SAN FRANCISCO – The Sonoma State volleyball team cruised to a 2-0 match lead, but host San Francisco State rallied to come back and win Tuesday night's match in five sets (18-25, 15-25, 25-22, 25-15, 15-10) at The Swamp in San Francisco. The Seawolves (18-6, 16-4 CCAA) snapped a four-game win streak and will head into the final two matches of the regular season still atop the CCAA standings, but with a one-game lead over second-place Cal State San Bernardino. The Gators rose to 13-12 overall and 11-9 in conference play.
The Seawolves looked like they would make quick work of the Gators after the opening sets. The Gators battled to keep it close in the first set but ultimately the Seawolves came out hot, hitting .371 in the first set and .250 in the second, recording 29 kills with just seven errors. Sonoma State took the first set 25-18 and ran away with the second, winning 25-15.
Coming out of the break the Gators looked like a much different team. On the attack the SF State was much crisper, hitting .250 in the third set after hitting .189 in the first and .061 in the second. The turning point in the match came with the third set tied at 13-13, when Morgan broke the tie for good smashing an overpass for the easy kill. The Gators went on an 11-9 to take the third set 25-22.
The fourth set belonged to SF State. With the Gators holding a one point lead, 11-10, following a Seawolves kills, the Gators went on a 9-3 run to take the 20-13 advantage, their largest lead of the night. Morgan closed the door and forced the fifth set with an emphatic kill down the line to take the set 25-15.
In the fifth and final set the two sides traded service errors to begin the frame. The Gators settled down to take a 4-2 advantage, but the Seawolves quickly tied it up. From there the Gators went on a 4-1 run to take an 8-5 lead at the turn. With the score 12-10 in the fifth a kill by Johnson, an ace by Williams and a kill by Brice sealed the victory for the Gators.
Madelyn Densberger scored a double-double with a team-high 16 kills, adding 12 digs, two aces and four assisted blocks.
Kaitlyn Connolly led the way defensively with 20 digs.
Ashley Robinson had a huge night, smashing nine kills in 13 attacks for a .538 hitting percentage to go along with three aces, two digs and five blocks, one of which was solo.
Kelsey Hull notched another double-double with 13 kills and 16 digs.
The Gators hit .243 as a team with three players tallying double-digits in kills. Jaclyn Clark recorded 14 kills on the night with Bria Morgan adding 13. As a team, SF State defense held the Seawolves to a .249 attack percentage. SF State finished the night recording 85 digs with four players tallying double-digit digs.
Sonoma State will play at Chico State and at Cal State Stanislaus on Friday and Saturday, respectively, all starting at 7:00 pm to wrap up the regular season.
