By Andrew Hartley(@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter
Teammates and fans embrace SJSU’s Jiana Lawson, middle, after a thrilling rally ends by a thundering block giving SJSU the lead. Photo via Andrew Hartley
Though it wasn’t math night at Spartan Gym Sept. 28, it was B-squared all night long. Roommates Brooke Slusser and Brooke Bryant will head back home happy tonight as both set career highs as SJSU (10-6, MW 1-2) beat Nevada(4-11, MW 0-4) 3-1 in Thursday’s match.
After a sluggish start dropped the Spartans its first set, they shortly awoke to win three straight sets in their conference play home opener.
“Knowing the way we played today was probably 50% of what we have right now in this part of the season, ” said Slusser. “We have that much room for progress right now.”
Team kill-leader Blaire Fleming was seen on the bench with a brace around her right wrist dressed out of uniform. But there was no shortage of offense tonight.
Slusser was only a dig away from finishing with the first triple-double in SJSU history since 2009. She finished with a career-high 11 kills, 35 assists, and just nine digs.
Bryant was another player to set a career-high tonight with 16 kills and hit a team-high .481. One of the three team captains, Bryant was also very vocal from the bench generating excitement and coaching the team during timeouts.
“Obviously our passing was beautiful tonight, we can’t do anything without our pass,” said Bryant complementing the team play.
Notably freshman Teya Nguyen, who didn’t play in the first set, came in to accumulate 14 assists for the Spartans.
This was the Spartans’ first conference win of the season and their first home game in over five weeks. SJSU dropped its first two conference games last week winning only one of the seven sets played. With trips from North Carolina to southern California, the Spartans were awaiting a trip home to play in front of the fans.
“I love being on our home court. I know it’s hot, but it’s our hot box, we love it,” said Bryant.
This was also the first Mountain West conference win for SJSU head coach Todd Kress, adding it to the list of his accolades and wins in NCAA volleyball.
And while it was cleaner, there were still mental errors made. Three different rotation errors occurred tonight to Kress’ dismay.
“We can’t do that 16 games into a season, those are free points and we have to take advantage of them,” said Kress.
Understanding his team is younger and still gelling together, mental errors and lack of effort plays won’t be accepted. “Hopefully they’ll step up to the challenge in the way we step on the court the next time the jersey comes on,” said Kress.
That next challenge will happen Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. against Fresno State at Spartan Gym. The ‘Dogs just beat Nevada earlier this week, Tuesday, in a 3-2 thriller.