Cal State Northridge Downs Fresno State in Husky Classic Opener
August 24, 2007 | Volleyball
Aug. 24, 2007
In their last meeting in Oct. 2006, Cal State Northridge swept Fresno State 3-0, but for the 2007 season opener the Bulldogs pushed Cal State Northridge to the limit of five games before falling 3-2, at the Husky Classic Aug. 24 in Seattle, Wash.
Despite falling 0-1 to start game one, the Bulldogs came out strong and were up by as many as 10 points at 14-4. The Matadors made a few small runs and cut it as close as four at 28-24 before FS closed the deal. Sophomore Kelly Leonardo and senior Angela Wiggins had four kills a piece in game one to lead FS to a 30-25 victory.
Game two had 10 ties and CSUN hit .254 compared to just .143 for Fresno State as the Matadors tied the match at 1-1 with a 30-32 victory.
Game three was just as close as game two with the Matadors prevailing again, 30-28. Tied at 24, the Bulldogs took the lead at 27-24 before the Matadors scored five-straight points to take the game. Leonardo had another great game with six kills and Wiggins added five.
The Bulldogs got out to a 4-0 lead to start game four and never looked back with a convincing 30-23 victory to take the match to game five. Fresno State hit its best of the match a .256.
In the deciding game five, the Matadors took the lead from the first serve and never looked back as they won 15-12 and took the match. Cal State Northridge hit an impressive .556, the best of the match for either team.
Alex Johnson led CSUN with 22 kills, and also had 20 digs. Harmony Burdine added 16 kills and 23 digs, while Val Kepler had 11 kills. Kelly Hanson had a team-high 29 digs for the Matadors. Also for CSUN, Angela Hupp had 34 assists and Kayla Wright had 26 assists.
For the match the Bulldogs had 17.5 team blocks, including 9.5 in the first two games alone. Sophomore Lisa Gera led the team with 32 digs followed by Wiggins with 13 and freshman Meghan Moss with 12 and Kelly Mason with 11.
The freshman had a huge debut with the performances of Moss and Mason along with Lauren Berger who had eight blocks of her own.
Leonardo lead the team with a .345 hitting percentage and senior Tiffany Hess recorded 48 assists.
On day two of the tournament (Aug. 25), the Bulldogs take on Washington, the No. 8 team in the country and the 2005 National Champion, at 11 a.m. and then face San Francisco later in the day at 5 p.m. Cal State Northridge faces San Francisco at 1 p.m., and then takes on Washington to close out the tournament. That match is at 7 p.m.
All tournament matches can be viewed on gametracker from the main tournament website: /ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30200&ATCLID=208221965.
