The second-ranked UCSD women’s volleyball team proved that it belongs atop the rankings with two key league wins against Cal State Los Angeles (30-21, 24-30, 30-26, 30-27) on Sept. 22 and Cal State Bakersfield (30-15, 30-21, 30-18) on Sept. 24. UCSD improved to 15-1, including its perfect 5-0 California Collegiate Athletic Association record.
Senior outside hitters Bonnie Wilson and Stacy Dunsmore tallied 17 and 12 kills, respectively, while senior setter Teresa Ohta had 51 assists to lead the Tritons against visiting Cal State Los Angeles (9-5) in four games. The Tritons had beaten the Golden Eagles in three games last season, but this time, Cal State Los Angeles gave UCSD a bit of a scare, taking the second game and forcing the Tritons to overcome the Golden Eagles’ early lead.
“I think the last time we played [Cal State Los Angeles] down here, we beat them very decisively in three [games],” UCSD head coach Duncan McFarland said. “And we thought that might be happening again.”
In the first game, the Tritons and Golden Eagles were knotted up at 13 points apiece, but five straight UCSD points gave the Tritons the lead they needed to claim a 30-21 victory. However, the Golden Eagles bounced back in game two, taking an early 17-7 lead. McFarland called a time out to rally his team.
“I tried to keep them focused because I think we were distracted,” McFarland said. “We weren’t playing normally and we were capable of playing much better. We were kind of wondering what was going on out there.”
The Tritons battled back to tie it up at 23 points each, but the Golden Eagles pushed on and took game two, 30-24, evening up the score to one game apiece.
In the next game, UCSD and Cal State Los Angeles played evenly, trading leads until a block by senior middle blocker Katie Hogan gave the Tritons a 26-24 lead and an ace by senior libero Robin Parlette provided UCSD the cushion it needed to close out game three, 30-25.
In game four, UCSD again found itself down early in the game, trailing the Golden Eagles 6-11. But the Tritons found their groove and came back to tie it up at 18 points apiece. Ensuing kills by Ohta and Hogan, along with a Dunsmore ace, put UCSD ahead 21-18 and the Tritons clung to the lead to clinch game four (30-27) and the match.
“We were struggling with starting off strong today, so that’s something we definitely have to work on in practice,” Hogan said. “We’re usually a team that likes to come out strong and push all the way through, so that was a little unsettling at first. We don’t like to have to [play catch-up] but in cases like that, we’ll do what we have to do — but we definitely want to start off stronger.”
Hogan was also clutch for UCSD, making key plays in the match. She hit a match-high .500 with 14 kills and added a match-high eight blocks.
“I had a really fun match,” Hogan said. “Sometimes when we’re down and we have that pressure, our coach really talks about using the pressure to your advantage. And from the times when I come in and I knew we were down, I would try to use that as an incentive to work harder and [do] the best of what I could to not make errors. I was thinking more of just doing my best to contribute to my team and [make up] for the deficit that we have.”
Learning its lesson from its previous match, UCSD was determined to come out with more agression against rival Cal State Bakersfield on Sept. 24. The Tritons were 12-12 all-time against the Roadrunners, and each team took a victory in last season’s two matches.
“We knew we had to come out fired up and ready to go,” Wilson said. “We [had] to put our all into it and our heart into it too … we were really ready for this game.”
Early leads, strong serving and a solid defense aided the Tritons in their decisive sweep of the Roadrunners in front of a huge, boisterous crowd at RIMAC Arena.
UCSD dominated Cal State Bakersfield in game one, taking a quick 30-15 win. The Roadrunners hit a paltry .088 to the Tritons’ .333. The Tritons came out firing, holding a big lead throughout the game. UCSD was flawless in its service game with five aces and no errors, while the Roadrunners had no aces and three errors. In addition, senior middle blocker Kendra Canape and junior outside hitter Lindsay Crandell combined for seven kills and each hit 1.000 to lead the Tritons in the opening game.
In game two, Wilson peppered Cal State Bakersfield with eight kills and Ohta registered 11 assists to help the Tritons stave off a Roadrunner comeback and give UCSD a 30-21 victory.
UCSD finished the sweep in game three, out-hitting Cal State Bakersfield .371 to .147 in its 30-18 win.
“I think the biggest factor is that we played more relaxed,” McFarland said. “We played a little bit tight the last couple of matches [against] Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State San Bernardino. The team kind of relaxed and just played with more confidence, and that’s really closer to the level that I think they’re capable of.”
McFarland was pleased to see the Tritons improve from the last match and adjust to take the early lead in the games.
“Two things were key [in taking the early lead] — one is that almost every player we have was serving tough and put a lot of service pressure and that was a big difference,” McFarland said. “And our passing was really good [tonight]. Teresa [Ohta] is a fabulous setter and she has a lot of capacity and she can really get our offense going.”
Ohta had 29 assists and 11 digs for the night while Wilson led the Tritons with 12 kills. Canape contributed nine kills while Crandel hit .636 and added eight kills. Dunsmore and freshman libero Natalie Facchini had 10 and 12 digs, respectively, for UCSD. McFarland and his players also felt the strong fan support was a big advantage in helping the team win.
“I felt that we played great as a team,” Wilson said. “And the energy from the crowd was amazing. It is so great to have all these fans here and we all hope they return — that’d be awesome.”
The Tritons embark on a brief road trip to take on Cal State Dominguez Hills on Oct. 1 and Cal Poly Pomona on Oct. 2 before returning home to host Sonoma State on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.
