The Cougars were away on Saturday, Sept. 24 for another CCAA showdown against UCSD. Though the Cougars were evenly matched with the Tritons, they fell short and lost three sets to one (25-23, 20-25,17-25, 22-25).

Ken Grosse, Senior Associate Athletics Director of UCSD, created this special game four years ago to honor UCSD volleyball player and Alumni Karen Reis, who was tragically murdered in 2012. Whoever wins the Reis match, receives a trophy which will stay put at UCSD. This game is the third trophy that UCSD has won at the Reis Cup.

The Cougars dominated the first set with a momentary 16-8 lead. Freshman Maddy Newcombe had five kills in the first set while Freshmen Aleese Wheaton had 12 assists, giving the first set to the Cougars, 25-23.

The Cougars rallied when Newcombe served an ace and gave them a chance to come back 22-19. But this wasn’t enough. Triton Lindsey Chun served her team into victory for the second set, 20-25.

In the third set, Newcombe had 11 kills and sophomore Lauren Lee had nine kills. Again, the Cougars almost prevailed when freshman Madi Anderson set the score at 24-15 with a kill. With a serve, junior Ashley Kaylor forced UCSD to hit it out of bounds, making the score 24-17. Unfortunately, Kaylor hit her next serve out of bounds and UCSD won the third set, 25-17.

The Tritons prevailed and won 25-22 in the fourth and final set of the match. Though the Cougars faced defeat, the women had high stats throughout the game.

Wheaton led the team with 41 assists, while Lee led with 13 kills. Newcombe came right behind Lee with 12 kills. Defensively, junior Samantha Flores had 24 digs.

Despite the loss, Lee believes her team has the ability to be a dominating team.

“We came out so strong in the first set, it showed that we had the ability to do it and we fought hard and we played against a good team,” Lee said. “I think it just shows that no matter what the circumstances, if we really put our mind to it we can be that team to beat, the very top team.”

Head coach Andrea Leonard is proud of her team’s improvement from last year’s match against UCSD.

“Last year we lost in three [sets] to UCSD. [This year] we beat them in the first [set] and hung with them. In my mind that’s a win in itself going into Monterey Bay [this Friday].”

After this loss, the Cougars fell to 1-2 in their conference. Their overall record stands at 8-4.
The Cougars’ next match is 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 30 against Cal State Monterey Bay at Seaside. Their next home game is at 7 p.m. on  Friday, Oct. 7 against Sonoma State.