Freshman Vanessa Vella had 27 digs and senior Lauren
Goins slammed 19 kills as Cal State Fullerton defeated Pacific 3-2 (30-16,
30-26, 20-30, 19-30, 15-10) in a Big West Conference women’s volleyball
match Saturday night in front of 172 at Titan Gym.
Tonight’s win was the first time the Titans have beat the Tigers
in 42 chances since they began competition in 1984. Fullerton improves
to 13-11 overall and 5-9 in the Big West conference, while Pacific drops
to 13-10, 10-6.
With her 19 kills, Goins earned her 15th double-double of the season by
adding 13 digs on the defensive side. Vella’s 27 digs ties her season-high.
Fullerton came out with high-intensity as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead
hitting .267 in game one and .279 in game two while only committing 9
errors. Fullerton then let Pacific back in the game as Tigers held the
Titans to .022 and .000 hitting in games three and four to tie the match
at two games a piece.
Fullerton got off only five kills and made five hitting errors in game
four.
Sarah Morrison capped off the historical win with a kill to end the game
as the Titan defense held Pacific to a .026 hitting percentage in the
deciding game five.
Despite hitting just .151 on the night, Fullerton took advantage of 30
hitting errors and 11 service errors by the Tigers while out-blocking
them 11-8 as a team. Tiffany Dolven led all blockers with eight.
Four Tigers reached double-digits in kills led by Stevie Mussie who led
all players with 20. Ashley Groothuis (17), Sarah Vinall (14) Susan Drollinger
(11) all added ten or more slams helping Pacific to hit .223 overall.
Julie Magud also added 31 digs in the losing effort.
Tonights victory marks the first time since 1996 that the Titans have
earned five wins in conference play. Fullerton’s 13th win this season
also matches head coach Carolyn Zimmerman’s first two seasons combined
(5-26 in 2002, and 8-22 in 2003).
Fullerton is now set to take its three-game winning-streak to Idaho (11/11/04)
and Utah State (11/13/04) next week. Thursday’s game will be at
7:00 p.m. PST while Saturday night’s match will be at 7:00 p.m.
MST. Pacific is moves on to play Cal State Northridge and UC Davis.
