Nov. 19, 2010
Irvine, Calif. - With a 3-1 win over UC Irvine, and a loss by second place Long Beach State Friday night, Cal State Fullerton secured its first ever Big West Conference championship and NCAA postseason berth in Irvine's Crawford Gym.
The Titans climb to 25-5 on the year overall and 13-2 in Big West play. The storybook season has blown most of the Titans' record book out of the water as the team has never finished higher than 5th place. With the win, the Titans not only win their school record 25th match overall, their 13th match in league, but extend their program-best winning streak to 8 matches. Fullerton has now won 21 of its last 23 matches since Sept. 11.
Irvine falls to 7-22, 3-13 to conclude their conference slate.
The Titans used a career-high 22 kills from Torrie Brown and a solid double-double from Erin Saddler (20 kills and 18 digs) to defeat the Anteaters 25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 22-19 in a hard-fought match that saw 22 tie scores and 13 lead changes. Saddler also added a match-high 4 blocks and 24.5 points.
The Titans hit .251 on the night, led by Brown (.333) and Kayla Neto, who supplied 14 kills and a .351 attack percentage. Irvine hit just .213 behind leading hitter Juliane Piggott (18 kills) and Alyssa Squires (10 kills).
Defensively for the Titans, senior Cami Croteau became the Big West's all-time record holder in digs with a 21-dig night, surpassing Kristin Jackson's record of 2,132 career digs by one scoop. Croteau now has at least two more matches to extend the record.
Genie Francisco also added 19 digs for the champs while Irvine's Kristin Winkler led all players with 23 scoops. She was one of five Anteaters in double-figure digs. Andrea Ragan had a solid night with her setting. She assisted 60 Titan kills, tying her season high.
The Titans will finish out their 2010 regular season schedule on Saturday night in Northridge as they take on the team that helped them by beating Long Beach, the Matadors of Cal State Northridge. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. The Titans will find out who they match up against in the postseason on Nov. 28 on ESPN News between noon and 12:30 p.m. on the West Coast.
Watch the Big West Conference video with: Carolyn Zimmerman
Watch the Big West Conference video with: Erin Saddler