By Devan Lee |Staff Writer|
The CSUSB’s women’s volleyball team suffered a loss to the UC San Diego Tritons in La Jolla, California on Nov. 7.
“We were playing unmotivated and looked half asleep out there,” said Assistant Head Coach Danny Scott.
The team’s loss marks the end of a seven game winning streak they held prior to the match. The Lady Yotes started off the match by winning the first two sets over the Tritons.
However, momentum appeared to take a wrong turn for the Coyotes as their rivals came back to win the next three sets consecutively. This ultimately led to the unfortunate loss to a long-time rival of the Coyotes.
The result of the match left CSUSB women’s volleyball team with an overall record of 18 wins and 8 losses as of Nov. 8th.
The loss also marked the third conference loss for the Lady Yotes.
The momentum of the game seemed to be in the Coyotes’ favor in the beginning of the match. According to game stats, CSUSB only had one attack error out of an overall total of 66 attacks in the first two sets of the match.
Freshman outside hitter Alexandria Torline once again led the team with kills with a total of 15. In addition, her fellow freshman teammates Ashley Solis, outside hitter, and Brenna McIntosh, middle blocker, also contributed to the first two set victories.
Solis had a total of 13 kills while McIntosh had a total of 11 kills and 12 blocks.
By the end of the second match, CSUSB had a total of 33 kills out of 66 total kill attempts, averaging a kill to attempt ratio of .500.
Although the Coyotes may have had the upper hand at first, the team’s efforts were unfortunately short lived.
CSUSB was just a few points shy from adding another victory to their winning streak during the third set. Unfortunately, UC San Diego refused to give up their lead and scored three kills to win the set.
The result would be the same at the end of the following two sets.
Despite narrowing the deficit by one point in the third set, CSUSB was ultimately outscored by the Tritons resulting in a shocking defeat.
Once the Tritons won the fourth set, knotting up the game at 2 sets apiece, the momentum of the contest was clearly shifted in the Tritons’ favor.
CSUSB found themselves trailing in the fifth and final set, but the athleticism of players like senior setter Camille Smith kept the Coyotes in the game.
Smith, who tried to yield her young teammates to victory was able to bring the Lady Yotes within one point of the lead at one point in the final set.
Needless to say, UCSD continued their fight and ended the match with a game winning kill by freshman outside hitter Danielle Dahle.
“We always try to come back strong from a loss like this one,” said Assistant Head Coach Scott. “All we can do is continue to win games and try to make it to playoffs.”
CSUSB has two games remaining in the regular season. Both games will take place this month at the opposing teams stadium. They face Cal State Monterey Bay on Nov. 16th and Cal State East Bay on November 17th.