Matadors Hold Off UC Davis for Second Straight Win

Saturday, September 26

Northridge, Calif.

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

3-11, 2-0BWC

UC Davis

5-11, 0-2BWC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
UC Davis	16	26	25	25	1
CSUN	25	28	23	27	3

Photo by: Laura Pierson

Matadors Hold Off UC Davis for Second Straight Win

9/26/2015 10:54:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, CA - The CSUN women's volleyball team capped a successful season-opening homestand Saturday as the Matadors held off visiting UC Davis 25-16, 28-26, 23-25, 27-25 in a Big West Conference match in The Matadome.

With the win, CSUN claims its second straight victory to improve to 3-11 overall and 2-0 in the Big West. The loss drops the Aggies to 5-11 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

Senior Cieana Stinson pounded a team-high 22 kills (.308) to go with four blocks as the outside hitter wrapped up a solid weekend. Stinson led CSUN with a match-high 17 kills in Friday's win over UC Irvine. Freshman Aeryn Owens also had an impressive homestand after adding 14 kills (.243) against the Aggies. Redshirt freshman Nada Dragovic notched her first collegiate double-double with career-highs of 14 kills and 21 digs.

CSUN also received double figure dig performances from Katie Sato (14), Alia Casino (12) and Maddie Leiphardt (10) who also had 31 assists for her team-leading third double-double.

In dominating the opening set, the Matadors hit .342 to .020 for the Aggies. After a UC Davis kill pulled the Aggies within 16-13, CSUN closed the set on a 9-3 run to take the set 25-16. In a tight second set, the Matadors overcame a 22-18 UCD lead to swing at the set at 24-23. The Aggies saved one set point on a Kaylin Squyres kill and saved two more before kills from Owens and Julie Haake gave CSUN a two-set lead.

Leading 23-18 late in the third set, the Matadors appeared to have the match in hand before a late run by the Aggies extended the match. After a Dragovic kill gave CSUN the five point cushion, the Aggies rolled off seven consecutive points to pull out the 25-23 win. The final set was equally close through the final stages as the two teams battled to a 23-23 tie when a Stinson kill set CSUN up with match point. Squyres spoiled two match points, the last coming at 25-24, before a UCD service error followed by an attacking error gave CSUN the 27-25 win.

"I'm real happy with how the team played for the second night in a row," said Matador head coach Jeff Stork. "We're producing better offensive numbers than we did in the non-conference matches and we're also maintaining a surprisingly low error percentage in both hitting and serving. The one disappointment for us might have been our inability to close out the third set which comes down to we're a young team."

Squyres led the Aggies with a match-high 26 kills while Kendall Wahlbrecht added 13.

CSUN hits the road for its next four matches beginning Oct. 2 at UC Santa Barbara.

- GOMATADORS.COM -