SAN FRANCISCO — Senior Christines Johnson's career-high 21 kills in her final home match highlighted a 3-1 (25-13, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23) win over Humboldt State for the San Francisco State women's volleyball team on Sunday.
Johnson wasn't the only SF State player to notch a career-high. Freshman setter
Cassandra Fong dished out a career-high 54 assists. Junior
Olivia Tabron recorded a career-high nine kills and matched a career-high blocks. For the third consecutive night, junior libero
Vanessa Ditz had a career night with her match-high 25 digs.
Abby Griffith added nine kills and
Bailey Johnson added eight kills with no attack errors on .400 hitting.
"We followed a strong game plan and scouting report. The offense was clicking really well and Cassandra did a great job of running things. We were really efficient in that first set [the Gators hit .464]," said Head Coach
Matt Hoffman. "Christine had great production, along with Bailey and Olivia, and we were pretty well balanced on offense. Vanessa had a strong game on defense. When we were on, we did a great job of executing."
SF State (7-17/3-13 CCAA) ran away from the Lumberjacks (3-17/2-12 CCAA) in the first set. After a service error to open the match, junior libero
Vanessa Ditz served the Gators to a 6-1 lead. The Gators never trailed after that and a Ditz service ace stretched the lead to 10 at 21-11.
Olivia Tabron's kill gave the Gators set point and senior
Christine Johnson finished things off with a kill of her own two plays later.
The Jacks took the first two points of set two, though more strong service from Ditz gave SF State a 5-2 lead. The Jacks chipped away and used a four-point run to take a brief 12-11 lead. The Gators led 23-21 but three consecutive SF State errors and a Janelle Ayala service ace tied the match at one set apiece.
Set three was another back-and-forth affair. The two teams battled to a 20-20 score and
Danielle Ryan's kill gave the Gators the slight advantage. The Lumberjacks took the next four points to set up set point but the Gators staved off a possible 2-1 deficit with five consecutive points — two kills apiece from
Bailey Johnson and Morris, and a
Jocelyn Rodriguez service ace — to take the match lead.
Set four went down to the wire yet again. The Gators led 10-3 early but saw the lead evaporate after a 7-2 HSU run. Tied 23-23, back-to-back Lumberjacks attack errors secured the win for the Gators.
HSU was led by Alex Holland's 16 kills on .317 hitting but as a team, the Lumberjacks were held to .124. Sarah Shivley recorded a team-high 16 digs.
The Gators' final match of 2017 will come on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at Sonoma State, which is in first place in the CCAA North Division. Live video and stats will be provided by the Seawolves (18-7/12-4 CCAA). In-game updates and highlights will be available on Twitter at
@sfstate_wvb.
