San Francisco State Takes Two at Westmont Volleyball Invitational.
After battling back from a two-set-to-none deficit against the host Westmont Warriors (6-4) in match two of the Westmont Volleyball Invitational, San Francisco State (5-1) swept Dominican (0-2) to claim their second win of the day. Westmont posted a 3-0 win over Dominican in the first match of the day.
Beth Widicus and Sami Miller led the Warriors offensively against Dominican with eight kills each. Miller posted a .583 attack percentage, connecting on eight of 12 attempts with just one error. Lorel Grande led the Penguins with seven kills and a .316 attack percentage.
The first set proved to be close throughout, but with the Warriors up by one at 24-23, Beth Widicus put the ball on the floor to give Westmont a 25-23 win. The Warrior had a little bit easier of a time in the second set and led 24-16. But the Penguins scored the next six points, five on kills, before a kill by Westmont’s Jenise DeBie ended the set 25-22. In the third set, Westmont jumped out to an 11-1 lead and cruised to an easy 25-13 victory.
A little more than an hour later, the Warriors faced off against San Francisco State. But in the final minute of warm-ups, senior Katelyn Lowry fell to the ground with an injury to her knee. The extent or nature of Lowry’s injury is currently unknown, but she was forced to sit out the match against the Gators.
The Warriors came out firing and posted a 6-0 advantage with Erin Dohm serving. Two of the six points were the result of ace serves. Westmont was able to hold of the Gators who battled their way back to within one point (21-20 and 22-21). A kill by Laura Trudelle gave Westmont a 23-21 advantage and prompted San Francisco State head coach Michelle Patton to call a time out.
After the timeout, Miller and Stephanie Dunn closed down the net with a block to give Westmont a 24-21 advantage. The Gators scored once more on a kill by the Kyle Lamet, but a service error gave set one to the Warriors, 25-22.
Up 13-12 in the second set, the Warriors reeled off four straight points on the strength of Dohm’s serves and a kill by Stephanie Dunn to post a 17-12 advantage. Westmont went on to take a 2 set lead by claiming the second frame 25-19.
With a 17-10 lead in set three, the Warriors appeared to be on their way to their second three-set sweep of the day. But the Gators battled back to tie the game at 22-all on a kill from Beth Perkins. After a Warrior attack error gave the Gators the lead, Perkins struck again to make the score 24-22. Stacey Braceros recorded a kill for Westmont to move the Warriors to within one (23-24), but another Warrior attack error gave the set to San Francisco.
In the fourth set, it was the Gators surging out to a 13-6 lead. Westmont never recovered from the deficit and gave up the fourth game 25-15 on an ace serve by Allison Grandy. In the final set, two Warrior errors and an ace serve by Christina Johnson led to an early 3-0 lead for San Francisco State. Down 4-7, Widicus recorded back-to-back kills and the Gators mishandled the ball to produce a 7-7 tie. A kill from Lamet was matched by a kill from Miller to move the score to eight points each. The Gators took a 10-8 advantage on kills by Brittany Powell and Perkins and never surrendered the lead again. The final score of 15-12 in set five was achieved by means of another Perkins kill.
Perkins posted a game high 18 kills while Powell recorded 12 kills while notching an attack percentage of .611. Westmont was led by Trudelle with 11 kills.
Thirty-minutes after their match with the Warriors, San Francisco State was back on the court to take on Dominican. The Penguins led much of game one, but the Gators tided the game at 22 on a kill by Mary Maiocco, sparking a battle which would see the game tie at every point through 30-30. Finally, kills by Sloane Williams and Perkins closed out the first set with a 32-30 win for San Francisco State.
The second set proved to be a study in contrasts. The Gators won 25-5 without allowing Dominican to complete one full service rotation. The third set was a bit closer, but the Gators still won handily by a score of 25-15.
Kelly Burke tallied 10 kills (.391 attack percentage) to led San Francisco in scoring in the final match of the day. Lamet added eight more. Dominican was led my Gabby Pecora with six and Grande with five.
The Westmont Invitational continues tomorrow at Murchison Gymnasium as #2 California Baptist takes on Dominican at 11:00 a.m. and then faces off with San Francisco State at 2:00 p.m.
