Aug. 29, 2008
Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The 22nd -ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team cruised their way to a 25-20, 25-13, 25-20 win over the University of Albany in the season opener for both teams Friday afternoon at the San Diego State Invitational.
Jaimarie Sutherland led the team in kills with 13 on 25 attempts, while only committing three attack errors to post a .400 attack percentage. Amy Mahinalani DeGroot and Ashton Basch were the other two Toreros with double-digit kills as each had 11 with Basch posting a .588 hitting percentage and DeGroot posting a double-double with a match-best 15 digs. Jessica Nyrop led all players with 37 assists and Andrea Csaszi recorded 14 digs. As a team, USD hit for a .359 clip.
In set one, the Great Danes jumped out to the early 2-0 lead, but an Albany service error ignited a 10-4 San Diego run that was capped off on a DeGroot kill to give the Toreros a 10-6 advantage. Albany was then able to keep pace with the Toreros as there were eight ties for the remainder of the set, but USD never surrendered the lead. Then with the score knotted at 17-17, San Diego closed out the set with an 8-3 run sealed on a Sutherland cross court kill off a set from Nyrop to give the Toreros a 25-20 set one win.
In the second set, Albany again grabbed the first point, but the Toreros continued their momentum from the first set and used a 6-1 run sparked on a Basch kill and capped on an Albany attack error, which forced the great Danes into a timeout. The Toreros then came out of the time out and never looked back as they cruised their way to a 25-13 win.
In the third set, the Toreros jumped out to a 3-1 lead, but the Great Danes refused to go away as they came back and pulled to within one at 11-10 on a USD attack error, but the Toreros used a 6-3 run sparked by a Sutherland kill and capped on a Albany attack error to regain control of the momentum of the match and take a 17-12 lead and cruise their way to a 25-20 win, claiming the match.
The Toreros will return to action on Saturday morning in a 10 a.m. match against UC Irvine at Peterson Gym.
