Volleyball : Aztecs Rally to Defeat Texas, Win Longhorn Invitational

After losing the opening game, the San Diego State women’s volleyball team rallied to beat No. 7-ranked Texas, 13-15, 15-13, 15-11, 10-15, 15-11, and win the Longhorn Invitational tournament in Austin, Tex.

The No. 1-ranked Aztecs (27-1) were led by Renee Pankopf, Sally Larsen and Kim Harsch, all of whom had 19 kills. Harsch was selected the tournament’s most valuable player, and Pankopf and teammate Jackie Mendez made the all-tournament team.

“Our girls really came through in the clutch for us, especially with (setter) Liane Sato out with an injury and (middle blocker) Kris Morton playing with an injury,” SDSU Coach Rudy Suwara said. “Plus, it was nice to win another five-game tournament.”

The Longhorn Invitational was the fourth tournament the Aztecs have won this year.

UC San Diego beat La Verne, 3-0. The Tritons improved their record to 24-4 with a 15-10, 15-4, 15-10 victory over visiting La Verne College. Carol Lipson led the Tritons with 19 kills. Kim Stonecipher had 40 assists for UCSD, which remains the No. 1-ranked team in NCAA Div. III play. La Verne is 8-11.

United States International University beat Nevada Reno, 3-1. Nancy Dome had 35 kills to pace the Gulls past visiting Nevada Reno, 16-14, 11-15, 15-8, 15-11, in West Coast Athletic Conference play. Erin Tomblin had 66 assists for USIU, which played the match without reserves. The victory improves USIU to 2-0 in conference and 11-11 overall. Nevada-Reno is 3-1 and 10-10.

Brigham Young University took another step toward acceptance as a threat for the NCAA championship, by defeating two teams ranked in the nation’s top five at the UCLA-National Invitational Volleyball Tournament at Pauley Pavilion.

BYU got 23 kills from Sari Virtanen and 19 from Jill Sanders to win the tournament with a 15-12, 12-15, 15-9, 8-15, 15-10 victory over fourth-ranked Hawaii before a crowd of 1,783. BYU is 20-2. Hawaii, led by Suzanne Eagye’s 16 kills, is 15-2.

The seventh-ranked Cougars beat Cal State Northridge, No. 1 in Division II, UC Santa Barbara and California in pool play before beating Cal State Long Beach in the quarterfinals and then upsetting No. 2 University of the Pacific to reach the finals.

This was no traditional team on the court, either--their starting lineup consisted of two players from Finland, two from Michigan, one from Salt Lake City and just one from California, that being Torrance’s Corinne Russell.

In beating Pacific (15-3) for third place, No. 6 UCLA won the first two games, 15-11 and 15-12, fell apart and were blown out of the next two, 5-15 and 3-15, before winning the fifth, 15-9. Wendy Fletcher (18 kills) and Jenny Crocker (15) led the Bruins, while Pacific got 15 kills from standout sophomore Elaina Oden from Irvine and Brooke Herrington.