The San José State women’s volleyball team took a tough loss on Thursday night against their Mountain West rivals, San Diego State.
This is their second loss in a row, taking a third loss on Saturday against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Head Coach Todd Kress talked about the problems of what went wrong for his team during the game.
“They were playing not to lose instead of playing to win and when you do that nine times out of 10, you’re going to lose,” Kress said. “We were super tight, high-strung from the beginning, and we were never able to work ourselves out of that.”
This bumps the Spartans to third in the Mountain West Conference with an overall record of (9-3, 4-3 MWC).
San Diego State ranks fifth in the Mountain West conference with an overall record of (11-5, 3-3 MWC)
“We struggled in the serving scene, so we were really unable to run a balanced attack,” Kress said. “They were able to run their middles pretty much at will for a good two-thirds of that match and that was a big difference.”
The Spartans lost the first set 25-21 and the Aztecs continued their dominance in the second set, beating the Spartans 25-18 and closing out the Blue and Gold 25-19 in the third set.
The Spartans lost to the Aztecs in three straight sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-19).
Kress said that although the Spartans lost, there were still positive takeaways from the game.
Senior outside hitter Blaire Fleming led the game in kills, scoring 11 points for the entire match in kills alone and recording a double-double for the third time this season.
The Spartans
Senior setter Brooke Slusser had 15 assists, two digs and hit .583 for the match.
“There have been many times this year that we as a group, (we) could have packed it in, and this group refuses to do that no matter what’s been thrown at them,” Kress said. “What I love about this team is they have their own heartbeat … They’re already talking about what things need to change more in practice.”
Kress said the Spartans made several service errors during the game, which was the biggest problem of the team.
The head coach also mentioned that the team’s service reception was one of their biggest challenges during the game.
“We’ve got to be able to win the server pass game, I didn’t think we did that tonight. They definitely did a really nice job of serving, having us out of the system,” Kress said. “We didn’t have them out of the system enough in regards to our serving game.”
The Spartans gave away 10 points through service errors alone throughout the game.
Kress said certain outside forces may have been affecting his team’s play. One of the reasons he mentioned was that the crowd was larger than most game nights.
“I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a huge crowd in here tonight, and that’s a tribute to who you are as student-athletes and as people, and the fact that they’re here because you put a great product on the court every single night that you’ve gone out and taken the court,’ ” Kress said. “So take advantage of that, you know, get the crowd involved. Go out and make some plays. All it takes is a play or two, and you get the momentum swinging in our side.”
The San José State Spartans are scheduled to play against the University of New Mexico on Thursday at Johnson Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico at 5:30 p.m.