San Luis Obispo, Calif.—Most volleyball teams down 0-2 may fold in the third set and lose the match, but the San José State volleyball team showed what being a Spartan is all about as the team rallied for a 3-2 win over North Texas at the ShareSLO Mustang Challenge hosted by Cal Poly.
Career highs, double-doubles and list entering were just some of the highlights for the Spartan players. Haylee Nelson recorded a career-high kills for the second consecutive night, this time leading the team with 22 kills.
Three Spartans recorded double-doubles during the match. Mamie Garard recorded her second consecutive double-double and fifth of her career with 32 assists and 11 digs. Caitlin Bettenay had 16 kills and 14 digs for her second double-double of the season and ninth of her Spartan career. Taumafa Tuinauvai had 16 digs for the second consecutive night to record her first double-double with a season-best 10 kills.
Sarah Smevog recorded 34 digs in the match, a career-best and the eighth-best total in school history. She is third Spartan to record 34 digs in a match, joining Jessie Shull (9/16/06) and Barbara Higgs (9/26/87). Smevog is now the 10th player in school history to record 34 or more digs in a match.
Thaliana Grajeda, with two block assists, moved in the top-10 on the San José State career block assists list. She ends the day with 262 block assists, passing Alex Akana who had 261 from 2009-12. Grajeda is 12th in career blocks with 281 and needs just five to move into 10th place with Akana.
After losing the first set 25-16, the Spartans rallied in the second set and tied the match at 20-20 before North Texas scored five of the final eight points to win 25-23. Despite losing the set, SJSU hit .417 (18-3-36).
San José State then rallied like true Spartans to win the final three sets. The Spartans jumped out to a 9-3 lead, but the Mean Green would not go away, tied the set at 20-20, but never took the lead. SJSU needed six set points to finally win 29-27.
Set four belong to the Spartans from the opening set in a 25-18 win. The team hit .483 for the set (15-1-29) as Grajeda smashed a set from Kaitlynn Zdroik for the set winner.
The Spartans started the fifth set on the same side they won the fourth set. North Texas jumped out to an early 6-3 lead, causing San José State head coach Jolene Shepardson to take a timeout. SJSU slowly chipped away at the lead, tying the match at 10-10, 12-12 and 13-13, before back-to-back kills from Latahevai Louis and Bettnay gave San José State a 15-13 set-five win and the match.
Other contributing to the win included Lousi who had 14 kills, three digs and three blocks, one solo and two assists. Ryann Thomison led the team in blocking with five, one solo and four assists. Zdroik had a season-best 37 assists and eight digs. Freshman Yazmin Pitpit made her debut in a Spartan uniform and played in three sets.
With the win, the Spartans bring a three-match winning streak into Saturday's match with Cal Poly beginning at 6 p.m.
San José State def. North Texas 3-2 (16-25, 23-25, 29-27, 25-18, 15-13).
Kills – SJSU – Haylee Nelson 22; NT – Valerie Valerian 21.
Records – San José State 3-2; North Texas 2-3.
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