San Jose, Calif.—After winning sets two and four, the San José State volleyball team needed one more strong hitting set to defeat San Diego State 3-2 (17-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-14, 15-12) Thursday night in a Mountain West match at Spartan Gym.
In the set that the Spartans won, the team hit a whopping .352 (42-11-88) but hit only .118 in sets one and three (19-11-68). SJSU hit .370 in the fourth set (15-5-27) and .360 in the fifth set (11-2-25).
Spartan Fernanda Vido led all hitters with 20 kills and hit .317 for the match (20-7-41). Ryan Thomison hit a team-best .438 with eight kills on 16 attempts and only one error. Thaliana Grajeda hit .348 with 11 kills on 23 attempts and three errors. Latahevai Lousi rounded out the hitter with double-digit kills as she recorded 14 on 37 attempts and four errors for a .270 hitting percentage.
Luiza Andrade recorded her fifth 20-plus dig match as she had 23 digs in five sets played. One of the league's top servers, she had three of the team's six service aces for the match.
Setter Kaitlynn Zdroik had a career match as she recorded a career best 39 assists. Just one dig shy of her first double-double, she tied her career best with nine digs.
San José State recorded nine blocks in the match, led by Grajeda with six, one solo and five assists. Lousi had four blocks, one solo and three assists, and three others had two block assists – Vido, Thomison and Haylee Nelson.
After never taking a lead in losing the first set 25-17, the Spartans took their first lead of the match at 3-2 in the second set on a Grajeda kill. The two teams had 10 tied scores in the set before SJSU took the lead for good at 17-16 on a Vido kill and won the set 25-22 on a Giulia Gávio kill.
San José State had an early lead in the third set, but the Aztecs took the lead at 6-5 on a service ace and went on to win the set 25-19.
Zdroik served the first three points of the fourth set for SJSU, including a service ace, and the Spartans cruised to a 25-14 win to force a fifth set.
In the fifth set, the two teams battled with three lead changes and seven tied scores. The Spartans took the final lead of the match at 10-9 on Thomison's seventh kill of the night. The team opened up the lead on an Andrade ace (13-10) and Vido kill before getting Grajeda's 11th kill of the night gave SJSU the 15-12 set win and 3-2 victory.
San José State takes a three-match winning streak into this Saturday's match with MW leader Fresno State. First serve is set for 2 p.m., inside Spartan Gym, located on the corner of Fourth and San Carlos Streets. Tickets are available at the door for $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.
MW Match
Spartan Gym
San José State def. San Diego State – 17-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-14, 15-12.
Kills – SDSU –Deja Harris 16; Ashlynn Dunbar 14, Hannah Turnlund 12, Erin Gillcrist 10.
SJSU – Fernanda Vido 20, Latahevai Lousi 14, Thaliana Grajeda 11.
Records – San Diego State 6-15, 4-5; San José State 9-9, 4-5.
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