Eugene, Ore.—Latahevai Lousi led a quartet of Spartan hitters who recorded 10 or more kills as the San José State volleyball team defeated Santa Clara, 3-1 (25-19, 26-24, 22-25, 26-24) Friday afternoon in the first match of the Oregon Invitational played at Matthew Knight Arena.
Lousi led all hitters with 19 kills and hit .277 for the match. Haylee Nelson added 15 kills on 32 attempts and hit .312 for the four sets. Ryann Thomison led the team in hitting at .391 and recorded 10 kills. Amethyst Harper made her Spartan debut Friday and recorded 10 kills in the win.
Hear from @trentkersten on the Spartans win over Santa Clara. #SpartanUp pic.twitter.com/qGmg74nIuq
— SJSU VOLLEYBALL (@SanJoseStateVB) August 27, 2021
•Three Spartans finished the match with double-doubles. Haylee Nelson reached the double-double milestone first in the match with 15 kills and 15 digs, the 13th of her career. Amethyst Harper had her first double-double in a Spartan uniform with 10 kills and 11 digs. Setter Mia Schafer rounded out the trio with 48 assists and 10 digs, her sixth double-double in her 17th career match as a Spartan.
•Libero Sarah Smevog recorded 20 or more digs in a match for the 12th time in her Spartan career. She led players with 21 digs and added two assists for SJSU.
•Three newcomers made their San José State debut on Friday – Amethyst Harper, Janne Kaniho and Alessia Buffagni.
•Six Spartans recorded at least one service ace in the match, led by Mia Schafer with four, Yazmin Pitpit with three, Haylee Nelson with two and Latahevai Lousi, Amethyst Harper and Letizia Cammillucci with one each.
•The Spartans play No. 14 Oregon Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. It is the first meeting between the two teams since 2004. Prior to that match, the schools had not played each other in volleyball since 1985 when they were members of the NorPac Conference.
Match Summary
Set 1 – The Spartans led from first serve and led by as many as seven points before winning the set 25-19 on Harper's only kill of the set.
Set 2 – San José State jumped out to a 13-10 lead before the Broncos slowly chipped away and led 18-15. SCU had a 23-21 lead before two Thomison kills and back-to-back kills by Nelson and Lousi gave SJSU the 26-24. Win
Set 3 – Lousi had the first kill of the set for a 1-0 SJSU lead, but Santa Clara then opened up a 7-3 lead and won the set 25-22.
Set 4 – The final set featured 16 tied scores and eight lead changes before San José State claimed the win at 26-24. The Spartans fought off two Santa Clara set points at 24-22 and 24-23 to tie the match on a Bronco hitting error. Yazmin Pitpit recorded her third service ace of the match to give SJSU the lead and Nelson put down a pass from Pitpit for the victory.
San José State def. Santa Clara – 3-1 (25-19, 26-24, 22-25, 26-24)
Kills – SJSU – Latahevai Lousi 19; SCU – Sophia Tulino 16.
Records – San José State 1-0; Santa Clara 0-1.
#SpartanUp