Nov. 12, 2011
Box Score
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The 21st-ranked University of San Diego women's volleyball team (26-3, 11-3 WCC) won its fourth consecutive match with a 3-01 West Coast Conference win over Loyola Marymount University (14-14, 7-8 WCC) Saturday afternoon.
Carrie Baird led the San Diego attack with 13 kills on 32 attacks for a .250 hitting percentage. She teamed the kills with 11 digs for a double-double. Setter Rachel Alvey had 26 assists with nine digs to narrowly miss a double-double. The Toreros managed 12 total team blocks, including five in the fourth set alone.
LMU hit just .049 in the first set en route to dropping the opener by a count of 25-16. LMU's Alyse Hensley had six kills on eight attacks for a .750 hitting percentage to lead the Lions on the attack, but a balanced attack of four kills apiece from Katie Hoekman and Baird earned USD, which hit .237 in the period, the victory in the first. USD jumped out to an early 4-0 lead en route to forcing a Lion timeout at 11-6 on a block from Sandra Lozic and a kill from Chloe Ferrari. San Diego continued to thrive out of the break, pushing the lead to 15-7,but the Lions managed to scratch within three points at 15-12 by way of a five-point run, to force a Torero timeout. The break served its purpose for USD, as the Toreros won a pair of points out of the huddle to force the second and final LMU timeout of the period at 17-12. The Toreros reached the 20-point plateau at 20-14 on a kill from Hoekman before eventually earning the 25-16 victory on a kill from Lozic.
While she did not appear in the first, set, freshman Catilin DeWitt came on strong in the second, posting five kills to lead LMU to a .250 hitting percentage and a 25-22 victory. Hensley also stayed hot, notching four more kills on eight swings. The Lions limited USD to just .027 hitting as Baird matched her first-set contribution of four kills. After trading blows to 6-6, LMU managed to win four of the next five points to open-up an early 10-7 lead, capped by a kill from Hensley. USD refused to let LMU run too far, winning three straight points to again knot the tally at 10 apiece. LMU held a slim 14-13 advantage before riding the hot hand of Hensley to a 17-13 lead to force a Torero timeout. The Lions maintained the four-point lead to 20-16 as USD committed back-to-back attacking errors before electing to call its final timeout of the period. The Toreros responded well out of the break, winning three straight points, including kills from Hoekman and Ferrari, to cut the deficit to one at 20-19 and force a Lion timeout. LMU managed a three-point swing of its own to claim a 23-19 lead before taking set-point at 24-21 on a kill from DeWitt. USD managed to erase the first set-point opportunity, but Ferrari was called for being in the net on the ensuing play, handing LMU the win and evening the match score at one set apiece.
Neither team hit for a high percentage in the third set, as San Diego connected at a .194 clip compared to LMU at .071. Baird had three more kills for the Toreros, while USD combined for a pair of blocks. Hensley and DeWitt each had three kills for LMU, while Litara Keil managed a block solo. A see-saw battle broke out early in the third set, as the two teams traded blows to 12 points apiece before San Diego went on a three-point run, highlighted by a kill from Lozic, to claim a 15-12 advantage and force the first Lion timeout of the period. The break did little to slow momentum initially as USD advanced the lead to 21-15, but LMU went on a four-point run late to cut the deficit to two points at 21-19, including a service ace from Metter and a kill from Hensley. Despite a controversial call that went in favor of USD, LMU kept the deficit at two when USD misfired on an attack to push the tally to 23-21. Unfortunately for the Lions, the Toreros would win the next two points and take the set by a count of 25-21.
The Toreros ran away with the final set of the match as USD hit .269 while holding LMU to a -.176 clip. The Toreros managed five team blocks, while Lozic and Alaysia Brown each had three kills. USD scored the first five points of the fourth set and never looked back, forcing LMU to burn both of its timeouts by the time the tally showed 10-3 on a Baird kill. The Toreros stretched the lead to 11 at 16-5 on kills from Jianna Bonomi and Lozic en route to reaching 20 points at 20-6 on an ace from Rachel Alvey. The Toreros pushed the advantage to 23-6 on a Lion attack error before Brown contributed back-to-back kills for the final two points of the match to hand USD the 25-8 victory.
The Toreros return to action on Thursday as they host the Santa Clara Broncos in a 7 p.m. match inside the friendly confines of the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
