California State University at Northridge
2-8,0-0Big West
San José State
8-4,0-0Mountain West
San José State Defeats CSUN in Tight 3-0 Decision in San Francisco
9/15/2023 5:44:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The CSUN women's volleyball team battled an eight-win San José State team to a trio of deuce games before the Spartans came away with a 3-0 win (28-26, 25-23, 25-23) in match two of the USF Challenge Friday afternoon at War Memorial at The Sobrato Center.
CSUN (2-8) was led by Taylor Hunter who had nine kills on 17 swings to hit .294. Carisa Barron and Perri Starkey each added eight kills but CSUN was hampered by the loss of Taylor Orshoff who missed the match due to injury.
For the match, the Spartans out-hit the Matadors by the margin of .252 to .152 while also out-blocking CSUN 9-5. The Matadors served eight aces to five for San José State but the Spartans scooped up 46 digs to CSUN's 40.
SET 1: SJSU 28, CSUN 26
With Paige Sentes at the service line, the Matadors scored the first seven points of the match. A Leah Miller kill extended the CSUN lead to eight (13-5) before a 5-1 Spartan run forced a Matador timeout at 14-10. After a trio of SJSU miscues pushed the lead back to seven (17-10), the Spartans again rallied to tie the score at 18-18 following an 8-1 run. Seven more ties would ensue, the last at 26-26, when a CSUN service error and a Spartan kill ended the set.
SET 2: SJSU 25, CSUN 23
The Matadors dropped five of the first seven points of the second set before a pair of Spartan hitting errors trimmed the deficit to 8-6. San José State would then claim seven of the next 10 points to open up a 15-9 advantage. Down 22-14, CSUN engineered a 6-0 run, highlighted by consecutive Kelsey Knudsen aces, to pull within 22-20. A Spartan hitting error at 24-22 saved one set point but SJSU cashed in the next swing to take a two-set lead.
SET 3: SJSU 25, CSUN 23
CSUN would hit .194 in the final set but would fall by the same two-point margin. Trailing by five at 15-10, an Iye Okolo kill fueled a 7-2 Matador run that cut the Spartan lead to 17-15. San José State responded with a 6-2 run to open up a 23-17 lead before CSUN rallied back to one at 24-23 on a Starkey kill.
MATCH NOTES
- Libero Kelsey Knudsen led all players in the match with 14 digs while also adding a season-high three aces and three assists.
- With a pair of aces, Sentes came within one ace of matching her season-high of three.
- Taylor Dunlap added 14 assists and five digs while Barron had a team-high 16 assists.
- The Spartans claimed both matches against CSUN this season, but the Matadors still lead the all-time series 7-6.
"Playing without one of our best hitters and to be that close against a good San Jose State team was frustrating. I was excited heading into the weekend because it was a great opportunity to build some momentum going into the Big West season next week. So we'll see how we respond tomorrow against San Francisco."
UP NEXT
CSUN plays its final match of the USF Challenge on Saturday afternoon, taking on the host USF Dons at 2 p.m. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
#GoMatadors
