LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's women's volleyball team put the finishing touches on a tremendous final weekend of the regular season with an impressive California Collegiate Athletic Association win over UC San Diego Saturday in night in University Gym.
The Golden Eagles honored their three seniors -
Sifa Faaiu,
Nicole Efseaff and
Cynthia Giron - in prematch ceremonies and then swept the Tritons, 25-20, 25-22, 25-22 in University Gym. The victory lifted Cal State LA (14-11, 10-7 CCAA) into a three-way tie with UC San Diego and Cal State Dominguez Hills for third place in the South Division. The top four teams in the South Division will join the top four teams in the North Division in the CCAA Championship Tournament. The conference was still determining the fourth team late Saturday night.
Karla Santos had another outstanding match on Saturday, collecting a match-high 15 kills and 11 digs. Faaiu had 12 kills and 13 digs and Daisia LaBrie had 11 kills and four blocks. LaBrie hit at a .444 percentage. Rebecca Seaberry had eight kills for UC San Diego (16-9, 10-7 CCAA).
Daisy Crenshaw had nine kills and one block, while Efseaff had 43 set assists. Jeshmarie Suarez had 16 digs.
Cal State LA had a 53-31 edge in kills and UC San Diego had a 10-5 advantage in blocks. Cal State LA didn't have any service aces, but had only two errors, while UC San Diego had two aces and two serving errors.
The first set was tied at 17-17 before kills by LaBrie and Santos gave the Golden Eagles the lead for good. Cal State LA held a 21-20 lead before a kill by Crenshaw, a block by LaBrie, a ball-handling error and an attack error gave the Golden Eagles the opening set.
Cal State LA opened up a 20-15 lead in the second set before UC San Diego crept back to within 22-21 and 23-22. A kill by Faaiu and a kill by Santos ended the set for Cal State LA.
The Golden Eagles trailed 19-16 in the third set, but scored five straight points to take the lead. Kills by Faaiu and Santos and a block by LaBrie and Summer Hansen tied it at 19-19. An attack error and a kill by Santos gave the Golden Eagles a 22-20 lead. UC San Diego tied it at 22-22, but kills by Crenshaw and Santos got the Golden Eagles to match point and a kill by Santos ended the match.
Cal State LA now awaits its postseason fate either late Saturday night or Sunday morning.
