FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton women's volleyball dropped its last home game of the season, losing to UC San Diego 3-2 (22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 15-13) Saturday evening at Titan Gym. The Titans are now 10-15 and 7-11 in Big West play.
Prior to the match the team and Cal State Fullerton Athletics honored nine seniors which included Nicole Shuhandler, Sydney Asher, Makena Ala'ilima-Daley, Brooke Earkman, Haley Carmo, Neena Dimas, Maya Riddlesprigger, Gabrielle Barcelos and Elizabeth Schryer.
After losing the first two sets of the match, the Titans battled back to win the next two and force a fifth and final set. The team gave it their all to win the final home game of the season for the nine seniors.
Makena Ala'ilima-Daley led the team with a career-high 22 kills on the night. Elizabeth Schuster also had a career night, recording 57 assists. Julia Crawford and Haley Carmo both added double-digit with 15 and 14, respectively.
The two teams exchanged points throughout the first set. UC San Diego tied the game at 19 before the Titans retook the lead at 20-19. However, the Tritons would tie the game again at 20, 21 and 22 and went on to score the final three points winning 25-22.
UC San Diego got off to a 8-1 run to start the second set but Fullerton made a run of its own to cut the Tritons lead to 10-12. The Titans came back to tie the game at 18 on a kill by Haley Carmo before taking its first lead of the set at 19-18 on an ace by Crawford. The Tritons, however, would go on a 3-0 run to take the second set 25-23.
Fullerton hung in close but trailed a majority of the third set before tying UC San Diego at 17. The Titans took their first lead at 21-20 on a kill by Ala'ilima-Daley. Fullerton closed out the third set on a kill by Carmo, 25-23.
The Titans went on a quick 3-0 to take a 13-10 lead in the fourth set. Ala'ilima-Daley had an impressive kill on the 13th point to force UCSD to take a timeout. Fullerton dominated the rest of the way to take the set 25-18 and force a fifth set.
The Titans wrap up the regular season on the road next week against UC Riverside on Wednesday in the penultimate match before heading to UC Davis Saturday for the final match of the year.
