Rice University
San Diego State
Rice Beats San Diego State 3-2 in Volleyball
9/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2009
Tournament Central Web Site with GameTracker
USF/Asics Challenge Saturday Schedule
Rice vs. Cal State Northridge, 1 p.m. CT
Cal State Northridge vs. San Diego State, 6 p.m. CT
Rice vs. San Francisco, 9 p.m. CT
San Francisco -- The Rice Owls volleyball team won its first five-set match of 2009 by defeating San Diego State 3-2 at the USF/Asics Challenge held on the University of San Francisco campus. Game scores were 25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 25-19, 15-13. The Owls improve to 5-1, while the Aztecs are now 3-2.
Jennifer McClean had a match-high 19 kills with 10 digs and Ashleigh McCord and Natalie Bogan followed with 15 and 14 kills respectively to lead the Owl attack. Setter Meredith Schamun had a match-high 48 assists and Tracey Lam had 20 digs. For McClean, it was her second double-double of the season.
"Jenn McClean was our `go to' person in this match especially towards the end," commented Rice head coach Genny Volpe. "She wanted the ball and they were serving to her and she passed and attacked with authority.
Though SDSU's middle blockers provided strong play its outside hitter did not fare well.
Said Volpe, "We did a really nice job of containing San Diego State's outside hitters and kept them at a low hitting percentage. Though it was not a pretty match, our team gutted it out and got the win."
The Owls captured set one (25-19) by hitting .259 with 12 kills (12-5-27) and limited the Aztecs to .088 (12-9-34). Natalie Bogan led Rice with 5 kills and one block, while Paije Pearson also had 5 kills and a block for SDSU. Rice started the set with a 9-2 taking advantage of a couple of Aztec hitting errors, a block by Bogan and Meredith Schamun, two kills by Ashleigh McCord, and a service ace by Jenn McClean.
Rice was ahead 4-3 before pulling away with back-to-back kills by Bogan and Caroline Gill and two more Aztec errors gave the Owls an 8-3 lead it would not relinquish.
SDSU battled back to make it 19-19. A McCord kill pushed Rice on top 20-19 and after a kill by McClean the Owls were ahead 22-20. But SDSU came back to score three unanswered points with 2 kills and a service ace. Following an attack error by SDSU's Kyley Sexton, McClean gave Rice its 24th point with a kill, which forced a SDSU timeout. McClean then hit the set-winning point with a clutch kill, her sixth of set 2.
The Owl had 13 kills to San Diego State's 12, with only a .119 hitting percentage (13-8-42). But, SDSU did not fare better, hitting only .022 (12-11-45).
The Aztecs captured set three 25-21 as they hit .233 (12-5-30), and Rice was held to .111 (12-8-36). Andrea Hannasch led SDSU with 4 kills, while Bogan led the Owls with 3 kills, a service ace, and a block. The Aztecs broke a 14-14 tie with a service error by Ashleigh McCord, a tandem block by Hannasch and Kelsey Manasco on an attack by Gill, and then a kill by Hannasch put them up for good at 17-14.
San Diego State forced a fifth set with a convincing 25-19 victory in set four despite hitting .081 (11-8-37). The Aztecs were aided though, as the Owls only hit -.054 (10-12-37), their worst hitting percentage in a set in this young 2009 campaign.
Set five was tightly contested with the Owls prevailing 15-13. Rice hit .467 (8-1-15). McClean, a senior outside hitter, proved her mettle. With the Owls ahead 13-12, McClean provided the final two points with kills.
For the match Rice hit .134 (55-34-157) to San Diego State's .125 (55-35-160) in the evenly played match. The Owls, though, did have the benefit of 9 service aces to 5 by SDSU.
San Diego State won its first match of the USF/Asics Challenge by defeating host San Francisco 3-1 earlier on Friday.
Rice now plays Cal State Northridge at 1 p.m. (CT) and USF at 9 p.m. (CT) on Saturday.
