CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The Cal State Fullerton volleyball team hit .301 as the Titans completed the sweep of South Carolina State at the UT Chattanooga Tournament on Saturday. The win marks the first back-to-back victories by the Titans since 2014 and the first back-to-back sweeps since September 2013.
"I'm very happy to get another win," Cal State Fullerton head coach Ashley Preston said. "This was a good match to get some players experience and tweak the lineup. This was a good, collective team win."
The Titans (2-0) dominated the court as they held the Bulldogs (0-4) to a negative attack percentage of -.025. Additionally, Cal State Fullerton held the edge in kills (44-16), assists (41-16), services aces (9-3), digs (43-31) and blocks (4.0-3.0).
Shimen Fayad led the Titans' offense with 14 kills as she was the only player to reach double-figures in the match. She added five digs and three block assists, while hitting .259.
Helping Fayad out offensively was Kyra Smith who hit .636 in the contest as she knocked down seven kills without committing an attack error. Smith also contributed three block assists for the Titans.
Rachel Hall continued to pace the Cal State Fullerton offense as she dished out 27 assists to go along with a team-leading seven digs.
Cal State Fullerton jumped out in front quickly as it took a 3-0 lead to open the first set and never looked back. The Titans went on to push their lead to as many as 13 points (22-9) before cruising to a 25-12 victory.
In the second set, the Titans went up 3-0 again but this time the Bulldogs fought back and evened the score at 11-11 before taking a 12-11 lead. Despite the pressure from their opponent, Cal State Fullerton continued to play its game and played South Carolina State point for point until breaking a 16-16 tie on a kill by Katelyn Nielsen to give Fullerton a 17-16 edge. From there, the Titans went on to win the set 25-19.
With a 2-0 edge heading into the third set, Cal State Fullerton continued to battle South Carolina State as the two teams fought through a couple of ties and a lead change before the Titans held the advantage the rest of the way. The Bulldogs stayed close on the Titans' heels until Fullerton rattled off four straight points to end the set and match by a score of 25-16.
Cal State Fullerton looks to close out the UT Chattanooga tournament with another victory on Sunday, August 28 against host Chattanooga at 12 noon. Live stats will be available on FullertonTitans.com.