ISU Upsets No. 16 San Diego, 3-2, In First Round

Friday, November 30

Madison, Wis.

5:00 PM

Iowa State

San Diego

ISU Upsets No. 16 San Diego, 3-2, In First Round

11.30.2007 | Volleyball

By: cyclones.com

MADISON, Wis. - A pair of key runs in the second and fifth games fueled Iowa State to a 3-2 (25-30, 31-29, 30-19, 24-30, 16-14) over No. 16 San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. It marks the Cyclones (18-13) second consecutive win over a ranked opponent, the first time in school history ISU has achieved the feat. The Cyclones closed the regular season with a 3-1 win over then-No. 21 Oklahoma. The Cyclones will advance to face seventh-seeded and eighth-ranked Wisconsin on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Cyclones rallied from down 24-16 in game two to win 31-29 and then trailed 13-10 in the fifth game before earning a 16-14 win to advance to the second round for the third time in school history.

Trailing 13-10 in game five, ISU turned to Victoria Henson and all-Big 12 first teamer Erin Boeve. A Henson smash made it 13-11 before Boeve and Lauren Cummings teamed up for a block on Amy DeGroot to close the gap to 13-12. Then Boeve ripped back-to-back kills to give Iowa State its first lead of game five at 14-13. After San Diego tied it, Cummings had a kill and the Cyclones finished the match on a block by junior Jen Malcom and freshman Rachel Williams.

“That was just a great match by two great teams,” Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson said. “Usually one team would eventually let go and the other will take it but that never happened tonight. If you take a look at the stats, they were nearly identical. The thing I am really excited about is how we handled the pressure and stayed poised.”

The Cyclones got 18 kills each from Henson and Cummings while Malcom chipped in 13. Malcom also had a school-record 13 block assists for her second double-double of the season. Kaylee Manns finished with 57 assists and 15 digs while Ashley Mass recorded a match-high 26 digs. The freshman from Muskego, Wis., becomes just the third player in school-history to reach 500 digs in a season.

San Diego (21-8) was paced by Amy DeGroot, who had 20 kills, and Laurel Abrahamson and Ali Troost, who chipped in 16 and 15, respectively. Andrea Csaszi had 20 digs in the loss.

San Diego, the West Coast Conference co-champions, used an 8-3 run to grab a 30-25 first game win. The Cyclones were out hit .282 to .083 but were still in it at 22-22 before the Toreros gained separation with two straight points. The Toreros also picked up six blocks to Iowa State's four in the first frame. Cummings led ISU with seven first game kills while Abrahamson had seven for USD.

Iowa State again struggled offensively to start game two, falling behind 24-16, before mounting a valiant comeback and taking the game 31-29. San Diego followed an ISU timeout with a kill by Ali Troost but the Cyclones responded to score five straight and get back in it. ISU continued to chip away at the Torero lead and finally evened it up at 28-28 on an ace by Manns. DeGroot smashed home a kill to give San Diego game point but the Cyclones scored the next three on kills by Cummings, Rachel Williams and Boeve to tie it at 1-1 heading into the break.

“I felt like we finally were able to settle into our game once we realized that they were keying on our middles,” Johnson said. “We started going elsewhere and that's why our outsides and right side had better numbers.”

The Cyclones trailed only briefly in the third game before cruising to the impressive 30-19 win. After San Diego took the 3-2 lead on a kill from Troost, Cummings and Malcom teamed up for the block and ISU continued to roll with a kill from Williams, ace by Vos and another Malcom kill to distance it from the Toreros. The Cyclones ripped the ball at a .378 clip while holding San Diego to a .132 average to go up 2-1 in the match.

A 6-0 run after Iowa State had closed the lead to 11-10 San Diego propelled the Toreros to a 30-24 win in the fourth game to send it to a fifth. USD hit .287 while Iowa State was just below at .244 in what other than one run was a relatively even game.

The Toreros raced out to a 5-2 lead in game five but the Cyclones were able to trim away and cut it to 8-6 USD as the teams switched sides. ISU tied it at 9-9 on a kill by Manns but the Toreros won a long rally and stuffed back a Henson attack to make it 11-9 USD. After San Diego made it 13-10, ISU got a kill by Henson and a block assist from Boeve and Cummings and a kill by Boeve to knot it at 13, forcing San Diego to call its second timeout.