SAN FRANCISCO — Senior Christine Jonhson led the San Francisco State women's volleyball team to a sweep (27-25, 25-19, 26-24) of Cal State San Marcos on Friday night.
Johnson posted a career-high 17 kills on .556 hitting, which is the ninth best single-match hitting percentage in program history. Freshman
Drew Morris also reached double digit kills for the fourth time this season with 16.
"Christine was amazing. Hitting .556, 17 kills on 27 attempts on the left is awesome," said San Francisco State Head Coach
Matt Hoffman. "She did a great job tonight."
The Gators (7-12/3-8 CCAA) did not trail through the first two sets. SF State took the first two points of the night and maintained the lead in set one until the Cougars (10-9/7-4 CCAA) tied it late at 24-24.
Christine Johnson gave SF State a 26-25 lead and a bad set by the Cougars handed the early match lead to the Gators.
"I noticed that we hadn't been very good in set ones. We changed our serve and pass and our warmup to be a little more playing and competitive than a slow build up to game one," said Hoffman. "When we win the first set we're really good and competitive with other teams. I knew that was important and I'm really proud of them for coming out like that."
SF State grabbed a slight lead in set two but maintained it. A pair of Cougars errors gave the Gators just enough breathing room at 10-7. A
Christine Johnson kill made it a four-point lead and ended the set with three consecutive kills.
The Gators led most of set three until a 6-0 run gave the Cougars their first lead of the night, 22-21. A
Drew Morris kill tied it at 24-24 and back-to-back Cougars attack errors conceded the match.
Bailey Johnson added nine kills in the victory. Libero
Jocelyn Rodriguez finished the night with a team-high 15 digs.
Brenna Dougherty recorded 12 digs. CSUSM was led by Courtney Hulla and Maddy Newcombe, who each had eight kills. Grecia Cordero-Barr had also had a team-high 15 digs.
Friday was the Gators' "Dig for a Cure" Breast Cancer Awareness Match. The CCAA and Molten USA teamed up to provide special shirts for the match in an effort to highlight the fight against breast cancer.
It was a big win for the Gators, who kept their playoff hopes alive with the win over the Cougars, who currently sit in third place in the CCAA South standings. SF State sits in fifth place in the CCAA North standings. The top four teams from each region will meet for the CCAA Championships in November, hosted by SF State.
SF State returns to the court on Saturday when UC San Diego comes calling at 7 p.m. The Tritons (14-4/8-2 CCAA) are in first place in the CCAA South standings. Live video and stats will be available at
sfstategators.com. In-game updates and highlights will be available on Twitter at
@sfstate_wvb.
