California State University at Northridge
5-21,3-12Big West
UC Davis
13-12,8-7Big West
Matadors Drop Four-Set Decision at UC Davis
11/8/2023 6:33:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
DAVIS, Calif. – The CSUN women's volleyball played its penultimate road match of the season Wednesday, falling to UC Davis 3-1 in a Big West match at the University Credit Union Center.
With the loss, CSUN (5-21, 3-12 Big West) was eliminated from postseason contention while the Aggies clinched a berth in the inaugural Big West Championship.
In a match that was similar to the first meeting between the two teams in Northridge, Perri Starkey led the Matadors with 14 kills (.146) while Leah Miller added 12 kills (.143). Taylor Hunter rebounded from a pair of rough-hitting matches to chip in eight kills on .429 hitting and Carisa Barron had another solid all-around match with 22 assists, nine kills, and seven digs.
UC Davis out-hit the Matadors for the match .385 to .158 and the Aggies also out-blocked CSUN 10-3. The Matadors posted a 52-48 edge in digs and also had six aces to five for the Aggies.
SET 1: UCD 25, CSUN 19
A Barron kill gave CSUN an early three-point lead at 11-8 before a 10-2 UC Davis run opened up an 18-13 lead for the hosts. A late 3-0 Matador run closed the gap to 20-17 before a Starkey kill pulled CSUN within two at 21-19. The Aggies answered by scoring the final four points in a 25-19 win.
SET 2: UCD 25, CSUN 18
The Matadors again held an early lead (3-2) before UC Davis again used a sizable run to open up a 10-4 lead. CSUN battled back to within one when Miller's kill trimmed the deficit to 13-12. But an ensuing 7-1 run by the Aggies boosted the lead back to seven (20-13) and UCD would go on to close out a 25-18 win.
SET 3: CSUN 27, UCD 25
The third set was the tightest of the match as neither team held more than a three-point lead. After a Tatiana Turgeon kill gave the Matadors a 16-13 lead, UC Davis put together a 7-4 run to knot the score at 20-20. Three straight CSUN points put the Matadors up 23-20 when the Aggies scored four straight to set up match point at 24-23. Kills by Starkey and Hunter saved a pair of match points before a Turgeon ace and a Hunter solo block gave CSUN a 27-25 win.
S3 l Hunter puts up the big solo block on set point and #CSUN takes the 3rd set 27-25 to stay alive at UC Davis ... Aggies lead 2-1 heading to the 4th#GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/5PQoPSaLhy
— CSUN Women's Volleyball (@CSUNWVB) November 9, 2023
SET 4: UCD 25, CSUN 18
The final set saw the Matadors pull even at 8-8 following a co-block by Miller and Iye Okolo. The hosts then engineered an 11-1 run to open up a 19-9 cushion. A UCD hitting error followed by a Kanan ace pulled CSUN within four at 21-17 but the Matadors would get no closer than four points the rest of the way.
NOTES
- Kaia Kanan handed out 15 assists to go with a career-high three aces.
- Libero Kelsey Knudsen led the Matadors with 13 digs to go with six assists while Paige Sentes served a pair of aces to give her a team-high 36 on the season.
- The loss dropped the Matadors to 22-18 all-time against UC Davis.
ACCORDING TO COACH JOHN PRICE
"It's been a season-long trend where we've struggled with our decision-making in bad situations, and that's really what has killed us. All teams get into poor situations and good teams manage those situations better than we have this year. We're a young team that lacks experience which plays into that but we haven't done a good job of minimizing our errors in those moments. I do credit the team for playing hard all year and really battling in every match."
UP NEXT
CSUN concludes the 2023 road schedule this Saturday as the Matadors travel to Riverside to meet the Highlanders at 4 p.m. at SRC Arena. The match will stream on ESPN+.
#GoMatadors
