GOLDEN, Colo. – The San Francisco State volleyball team opened their season at the Oredigger Volleyball Classic, hosted by Colorado School of the Mines. The Gators swept Colorado Christian University (25-16, 28-26, 25-19) in the morning game. The script was switched in game two and the Gators were swept by #21 Colorado Mesa (25-16, 25-21, 25-21)
- Colorado Mesa was selected to finish second in the RMAC while Colorado Christian was selected to finish sixth.
- Freshman Asia Arbaugh got the start at Libero, finished with 22 digs on the day.
- Izzy Issak returned to the court for the first time since the 2021 season after missing 2022 due to injury. She has 12 kills and two block assists against Colorado Christian.
- Tamiya Wilson led the offense on the day with 24 kills including 17 in the match versus Colorado Christian.
Tied 9-9 in set one, the Gators started to pull away after a 6-1 run put them up 15-10. The offense took control the rest of the set with seven of the next ten points coming from kills. The Gators recorded 16 kills in the first set while limiting Colorado Christian to five kills and a .040 hitting percentage.
The Gators sat at set point with a 24-21 lead but the Cougars rallied to tie the set up. The Cougars made it set point with a block from Renee Phillips to take the serve with a 26-25 lead. Issak had back-to-back kills to get the Gators back to set point and Wilson closed set two out with an ace.
Another 6-1 run bookend by a pair of kills from Wilson extended the lead from 10-7 to 15-8 in set three. The Gators never led by less than four the rest of the way and a kill from Trinity Yates gave the Gators match point and stopped a late rally from the Cougars.
Colorado Mesa took a 3-0 lead to open set one and never looked back. The Mavericks clipped a .457 hitting percentage and finished with 18 kills.
After trailing through the first half of set two, the Gators tied things up thanks to an attack error from the Mavericks. Colorado Mesa pulled away but a block from Alhana Velasquez and Yates made it a one-point lead at 21-20. A service error would give the ball back to Colorado Mesa and the Mavericks scored three more kills to take set two.
A 4-0 run saw the Gators fall behind 15-9 in set three and forced them to call a time-out. Yates recorded a pair of kills and a service ace in a 6-1 run that brought the Gators within one at 21-20. CMU call a time-out and rattled off two kills. Wilson had a kill coming out of the Gators' time-out but an attack error gave the serve back to CMU and the Mavericks closed out the match with a match point kill.
The Gators wrap up the tournament with a pair of matches tomorrow. They play host team #22 Colorado School of the Mines at 11 a.m. mountain time and Fort Hays State at 4 p.m. The matches will be broadcast on the RMAC Network with live stats available at sfstategators.com. Updates will also be available on Twitter at @sfstate_vb.
