the Tritons are 2-3 in the all-time series with the Falcons.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.