After a three-game losing streak to Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Los Angeles and Cal Poly Pomona, the No. 18 UCSD women’s volleyball team finally came out on top in its last game before the NCAA Pacific Regionals, topping Cal State Dominguez Hills in straight sets on Nov. 12.
Only eight teams will go on to compete in the regional tournament, and the UCSD team waits in anticipation for Nov. 14, when the decisions will be announced.
Nicole Courtney, who was recently named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VIII team, explained some of the problems faced by her team.
“Pomona was really on top of their game and we weren’t attacking hard enough from behind the service line, but there is not much you can do with a 6-foot-3-inch girl hitting over your block,” Courtney said.
Despite the recent struggles, the girls came out strong and swept Cal State Dominguez Hills with final scores of 30-27, 30-21, and 30-18. UCSD came in slow in the first match as Cal State Dominguez Hills jumped to a 7-12 lead and held it, due to some Triton errors, until UCSD rallied to tie the game at 23-23 on a freshman Rebecca Bailey kill. Freshman Kimberly Carpenter fired off two aces and the unstoppable Courtney brought it home with a final kill to make it 30-27.
The Tritons fell behind yet again in game two at 7-12 and wouldn’t make their way back up until a kill by sophomore Amber Reis pulled them ahead at 17-16. The Tritons then went on a 6-1 run and added four points after a bit of Toro retaliation, bringing them to a comfortable lead of 27-20. After a beautiful tandem block by junior Brianna Koche and Carpenter, UCSD took a two-game advantage with a 30-21 win in the second game.
In the final game, UCSD took an early lead of 10-5, which it needed to hold off the battling Toros. The Tritons used an 8-3 run to take a larger 18-12 lead, with the last point coming off of a Reis kill. The six-point lead proved enough and the Tritons went on to an ultimate game three win of 30-18.
Senior Laura Watkins ended the game with 12 digs, reaching 408 on the season and setting the UCSD record for digs in a single season.
Head coach Tom Black added a bit of praise.
“Nicole Courtney does so much for us and Laura can’t be replaced as a player or a person,” Black said. “It is so awesome for them to be recognized for those achievements.”
Black also praised his team’s fierce competitiveness.
“The team has been really competitive all year long, and have had some good wins,” Black said. “None of them had any court experience before and are all coming back next year to do some more damage.”
Courtney had nothing but positive memories as well.
“I am really proud of what we have done as a team,” she said. “Coming in small and inexperienced, we knew there was a lot of work ahead of us and many challenges, but we proved we could hang with the best of them.”
