SAN DIEGO — San Diego volleyball dropped a 3-2 (25-13, 24-26, 17-25, 25-22, 12-15) decision to LMU on Thursday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion in a hard-fought West Coast Conference clash that included 18 tie scores and 10 lead changes.
The Toreros (7-7, 2-2 WCC) dominated the first set and led for most of the second, trailed for most of the third, and led for most of the fourth. Each of the first four frames turned on a run of at least six straight points. The fifth was tied six times, the last at 11, before the Lions (14-2, 5-0 WCC) scored three straight points — the third on a red card against the San Diego bench — to make it 14-11, and closed out the match 15-12.
San Diego hit .240 to LMU's .160, out-blocked the Lions 12.5-5.5 and finished with two more points over the five sets, 103-101. LMU served 13 aces to the Toreros' eight, six of them by Nicole Schuetz, and Maria Tabacuks had a match-high 23 kills on 70 swings.
Nemo Beach broke open the first set from the service line, serving eight straight points to turn a 4-1 lead into a 12-1 cushion. Ryann Knuth and Kierstyn Barton had two kills apiece during the run, and the Toreros hit .424 in the set to the Lions' .061.
San Diego was up 23-17 in the second set before Tabacuks put away six kills over the final 10 points, four in a row with libero Gabriella Cascione serving. Knuth's kill gave the Toreros set point at 24-23, but LMU scored the last three points to win 26-24.
Schuetz served six straight points in the third, three of them aces, as LMU stretched its lead from 8-7 to 15-7. Anya Santrac later added five straight from the line for a 21-8 advantage. San Diego answered with a 5-0 run, four of the points on Kylie Munday's serve, but LMU won the set 25-17.
Beach did it again in the fourth, siding out with a kill at 11-10 and then serving five straight points, including an ace and two BayLea Sparks blocks, for a 17-10 lead. LMU pulled within 23-21 on back-to-back Schuetz aces before kills by Meghan Scholz and Beach closed out a 25-22 win.
At the switch in the fifth, San Diego led 8-7 on Sparks' solo block of Aleksandra Stojanovic. LMU answered with four straight, and a Barton kill capped three in a row for the Toreros that tied it at 11. After being shown two yellow cards in the fourth set, San Diego received a third in the fifth with LMU up 12-11. The red card came one rally later, and the Lions sealed the victory on a San Diego service error two points after that.
Barton led the Toreros with 14 kills and 17.5 points and added 17 digs for one of three San Diego double-doubles. Knuth posted 12 kills and 13 digs, and Munday had 40 assists, 14 digs, and three aces.
Sparks finished with 10 total blocks, five of them solo, and Scholz hit .474 with 10 kills on 19 swings. Beach added 11 kills, and Lauren Lynch, the WCC's reigning Defensive Player of the Week, had a team-high 18 digs.
UP NEXT
San Diego hosts Pepperdine on Saturday, Oct. 10, at noon at the Jenny Craig Pavilion, with the match streaming on ESPN+.
