Career-High Performances Not Enough As UCR Falls 3-1 At Utah State

Saturday, September 18

Logan, UT

11:00 AM

UC Riverside

1-11

Utah State

12-1

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
UC Riverside	17	25	24	24	1
Utah State	25	20	26	26	3

Photo by: UCR Athletics Media Relations

Career-High Performances Not Enough As UCR Falls 3-1 At Utah State

9/18/2010 11:21:53 AM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Box Score - Utah State 3, UC Riverside 1

Logan, UT - Senior Kelly Simpson tallied a career-high 21 kills and 16 digs against Utah State on Saturday morning, but it wasn't enough as the UC Riverside volleyball team lost a 3-1 battle to the Aggies in the last game of the Utah State Invitational at Smith Spectrum, 25-17, 20-25, 26-24, and 26-24.

Simpson led all players with 21 kills while Shelby LeDuff added 14 and Amanda Vialpando had 10 for UCR (1-11). Vialpando (pictured) also led four Highlanders in double-digit digs with a game and career-high 19. Megan Patterson added 17 digs, Simpson had 16, and Katie Meyers had 11.

The teams opened the first set with three tie scores through four points. The Aggies (12-1) then went on a 5-0 run to take a 9-4 advantage, and proceeded to lead by nine at different junctures as they went on for the 25-17 win.

In the second set, the Highlanders led from the beginning and never relinquished their lead. They used two straight Simpson kills to give UCR its largest margin of the set at 14-7.

Utah State made a small run by outscoring the Highlanders 6-2 to close the gap to 16-13, but UC Riverside maintained between a three to five point lead until the Aggies got within two, 22-20.

It wasn't enough, however, as two more kills by Simpson helped the team to a 25-20 second set win, tying the match at one set apiece.

After trading points to open the third set, the Aggies took a 12-9 lead only to see the Highlanders rally off four straight to retake the lead at 13-12. An error by Utah State started the four-point span, followed by a Meyers service ace and two LeDuff kills.

Tied at 15-15, the Aggies outscored the Highlanders 8-2 to take a 23-17 advantage. Needing just two points to win, Utah State went cold as UCR scored six consecutive points to tie the set at 23-23. Simpson had three kills and LeDuff added two during that span to put the Highlanders back in contention.

A service error by Bianca Endersby put USU up at set point 24-23, but Simpson layed down a kill on the next possession to make it 24-24.

The Highlanders late rally came to an end, however, as Utah State scored the next two straight to win the set 26-24 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.

In the fourth set, UC Riverside went up 5-1 early on, but the Aggies came back to tie the set at 10-10. UCR took a two point lead at three more times until USU again tied the set at 16 apiece.

From that point, the teams traded points and had seven tie scores through 24-24. Similar to the third set, unfortunately, Utah State procured the two points needed to win the set, and did so with a 26-24 match victory.

The Highlanders open their home season as Big West Conference play gets underway next Friday, Sept. 24 with a 7:30 pm match against UC Davis at the Student Recreation Center.