Vialpando's Five Kills In Decisive Fifth Set Send Senior Night Crowd Home Happy

Saturday, November 17

Riverside, CA

7:00 pm

UC Riverside

8-22, 2-14

Cal Poly

3-25, 2-14

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Cal Poly	17	20	25	25	13	2
UC Riverside	25	25	18	15	15	3

Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta

Vialpando's Five Kills In Decisive Fifth Set Send Senior Night Crowd Home Happy

11/17/2012 9:27:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Box Score—UC Riverside 3, Cal Poly 2

Riverside—It wasn't easy, but the UC Riverside Women's Volleyball Team sent its senior class out in style Saturday as the Highlanders picked up a 3-2 win over visiting Cal Poly in the final home match for UC Riverside's Class of 2013. The win was the third in the past six matches for UCR, and their second conference win in their last four.

Cal Poly (3-25, 2-14) scored the first two points of the first set, but the Highlanders rattled off 11 of the next 14 to take an 11-5 lead. The Mustangs never got closer than four the rest of the way and UCR scored the final three points to take the set 25-17. Ashley Cox paced the UC Riverside offense with four kills, while Amanda Vialpando and Jasmin White added three apiece.

The Highlanders (8-22, 2-14) picked up in the second set right where they left off scoring the first three points. Cal Poly cut the lead to one, 7-6, but UCR won three straight points and five of six to open up its largest lead of the set, 12-7. The Highlanders were still up five, 20-15, when Cal Poly strung four points together to close to within one. Vialpando's kill ended the run, and she was also the server of record as UC Riverside scored three more to bring up set point, 24-19.

An attack error gave the Mustangs life, but Cox picked up her eighth kill of the match on the subsequent play to put the Highlanders up two sets to zero.

Cal Poly jumped out to an early lead in the third set scoring the first two points and seven of the first 10. It was still a four-point Mustangs lead at 17-13 when Cal Poly went on a five-to-one run to take its biggest lead of the match, 22-14

A White kill ended the run, and the Highlanders scored three straight to close to within five, but a kill by Megan McConnell made it 23-17, and a UCR attack error brought Cal Poly to set point. The Highlanders called time out, and won the next point thanks to a service error, but UC Riverside committed a service error of its own on the very next play, as the Mustangs staved off elimination. Chelsea Hardin recorded five kills in the set to lead the Cal Poly offense.

A Vialpando kill gave the Highlanders an early 1-0 lead in set number four, but the Mustangs countered by taking six of the next seven points. UCR called time out, and scored the next two points coming out of the break, but Cal Poly won the serve back and scored 19 of the next 25 points to bring up set point.

UC Riverside battled back and scored five straight to make it 24-15 Cal Poly, but it was too little, too late. A McConnell kill gave the Mustangs the set and tied the match at two.

In set number five, neither team led by more than two points prior to the changeover at which point Cal Poly led 8-7. The Highlanders scored the next three points, two of which came on Vialpando kills, to take a 10-8 lead. The Mustangs called time out, and won the next point, but UC Riverside ran off three in a row to lead 13-9. That forced Cal Poly to call another time out. The Mustangs rallied to score the first two points coming out of that break, before another Vialpando kill gave the Highlanders match point.

A blocking error gave the serve back to Cal Poly, but the Mustangs subsequent serve was long, and UC Riverside sent their fans, and their seniors home happy.