UC Davis Handles Matadors in Straight Sets

Saturday, October 28

Northridge, Calif.

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

10-13, 4-7BWC

UC Davis

13-11, 5-6BWC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
UC Davis	25	25	25	3
CSUN	22	23	22	0

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

UC Davis Handles Matadors in Straight Sets

10/28/2017 10:11:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, CA - Morgan Salone and Aeryn Owens combined for 21 of CSUN's 35 kills but the Matadors fell in straight sets to visiting UC Davis, 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 Saturday in a Big West Conference match at The Matadome.

The loss, CSUN's sixth straight, drops the Matadors to 10-13 overall and 4-7 in the Big West. CSUN and UC Davis came into Saturday's match with identical conference records but the Aggies claim the rematch and improve to 13-11 overall and 5-6 in conference play.

Salone was the Matador kill leader for the first time this season as she collected 11 kills on .111 hitting to go with a pair of solo blocks. One night after becoming the 13th player in school history to reach 1,000 career kills, Owens put down 10 kills on a match-high 30 swings to go with a team-high seven digs. Senior Rachel Diaz had a solid offensive match with nine kills on .533 hitting while also adding four blocks.

Senior setter Lauren Conati matched Owens with seven digs while handing out 29 assists as the Matadors hit .200 to the Aggies .232. UC Davis had a sizable advantage in team digs (41-28) while CSUN had the edge in team blocks (8.0-3.0).

As has been the case over the six-match skid, the Matadors have had trouble closing out sets. Against the Aggies, CSUN battled back to knot the opening set at 18 on a Conati ace. But the Matadors surrendered the next three points and could never fully recover. After a CSUN timeout, Diaz cut the lead to two with a kill but two more Aggie points put the set out of reach.

Set two ultimately turned the match as the Matadors forged a 20-17 lead when Nada Dragovic put on a solo block on Kelechi Ohiri. CSUN still held a three-point lead at 21-18 following an Owens kill but a pair of UC Davis kills and a Matador hitting error tied the score.

Kills from Diaz and Daniella Molinari looked to put CSUN in control at 23-21 but a pair of Matador miscues and a pair of Aggie kills down the stretch gave the visitors the come-from-behind 25-23 win.

The final set was knotted at 20-20 when kills from Mahalia White and Jackie Graves forced a Matador timeout at 22-20. A Diaz kill out of the timeout cut the lead to one but another UCD kill and an ace boosted the Aggie lead to 24-21 and ultimately a 25-22 win.

White led all hitters in the match with 14 kills on .280 hitting.

CSUN next heads to Hawai'i to take on the Rainbow Wahine next Friday, Nov. 3. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time (10 p.m. PDT).

#GoMatadors