SAN FRANCISCO – Continuing to battle for their first win of the season, the Stanislaus State volleyball team challenged San Francisco State to five sets in a back and forth battle at The Swamp on Friday night.
Now 0-13 and 0-5 in the CCAA, the Warriors were unable to take the win from the Gators. Despite the loss Stan State managed to take two sets off of SFSU, winning the opener 25-18, losing two consecutively 23-25 and 19-25, forcing the match into a fifth set with a 25-19 win, but fell 14-16 in the decisive set. San Francisco State is now 5-8 overall and 1-4 in the conference.
Rachel Klopfer led the Warriors with 14 kills and shared the lead with
Kaitlyn Iwamoto tallying 14 digs apiece. Three other Warriors had eight or more kills,
Ramey Gardner and
Yisel Perez each had eight and
Sierra Adams totaled 11 kills. Facilitating Stan State's offense,
Breanna Cannon led with 19 assists and
Jordan Tilley followed with 17 assists.
Also on defense, both Tilley and Cannon dug double digits. Tilley had 13 digs while Cannon dug 12, and each earned three service aces. Klopfer also had three aces and Iwamoto added two more for the Warriors.
Stan State came out strong to start the match, holding firm to the lead for the entirety of set one. A 5-point run (18-17) in set two kept the Warriors in the game but multiple Gator runs gave away the second and third sets in the end. Bringing back the fire, Stan State earned four runs of three or more points in the fourth set to extend the match and give themselves a fighting chance.
In set five the Warriors were up 14-10 but gave up four set-points due to two attacking errors and two Gator kills by offensive leader Brenna Dougherty. An ace from SFSU and another kill from the Gator's leading lady gave San Francisco State the match.
For the Gators, Dougherty led with 18 kills followed by Bailey Johnson with 17 kills, and setter Eden Fukushima ran SFSU's offense with 54 assists. Jocelyn Rodriguez led the match with 28 digs and three Gators had three or more blocks to assist the San Francisco State defense.
Tomorrow night the Warriors will head to Sonoma State to take on the Seawolves in another CCAA matchup. The first serve is schedule for 7 p.m. at The Wolves' Den.
