California State University at Northridge
2-14,0-5Big West
UC San Diego
9-8,1-4Big West
UC San Diego Downs Matadors in Straight Sets
10/6/2023 8:10:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – The CSUN women's volleyball team slipped to 0-3 on its four-match homestand as UC San Diego handed the Matadors a 25-18, 28-26, 25-20 loss in a Big West match Friday night at Premier America Credit Union Arena.
CSUN (2-14, 0-5) was led by Perri Starkey who put down a team-high 11 kills (.167) to go with three digs and three blocks. Carisa Barron and Leah Miller each added six kills while Barron added 13 assists, four digs, one ace and one block.
For the match, the visiting Tritons out-hit the Matadors by the margin of .239 to .183 while also recording 13 aces to CSUN's five. UCSD also had a 50-42 edge in team digs while each team posted six blocks.
SET 1: UCSD 25, CSUN 18
The Matadors overcame an early three-point UCSD lead (9-6) as a 9-5 CSUN run gave the Matadors a 15-14 lead heading into the media timeout. A pair of Iye Okolo kills and a Starkey kill extended the run to 12-5 as CSUN opened up an 18-14 lead. A Triton kill coming out of the UCSD timeout cut the lead to 18-15 while sending Nevada Knowles to the service line. Knowles would record four aces as the visitors scored 11 straight points to take a 25-18 win.
CSUN takes the lead, 14-13! pic.twitter.com/DUsAU90ZBl
— CSUN Women's Volleyball (@CSUNWVB) October 7, 2023
SET 2: UCSD 28, CSUN 26
After hitting an even .200 in the opening set, the Matadors would hit less than .200 over the next two sets. Despite hitting .190 in set two, CSUN rallied back from a four-point deficit to tie the score at 14-14 following a UCSD hitting error. The Tritons would again go up by four at 21-17 when the Matadors rallied out of a timeout to claim five straight points to take the lead 22-21. After a Triton block tied the score, the teams would remain tied until 26-26 when a kill and a CSUN setting error sent the visitors to the 28-26 win.
SET 3: UCSD 25, CSUN 18
The final set was all UCSD as the Tritons out-hit the Matadors .226 to .156. UCSD claimed 12 of the first 15 points of the set and would never trail. Down nine at 22-13, CSUN rallied behind a 7-2 run to get within 24-20 but a UCSD co-block on match point closed out a 3-0 Triton win.
MATCH NOTES
- Libero Kelsey Knudsen led all players in the match with 13 digs.
- With three aces, Paige Sentes upped her team-leading total to 22.
- Taylor Dunlap matched Barron with 13 assists while also recording six digs and one ace.
- The Tritons have now won five straight over the Matadors, trimming CSUN's lead to 10-5 in the all-time series.
"With as many receiving errors as we had, we only had two service errors so we gave ourselves a chance. Again our defense had a billion opportunities, we just didn't convert on enough of them. Even with injured players, struggling to get kills and struggling on serve receive, I still felt like we had chances and could have played a little better defense, which we're capable of doing."
UP NEXT
CSUN caps its four-match homestand on Saturday as the Matadors welcome Long Beach State to Premier America Credit Union Arena at 4 p.m. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
#GoMatadors
