SAN MARCOS, CALIF. - On Saturday October 9th the Sonoma State volleyball team traveled down south to take on Cal State San Marcos in a CCAA conference matchup. The Seawolves were fresh off of a 5-set road win against Cal State East Bay on Thursday night. Despite their .500 overall record coming into San Marcos, the Seawolves boasted an impressive 5-2 record in conference play putting them in a three way tie for third place in the conference standings. The Cougars came into the contest with a 7-6 overall record and a 4-3 record in CCAA play with impressive wins against SF State, Chico State, and Humboldt State proving as a tough road test for the Seawolves especially after going five sets on Thursday night. 

In the opening set, both teams went back and forth exchanging points early on. The usual Seawolves were in on the action offensively as Emily Eaton and Kiana Richardson recorded kills in the opening set. Leillani Hallman, Brynna Slayton, and Jessie Hobbs also got in on the action with kills of their own. Late in the set tied at 16, SSU would go on a 3-0 scoring run to take a 19-16 lead which included back-to-back aces from senior Jenn Trephan. The Cougars and Seawolves would exchange points again as the set found it's way tied 22-22 thanks to a huge block from Jenn Trephan. Despite the intense first set, San Marcos would go on to score the next three points to close it out and take a 1-0 lead. 

Head coach Bear Grassl and his group were only heating up as they came out firing in the second set and charged their way to a 25-15 set victory to tie up the match. SSU held a lead as large as 10 points in the set and the combined team effort would help them tie up the match. Jessie Hobbs and Emily Eaton would combine for a crucial block to earn the Seawolves their 23rd point of the match and then Hobbs would deliver the final blow on a kill assisted by Jenn Trephan for the set point. Despite the momentum built up with a second set win, the Cougars would come out hot and go on a run of their own. They would take the third set convincingly 11-25 forcing SSU to have to win the fourth set to allow for a potential fifth set in back-to-back games. 

The fourth set would revert back to a similar style that was seen in the first set with both teams exchanging points and a tightly contested set early on. With the Seawolves down just a point 10-11, the Cougars would go on a 8-3 scoring run to give them the upper hand as we approached the final portion of the fourth set. Just a few points later Grassl and his group would go on a much needed scoring run of their own, recording four straight points to bring them to within four of the Cougars. With a familiar trend developing, San Marcos would follow Sonoma State's 4-0 scoring run with a 4-0 run of their own to close out the set and give them the match victory, three sets to one. Kiana Richardson led all players with 15 kills in the match. Emily Eaton would add another 10 kills to bring her weekend total to 37 kills in the Seawolves two matches. Freshman Brynna Slayton would tie her career high in assists with a team high 24 on the day. Defensive specialist Riley Beyma would lead all players in the match with 18 total digs, good for her second most on the season.     

A hard fought weekend for the Seawolves would end in a loss after 9 total sets played in their two matches combined. SSU ends the weekend with a 7-8 overall record and a 5-3 record in CCAA play. The Seawolves will travel to Arcata to take on Humboldt State this upcoming Wednesday and will then return home next Saturday for another matchup with the Jacks in the Wolves' Den on October 16th.    

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