FULLERTON, Calif. – The Cal State Fullerton volleyball team fell by a score of 3-1 [16-25, 25-27, 25-23, 20-25] to Niagara in its home opener Tuesday night at Titan Gym. With the loss, the Titans drop to 2-2 on the year, while the Purple Eagles pick up their first win of the season and improve to 1-3.
The Titans received several strong performances as Madeline Schneider and Shimen Fayad each tallied a double-double as Schneider posted 14 kills and 13 digs and Fayad logged 20 kills and 13 digs. Additionally, Summer Kerins continued her hot-hitting streak as she recorded an attack percentage of .632 after registering 12 kills on 19 attacks without committing an attack error. However, the Titans were plagued with errors as they committed 10 service errors and 11 reception errors in the contest.
"I thought Shimen Fayad played well as well as Summer Kerins. (Summer) has been our constant. She's a very good middle," Cal State Fullerton head coach Ashley Preston said. "The main thing that hurt us this match were our reception errors and our service errors. If you have double digits in both of those then it's really tough to win a match.
"I feel as though Niagara came out stronger and tougher than us and were ready to play. We kind of sat on our heels until the third set. We picked it up (in the third set) and I'm really proud of my team for winning that set and pushing it to a fourth set, but we really dug ourselves in a hole with the losses in the first and second sets and that's what kind of made it tough to win this match."
Cal State Fullerton finished the match hitting .201 with 51 kills, while Niagara hit .233 with 50 kills. The Titans held the advantage in assists (49-48) with 35 of their 49 coming from setter Rachel Hall. Fullerton also owned the edge in digs (65-57), but fell short in service aces as the Purple Eagles led that category with 11 aces to the Titans' three.
The Titans fought hard throughout the match as they battled the Purple Eagles through eight ties in the first set. However, Niagara forced Cal State Fullerton into eight attack errors which led to the Titans hitting a mere .088 in the frame. The Purple Eagles went on to hit .357 as they broke a 13-13 tie and went on a 9-1 run to jump out to a 22-14 lead. From there, Niagara claimed the first set 25-16.
Cal State Fullerton continued to battle in the second set as the Titans turned in a gritty performance which saw 12 ties and seven lead changes. The Titans fought until the very end as they evened the score 21-21 on a kill from Schneider before the Purple Eagles turned the tables and went up 24-23 and pushed the game to set point. That did not stop the Titans as Kerins knocked down a game-tying kill.
Niagara once again threatened, taking the game to set point with a 25-24 advantage, but this time Fayad came through for the Titans and evened the score at 25-25. Despite their efforts, Cal State Fullerton was unable to hold off Niagara as the Purple Eagles won by a score of 27-25.
Trailing 2-0, Cal State Fullerton continued its attack as the Titans came out swinging in the third set and hit .414, while limiting the Purple Eagles to just .097. Although Niagara fought for the sweep, Fullerton would not allow it. The Titans broke the final tie of the game on a Kellyn Mullaly service ace to take a 23-22 lead. Cal State Fullerton pushed the game to set point on an attack error by Niagara and went on to win on a kill by Fayad, 25-23.
The Purple Eagles came out strong in the fourth set as they jumped out in front to a 4-1 lead forcing the Titans to call a timeout. Fullerton cut Niagara's lead to two (2-4), but could not come any closer as the Purple Eagles used a .424 attack percentage to control the set and win the game by a score of 25-20.
Cal State Fullerton continues the non-conference portion of its schedule at the Grand Canyon Classic in Phoenix, Ariz., this weekend. The Titans will take on Eastern Kentucky on Friday, Sept. 2 at 4:30 p.m., before going up against Eastern Washington and host, Grand Canyon, on Saturday at 12 noon and 7 p.m., respectively.