August 29, 2006
Box Score
Carson CA – The wild ride continued for the 2006 CSUDH women's volleyball team as they held on to beat a game Armstrong Atlantic State University squad in an epic five-game battle (30-26, 28-30, 23-30, 30-16, 15-12) in their home opener, riding the fifth-straight double-double by freshman Penina Suddeth (Hesperia, CA/Hesperia HS), who finished with 17 kills and 18 digs. With the win, CSUDH improves to 3-3 on the season while Armstrong Atlantic State University falls to 4-3.
It was tight early as the Pirates jumped ahead of the Toros, but were never be able to gain more than a five-point advantage over a scrappy Toros team.
CSUDH would finally knot the game at 23-23 on a service ace by Courtney Spainhour (Redondo Beach, CA/El Camino CC), who would then proceed to serve four points to give the Toros a 27-23 lead before CSUDH could close out the Pirates for the 30-26 game one win.
Games two and three would see the Toros offense get itself out of sync as their hitting percentage dropped from .310 in game one to .220 in game two and finally .200 in game three. On the flip side, the Pirates would only grow stronger with each game, improving from a .289 hitting percentage in game one to .294 in game two and .327 in game three.
In game four the Toros would regain their stride and run through the Pirates, hitting a blistering .455 to AASU's .088, knotting the match at two games apiece with a convincing 30-16 win.
CSUDH would continue to ride its hot offense in the finale, jumping out to a quick 11-2 lead.
The Pirates, however, did not make the trip to Carson from Savannah, Georgia to be steamrolled without a fight in the fifth and deciding game.
AASU would mount an impressive comeback and chip away at the Toro lead behind the serve of Margaret Thornton, who first began her serve with the the Toros up 11-3, and finished serving with AASU having whittled its deficit to 12-10.
Nicole Hoffman (Clovis, CA/Fresno CC) would put a stop to the bleeding with a kill in the middle, after which Kayleigh Spratt (Rohnert Park, CA/Rancho Cotate HS) would follow with a service ace to give the Toros match point at 14-10.
AASU would not be finished as it cut the lead to 14-12, but a Pirate service error on match point #4 gave the Toros the final point and their first home win of the 2006 season.
For the Pirates, Rindy Vidovich would lead the offense with 14 kills, while Traci Knuth chipped in a double-double with 10 kills and 12 digs. Also in double figures for AASU was Christina Flores, Lauren Good, and Leah Schmiedge with 12, 10, and 10 kills, respectively.
In addition to Suddeth's double-double, Spainhour added her own with 14 kills and 17 digs, while Randi Johnson (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA/Campbell University), TaMesha Jefferson (Lancaster, CA/Antelope Valley College) and Timary More (Torrance, CA/El Camino CC) also enjoyed strong offensive performances with 14, 13, and 11 kills, respectively. Libero Maria Miranda (Lakewood, CA/Cerritos CC) would garner a game-high 22 digs, while setters Tiffany Bull (Lake Los Angeles, CA/Antelope Valley College) and Spratt led the offense with 40 and 21 assists, respectively.
CSUDH will next be in action Friday, September 1, when they take on the Roadrunners of Cal State Bakersfield, before traveling to Los Angeles, CA the next day to battle Cal State L.A. The Toros will then return home on Friday, September 8 to take on Chico State, with first serve for all the matches scheduled for 7:00 pm.
