SAN FRANCISCO — A slow start proved costly for the San Francisco State women's volleyball team on Wednesday night in a 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 28-26) loss to visiting Sonoma State at the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.

"We were in a new lineup tonight. With people being injured, you have to find other things," said SF State Head Coach Matt Hoffman. "I thought tonight would be a good night to see and we weren't very clean at the beginning. We were cleaner as the match went on, as the stats showed. I liked the second half of game two and our game three."

First-place Sonoma State (9-3/3-0 CCAA) opened the match with 6-1 run and continued to build the lead, forcing a Gators (4-7/0-3 CCAA) timeout at 14-7. The Seawolves extended the lead to 17-7 and cruised to an early match lead.

Sonoma State raced out to a 5-0 lead in set two and built the lead to 12-4. The Gators would pull no closer than six despite the best efforts of Olivia Tabron, who had three of her five kills in set two.
 

Olivia Tabron with the kill in set two vs. @SonomaSeawolves! #chompcity #CCAAvb pic.twitter.com/TLRd3cCrrA

— SF State Volleyball (@SFState_WVB) September 21, 2017

The Gators erased a seven-point deficit in set three. A pair of Brenna Dougherty kills and an Eden Fukushima service ace, followed by back-to-back kills fChristine Johnsonnson cut the Seawolves lead to two. Lauren Williams pulled SF State within a point and after a Gators service error, SSU committed two attack errors to even the score at 22-22. SF State battled point for point but kills by Calan Seitz and Morgan Annala put SSU over the top.
 

Abby Griffith with the big kill in set three vs. @SonomaSeawolves! pic.twitter.com/BlVOt8i9HK

— SF State Volleyball (@SFState_WVB) September 21, 2017

Christine Johnson led SF State with 11 kills, one shy of her season high. Abby Griffith added a season-high nine kills and hit a team-high .444. Cassandra Fong carried the load at setter with a season-high 26. Freshman libero Jocelyn Rodriguez had a team-high 19 digs.

Seitz led the Seawolves with 12 kills. K McIntire added 11 and C Wiesner had 10. M. Bohorquez led all players with a season-high 22 digs for Sonoma State.

SF State heads to Humboldt State on Saturday, Sept. 23 for a 7 p.m. conference match. Live video and stats will be provided by Humboldt State. In-game updates will be available on Twitter at @sfstate_wvb.