Tough Match For Spartans on Senior DayTough Match For Spartans on Senior Day

Tough Match For Spartans on Senior Day

Box Score

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Alyssa Bjork and Randilyn Reeves played their final match inside Spartan Gym, and the match lived up to the billing as the San José State volleyball team went four sets with Mountain West regular-season champion Utah State before falling 3-1 (30-32, 16-25, 30-28, 17-25) Saturday afternoon.

  • Bjork recorded two kills and three blocks (one solo and two assists), while Reeves recorded four digs and an ace in the match.
  • Lolo Fonua hit .432 in the match with a team-best 17 kills on 37 attempts and only one hitting error.
  • Mariana Buchanan hit .320 with 11 kills on 25 attempts with just three errors in three sets played.
  • Ava Hewitt-Smith led the team with seven blocks, one solo and six assists. Offensively, she hit .438 for the match with nine kills on 16 kills and only two errors.
  • Hewitt-Smith moved into sixth place on the SJSU single-season solo block list, with 35, passing Gayle Olson, who had 34 in 1983. Hewitt-Smith needs one more solo block to catch Felicia Schulter and three to catch Barbara Higgins in fourth place.
  • Fatimah Hall recorded her double-double of the season with 48 assists and 11 digs.
  • Talita Gonçalves led the Spartan defense with 22 digs and added four assists.
  • The teams battled for two hours and twenty minutes, including a 41-minute first set.
  • Both teams used scoring streaks in the first set to shift the momentum back and forth between them. San José State jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead behind the serving of Katie O’Sullivan. The Spartans had a 24-20 lead, but Utah State held off all four set points to tie the score at 24-24. The two teams traded the lead before the Aggies won 32-30 on their fifth set point.
  • After Utah State won the second set, 25-16, the two teams played a tough third set with 10 tied scores and three lead changes. The Spartans scored the winning point on the sixth set-point try as Hewitt-Smith and Fonua combined for the block and the 30-28 win.
  • San José State is now 12-15 on the season and 7-9 in MW play.

UP NEXT – The Spartans play the final two regular-season matches next week at San Diego State (Nov. 20, 6 p.m.) and at UNLV (Nov. 22 , 1 p.m.)

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