LA JOLLA, Calif.– UC San Diego women's volleyball secured its first home win of the 2022 season, defeating CSUN 3-1 on Saturday evening in LionTree Arena.
 
The Tritons (8-6, 1-1 Big West) secured the four-set victory over the Matadors (5-9, 1-1 Big West) 25-20, 25-21, 17-25, 25-18 to improve to 1-1 in Big West play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego edge CSUN offensively, hitting .246 for the match, compared to .242 for the Matadors. CSUN outblocked UC San Diego, 11-8, while the Tritons held the advantage in digs 87-71. UC San Diego also topped the Matadors at the service line with five aces compared to three for CSUN.
 
Zaria Henderson led the team with a match-high 17 kills, hitting .316 for the match. She also notched her sixth double-double, finishing with a career-high 18 digs and adding an ace and solo block for a match-high 19 points. Ava McInnes and Jasmine Saran also tallied double-figure kills, finishing with 15 and 10 respectively. Izzi Strand tallied a career high 44 assists, adding 10 digs for her eighth double-double of the season. Naya Dong collected a season-best 26 digs and recorded her first double-double with 10 assists, while Shara Da Silva finished with five blocks.
 
The Matadors got off to a hot start, taking an early 8-4 lead in the opening set but UC San Diego continued to battle, eventually tying the set at 15-15. The Tritons closed out the set with eight straight points to take the opening frame, 25-20.
 
After CSUN took an early 5-2 lead, the Tritons responded with a 7-1 run to take the lead in set two. UC San Diego dominated down the stretch, extending its lead by as many as six before taking the second set, 25-21, and the 2-0 lead in the match.
 
In the third set, the Matadors built an early 9-5 lead and never looked back, hitting .500 as a team with 19 kills and taking the set, 25-17. 
 
CSUN carried the momentum into the fourth set, jumping out to a 5-1 lead. The Tritons responded with an eight-point run to take the lead 10-6. 
 
TRITON TIDBITS

• It marked the first home win of 2022 for the Tritons after falling in their first three home contests of the season.
• Izzi Strand, Zaria Henderson and Naya Dong each collected a double-double—the eighth for Strand, the sixth for Henderson and first for Dong.
• With the win, the Tritons improved to 3-10 in the all-time series with CSUN—winning the last three straight.

UP NEXT
UC San Diego will begin its longest road-stretch of the season, beginning at UC Riverside on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. PT and at UC Davis on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. PT. Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live statistics will be available via UCSDTritons.com.
 
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.