Sept. 14, 2010

Box Score

IRVINE, Calif. - Senior middle hitter Ashton Basch paced the 23rd-ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-21) win over UC Irvine Tuesday evening in a non-conference match at Crawford Court.

Basch led all players with her 12 kills as the lone Torero in double digit kills. Ali Troost also had a good match as she recorded nine kills and nine digs, while Chloe Ferrari had another good performance with eight kills and hit for a .583 clip. C'era Oliveira led the team's defense with a match-best 13 digs and Kelsi Myers recorded a match-best 32 assists.

In the first set, the Toreros (5-3) grabbed the early momentum as a Colleen Carlson kill ignited a 6-3 run that was capped on an Amy Mahinalani DeGroot kill. The Anteaters (3-6) then responded with a 7-3 run of their own to take an 11-9 advantage. A Carlson service ace then jump started a 9-2 San Diego run that was capped on an Irvine attack error to give USD a comfortable 19-13 lead. USD never looked back as they went on to claim the first set 25-20.

In the second set, USD had its best hitting percentage of the match with a .397 team attack percentage. A Ferrari kill grabbed the first point of the set and sparked a 7-2 USD run, which again gave the Toreros the early advantage. The Toreros would then maintain that five-point edge until the score was at 10-5, then a Troost kill off a set from Myers sparked a 7-3 San Diego run that gave USD all the momentum and a 17-6 lead. The Toreros then cruised to a 25-12 win to go into the break up two sets to none.

In the third and final set, it was a close battle in the early going, then with the score knotted at 5-5, a Myers kill off a set from Kandiss Anderson ignited a 7-2 Torero run, which gave San Diego a 12-7 lead. The Anteaters would then slowly chip away at the lead and eventually pulled back to within two at 23-21 on a Taylor Smith kill, but it wasn't enough as back-to-back kills by Basch and Ferrari sealed the win for the Toreros.

San Diego will return to action on Friday as they travel up Interstate 8 to take on cross-town rival San Diego State University in a 7 p.m. non-conference match, before returning home this weekend to host UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at noon, then host Minnesota in a 7 p.m. match on Saturday evening.