SDSU Volleyball Team Is Caught in the Middle : No. 9-Ranked Aztecs Lose in Four Games to No. 5 Bruins in Season Opener

Coach Rudy Suwara expects that this will be a successful season for his San Diego State women’s volleyball team because it is supposed to be very strong up the middle.

The Aztecs are led by middle blockers Kris Morton, a first-team All-American last year, and Angelica Jackson.

What Suwara doesn’t expect to happen very often is what happened Friday night when the No. 9-ranked Aztecs met the No. 5 UCLA Bruins in the season opener for both teams at Peterson Gym.

Instead of dominating the middle, the Aztecs lost the advantage there to the Bruins, who went on to a 15-12, 15-17, 15-5, 15-10 victory in front of 1,079 fans.

For much of the third and fourth games, Morton and Jackson seemed absent up front as UCLA’s senior middle blocker, Stacy Buck, went on to record a game-high 19 kills. Buck also controlled the middle when the Aztecs had the ball, registering eight kills, the most of any player.

“I thought our middle attack was overpowering, but we had our troubles,” Suwara said. “They seemed to have their middle game on cruise control.”

Both teams struggled to find their game legs while splitting the first two games of the match. After that, however, UCLA found a soft spot in the Aztec defense and continually exploit it.

San Diego State had trouble combating the UCLA attack, and it was hurt further because its best outside hitter, Jackie Mendez, was sitting on the bench because she pulled a muscle in her abdomen early in the third game.

“It did seem to throw us off with Jackie out of there,” Suwara said. “But it’s no excuse. We don’t have much to be happy about after a match like this.”

With Mendez out, the Aztecs were forced to go with freshman Sandi Thomsen at the outside position. Thomsen, from Calabasas, had a rough night, converting only one of nine hits into kills and committing four errors.

The good news for the Aztecs is that Mendez should be back soon. SDSU lost four starters from last year’s 37-9 team and Suwara doesn’t have the depth his teams normally have.

With Mendez out, and Morton and Jackson having off-nights, the Aztecs didn’t have anyone else to turn to Friday night.