LOS ANGELES – Cal State LA's women's volleyball team celebrated the outstanding four-year career of senior superstar Iona Lofrano, but the match that followed it left a lot to be desired.
 
After the Senior Night ceremony, the Golden Eagles were beaten soundly by UC San Diego, 25-14, 25-13, 25-23 in the Eagles Nest. Cal State LA (19-10, 11-9 CCAA) was swept for the second time this season by the Tritons (18-10, 14-6 CCAA), who were plenty motivated after an upset loss at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday.
 
The Golden Eagles, on the other hand, didn't have that same urgency after a draining five-set loss to Cal State San Bernardino on Friday. Cal State LA fell behind by large margins in all three sets before putting up a battle in the third and final set.
 
Cal State LA slipped to sixth place in the conference with the loss and will take the No. 6 seed into the CCAA Championship Tournament. The Golden Eagles will face tournament host UC San Diego once again in a first-round match on Thursday. The Tritons wrapped up third place in the conference and have the No. 3 seed.
 
Lofrano, who is No. 3 all-time in kills at Cal State LA and finished the regular season as the CCAA's kill leader for the second time in three seasons, had only seven on Saturday to go along with 10 kills. Angela Thurmond had five kills and Lauren Gomez had four. The Golden Eagles had only 24 kills in the three sets and half of those came in the third set.
 
UC San Diego was led by Meagan Wright, who had 10 kills and seven digs. Danielle Dahle had nine kills, 12 digs and four blocks. UC San Diego had a 41-24 edge in kills, a 7-0 advantage in blocks and outhit the Golden Eagles, .210-.055.
 
Chloe Clancy had a team-high 11 digs for the Golden Eagles, while Makayla Taylor had 10. Sydney Kralj had 11 set assists and six digs.
 
The Tritons won the first two sets easily and raced out to an 18-11 lead in the third set before Cal State LA finally showed some signs of life. Fittingly, the majority of the run came behind the serving of Lofrano, who followed a kill by Lexi Resch with a kill herself to give the Golden Eagles a 19-18 lead. The Golden Eagles built a 22-20 lead after a pair of UC San Diego attack errors, but the Tritons scored the next four points to get to match point at 24-22. A ball-handling error made it 24-23, but the match ended when a serve by Resch was just out.
 
The Golden Eagles will face the Tritons for a third time on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.