The UCSD women’s volleyball team played its best match of the season when it dominated Cal State Los Angeles on Oct. 23, followed by a Triton come back victory over an extremely overmatched Cal State Dominguez Hills team two days later to move into a first-place tie in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
Coming into the match, the Tritons (19-3 overall, 13-2 CCAA) carried a seven-match winning streak, but the Golden Eagles of CSULA carried a five-game streak of their own, including a win over previously undefeated Cal State San Bernardino.
The first point of the match was the result of a kill from UCSD’s Bonnie Wilson — the first of her team-high 21 on the night — and set the tone for what was to come. The Tritons rolled through CSULA in game one (30-23), with Stacy Dunsmore picking up three consecutive aces to put the game out of reach.
After playing poorly the previous weekend, Wilson talked about what it took to come back with a big match.
“”Everybody has their bad days, and you’ve got to put them behind you, and that’s what I tried to do. I got so much encouragement from all my teammates, and they knew I played badly,”” Wilson said. “”I looked to them and they helped me through it, and in practice I worked harder and just thought, ‘I have to do better next time.'””
Behind Wilson’s strong performance, UCSD used a high level of energy and contagious good play in game two to win 30-18. The Tritons attacked at an astonishing .515 percentage and had 18 kills, while committing only one attacking error.
Despite the solid offense, it was the defense that starred in the third game. CSULA got out to an early lead that grew to as many as five points. Not to be denied, the Triton block intensified and the players in back picked up crucial digs to keep UCSD close. The highlight of the match occurred midway through the game when Golden Eagle star Dana Coffey was denied three consecutive times in spectacular fashion by Triton Denelle Smalley on a point that brought the crowd to its feet in thunderous applause and pushed the Tritons on to a 30-25 victory.
Smalley later commented on how she pulled off such an impressive string.
“”Apparently, I own [Coffey] right now. I could see her, our blockers were putting up a real clean block, and that’s something we work on in practice all the time, and so tonight we finally got it,”” Smalley said. “”Being in the right spot is the hard part. Getting it up isn’t as hard as it might look.””
Nothing was hard, or even gave the appearance of being so, on Oct. 25 as the Tritons hosted Cal State Dominguez Hills. UCSD head coach Duncan McFarland started five different players than he had two nights before in an attempt to develop depth. The Triton second string had no trouble dispatching the Toros in just 75 minutes (30-23, 30-18, 30-25).
Freshmen Brianna Koche and Francesca Centofanti led the team with 13 and 11 kills, respectively, with Koche attacking an unheard-of .611 for the match. Setter Jessica Bartter had 34 assists, eight digs and three blocks while guiding the Tritons to the victory over outclassed CSUDH.
Despite the lack of competitive volleyball, the UCSD players tried to make good use of the time.
“”It’s good for our team because we have a lot of depth, and that way people are ready to go when we’re in tight situations,”” Koche said.
McFarland agreed that getting to exercise his depth and allowing for time to work on new things were valuable uses of the opportunity.
“”We knew that these guys were struggling, and we still wanted to get something out of the match, and we did,”” he said. “”We played a lot of people and got some practice in some areas that we really hadn’t been able to work on.””
With all of their skills freshly polished, the Tritons will travel to Cal Sate San Bernardino for a showdown on Nov. 1, with the winner taking sole possession of first place in the CCAA.