By Fabiana Palacios (@fabianadaniela_) and Nick Orozco (@nickorozco03) – Spear Reporters // Photo via Titus Wilkinson
SJSU volleyball had its season opener at home this weekend, hosting schools from five different conferences. SJSU fell to 3-0 in the final match of the tournament against Santa Clara.
New head coach Todd Kress led the Spartans to a 2-1 record at the San Jose/Santa Clara Tournament to start their season over the weekend.
DAY 1
The first match-up for the blue and gold was against Cal State Northridge.
The first set saw the Big West competitors take it away from the Spartans after going on a four-point run to win the set 26-24.
Allowing the Matadors to take the first set, the Spartans would respond back by taking the following two sets 25-21 and 25-10.
SJSU would struggle to hold down its visitors in red and take the set away from CSUN, 26-24.
The game-deciding set was opened by a dominant five-point run for the Spartans.
Being down in the set 14-6, CSUN went on to make one last attacking attempt. Freshman Nayeli Ti’a cut off this attempt with a huge block to end the set 15-6 and win the match 3-2.
“We talk a lot about good mindset, the game is 85 percent mental and 15 percent physical,” said senior Jiana Lawson regarding their win of the fifth set. “We talked it over right before the game and executed exactly how we said.”
Dominating in her collegiate debut, Ti’a also led the team in kills with 24 on 47 attempts. Also putting in work was junior Blaire Fleming, and Lawson with ten kills a piece.
“She played out of her mind tonight,” said Kress about the performance of Ti’a. “Anytime we needed a point, we went to her.”
DAY 2
After going the distance with CSUN to five sets, SJSU came back on day two of the tournament and dominated on their home court.
Now facing Jacksonville University, SJSU swept the Dolphins 3-0, going 25-17, 25-21 and 25-19.
Leading the Spartans to sink the Dolphins was Fleming who led the team with 15 kills.
DAY 3
On the final day of the San Jose/Santa Clara Tourney, the Spartans would face the Broncos in their determining match.
By dropping the first two sets 22-25 and 25-16, the title was slipping from SJSU’s hands.
The match had slipped entirely from the Spartans’ hands after Santa Clara went on a nine-point run that put them up 11-2.
SJSU did not come back from this deficit, allowing Santa Clara to come out on top and win the set 25-18.
Even without the tournament title, the newly formed team led by Kress is looking forward to the season.
“It’s a learning experience for us, we will only get better from here,” Kress said.
With this tournament performance, the Spartans will go back before heading up to Sacramento on Friday and Saturday to play in the Hornet Invitational.