POMONA, Calif. – The San Francisco State women's volleyball team displayed some offensive fireworks on Saturday, recording three-set victories over Simon Fraser (25-16, 25-10, 25-12) and Dixie State (25-23, 25-10, 25-16) at the Cal Poly Pomona Tournament. The Gators logged an impressive .365 attack percentage for the two matches, wrapping up weekend play with a 3-1 record.
Megan Johnson (26 kills) and
Halimah Oswald (22 kills) were the hitting stars for SF State, while
Iris Tolenada posted a combined 66 assists and 16 digs on the day. Oswald finished the two-day event with a stellar .421 hitting percentage, knocking down 42 kills with just 10 errors while adding 12 block assists.
Against Simon Fraser, SF State nursed a slim 13-12 lead in the opening set before closing with a timely 12-4 surge. The Gators took advantage of three consecutive Clan hitting errors, while Oswald knocked blasted three kills to fuel the run.
The Purple and Gold limited Simon Fraser to just 11 kills over the final two frames as the Clan hit -.014 for the match. Consequently, SF State was in virtual control for the remainder of the contest, building an insurmountable 16-4 advantage in the second stanza, before fashioning a key 16-7 run in the third frame which broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Gators a comfortable 20-11 cushion.
As a team, SF State finished with a .508 hitting percentage, including a .588 performance by Oswald, who launched a match-high 12 kills on 17 swings with just two errors, while Tolenada and
Katie Judd registered 27 assists and nine digs, respectively.
Cheryl Windhurst finished with six kills to lead the Clan, while Danielle Curtis handed out nine assists in the loss.
The Gators found themselves in a tighter battle with Dixie State later in the day as the two sides combined for 19 ties and 12 lead changes. However, SF State once again managed to pull off the sweep after outhitting the Red Storm .291-.200 and maintaining a 52-34 advantage in kills and a 60-41 margin in digs.
The Gators led by as many as five points midway through the opening set, until a kill by Brita Jensen knotted the score at 19-19. Moments later, Oswald registered two put-aways of her own during a critical 4-1 run that seemingly put the Purple and Gold in the driver's seat at 24-20. However, Dixie State would not fold as a kill by Morgan Hill, followed by back-to-back Gator hitting errors narrowed the gap to 24-23. After a timeout, SF State regrouped as Oswald came up huge with another kill off a Red Storm serve for the clinching point.
The Gators used some late magic in set number two, uncorking a 7-1 blitz to erase a19-18 Dixie State lead. Consecutive kills by Tolenada and
Lauren Walsh, followed by a pair of Red Storm attack errors put SF State ahead to stay at 22-19. A Shannon Young put-away temporarily stalled the run, but the Gators snuffed out the threat after a Walsh kill, a Tolenada service ace and a combined block by Johnson and
Kelsie Brennan.
With a 2-0 lead in sets, Johnson took over for SF State in the third and final frame, blasting seven kills to help complete the sweep. Trailing 5-4 in the early going, kills by Johnson and
Robyn Hall served as bookends to a 16-7 run that put the Gators firmly in front at 20-12.
Johnson finished with a .441 hitting percentage, blasting a match-high 17 kills on 34 attempts with just two errors while contributing 10 digs for her second double-double of the young season. Tolenada duplicated the feat as well, adding 39 assists and 14 digs, while Walsh totaled eight kills and 13 digs. Not to be outdone, Oswald (.471) and Hall also aided the Gator cause with 10 kills apiece.
The Red Storm were paced by Hill (.632), who notched 12 kills on 19 attempts with no errors, while Jen Hardman collected 28 assists.
