CSUN’s defense continues to struggle against the middle. On Saturday afternoon at the Premier America Credit Union Arena, the Matadors offense struggled to spike the ball over the net with UC San Diego’s Jasmine Saran and Emily McDaniel holding down the middle.
CSUN’s (6-11, 1-5 Big West) women’s volleyball team suffered another tough loss after getting swept on Thursday night by Long Beach State. The Matadors followed that up with a loss in four sets to the Tritons of UC San Diego (9-8, 3-3 Big West) three sets to one.
“We didn’t make the right adjustments,” head coach Aquiles Montoya said. “I thought we had a good idea of what they would do, but they stayed true to their attacks and credit to them.”
CSUN’s Leah Miller, the most consistent player for the women’s volleyball team this season, delivered another impressive game despite suffering another loss. Miller delivered a team-high 12 kills, but it wasn’t enough to help carry CSUN over UC San Diego.
Miller hit an impressive .348 on 23 swings and 12 kills, contributing three digs and two blocks. Despite Miller’s efforts, she was the only Matador to reach double digits in kills, while Amaris Smith had an off night, finishing with nine kills and hitting just .079.
While CSUN struggled to find an offensive rhythm, the Matadors served the ball well, recording eight aces in the match. Many of the stat sheet numbers were even between both teams, and people could say that it was a close game, but that wasn’t the case.
UCSD dominated set one, opening the set 5-4, then proceeded to go on an 8-1 run to extend the lead 13-5, forcing a CSUN timeout. CSUN trimmed the lead to seven but couldn’t close the gap against the Triton’s trees.
“We couldn’t slow them down,” said Montoya. “UC San Diego is a really big physical team, and we knew they would be aggressive, but they made adjustments, and that was the game’s story.”
The second set was much tighter, featuring several ties and lead changes. CSUN led 14-12, followed by back-to-back kills by Miller and Hailey Brockway. However, the Tritons didn’t go away, hustling and keeping every play alive.
Three straight errors by Brockway gave the Tritons a 15-14 lead, regaining momentum to extend its lead 20-17. Despite CSUN trailing by three, they still fought back and closed the lead to one, followed by a kill by Katie Kolar.
However, a service error handed the set to UCSD, which won 25-23 to take a commanding 2-0 set lead. Watching the game courtside, the Matadors had several chances to win this set, but silly errors and a dormant offense cost them a chance to split the game 1-1 going into the third set.
Needing a win to stay alive, the Matadors came out looking like a different team, hitting .385 in the set. CSUN held an early 8-6 lead, then went on an 8-2 run followed by three straight aces and a block by Amaris Smith to extend their lead 16-8.
The Tritons cut the deficit to four, but Miller finished the set with two straight kills to spark a 5-1 run, winning 25-17 and forcing a fourth set.
The final set was hard to watch, as Triton’s defense amplified and blocked almost every kill the Matadors tried to commit. After CSUN won the third set, it looked like they had gained momentum and were ready to take the fourth set, but it was the exact opposite.
Despite a brief run by the Matadors that brought them within six, the Tritons sparked another run, extending its lead to 21-10, shutting CSUN’s offense. One adjustment that UCSD made in the fourth set was putting three 6 ‘2 and taller Middles/Hitters in Kylie Pries, Ava McInnes, and Emily McDaniel, finishing with a combined 38 kills.
UCSD implemented a very tall and athletic lineup that made it extremely tough for CSUN to get any rhythm offensively and defensively. The fourth set ended with a 25-14 win by the Tritons, who now have won seven straight Big West matchups against the Matadors.
“Good things tend to happen when those types of players exist,” said Montoya. “We tried to hit the ball high, but credit to their player’s height and athleticism made it challenging for us to execute against them. But we must find other ways to be successful against those types of matchups and players we go up against.”
Since starting the season 5-6, the Matadors have gone 1-5 in their last six games and have only one conference win that came against Cal State Fullerton.
CSUN will look to bounce back in their next match when they travel to UC Riverside on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m., before returning home to face UC Davis for Alumni Homecoming night on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m.
