ROHNERT PARK -- For the second straight night, the Sonoma State women's volleyball team found itself trailing 2-1 in the match, and for the second straight night, the Seawolves dug themselves out of it, clawing to a thrilling five-set victory over a feisty UC San Diego squad (28-26, 21-25, 21-25, 25-22, 15-12) on Saturday night at The Wolves' Den in Rohnert Park.
The Seawolves have won six straight matches to improve to 10-3 overall and remain in sole possession of first place in the CCAA with a 6-1 mark against conference opponents. The Tritons lost their second straight five-setter, falling to 8-7 overall and 4-3 in the CCAA.
It was purely a defensive battle from the opening set as the two teams combined for 199 digs and 30 blocks while holding each other to under .161 on offense. UC San Diego led in every statistical category except one (aces), including kills (68-63), hitting percentage (.161-.160), assists (63-60), digs (108-91), blocks (16.0-14.0) and points (87.0-81.0), but Sonoma State gutted out the victory, one night after doing the same against 20th-ranked Cal State San Bernardino.
Caylie Seitz again led the way in kills for SSU with 19, but was held to just a .200 clip.
Lexi Reddick added 12 kills, including the match-winner, followed by 11 from
Madelyn Densberger and 10 from
Emily Papale.
Courtney Seda passed out 27 assists, had two aces and made 12 digs on defense while
Calan Seitz assisted on 23 kills to go along with 16 digs, a new career-best.
Defensively,
Kaitlyn Connolly nearly matched Friday night's career-best output in digs on Saturday, recording 24 against UCSD after making 25 against CSUSB a night earlier.
Rachel Andrews also enjoyed a career night at the net, making nine blocks, including four solo rejections.
The two teams fought through 20 tie scores and nine lead changes in the match, including a see-saw fifth set that saw four ties and three lead changes, the final lead change coming on a Reddick kill to give Sonoma an 11-10 lead in the deciding frame. Papale followed with a kill of her own to make it 12-10 before Reddick scored three more kills to put the match away for the Seawolves.
Sonoma State will travel to Humboldt State for a midweek CCAA contest on Tuesday at 7:00 pm before coming back home to battle with the Lumberjacks again, but on Saturday at The Wolves' Den, also at 7:00 pm.
