Santa Barbara Quiets SDSU Women, Sweeps Volleyball Final

If talk is cheap, San Diego State’s women’s volleyball team should invest in some, because Saturday night, their lips were sealed.

Eighteenth-ranked SDSU lost to 10th-ranked UC Santa Barbara, 15-9, 15-7, 15-12 in the championship of the ASICS Classic in front of 353 at Peterson Gym.

Angela Martin, the Aztec captain and tournament MVP, said what SDSU needs to do is get verbal. “We need to talk to each other, communicate more,” Martain said.

Part of the problem might have been that the players were simply too tired to speak. Earlier in the day, the Aztecs defeated Pepperdine 8-15, 12-15, 15-11, 16-14, 15-1, and it took them 2 hours, 21 minutes to do so.

UCSB also won a marathon match, 15-4, 13-15, 15-1, 11-15, 17-15 against Arizona State in the morning, but it had an extra two hours to recuperate.

“(Fatigue) was a little bit of a factor,” Martin said, “but we have to learn to overcome those things.”

But SDSU was also overcome by the blazing serves and international know-how of Merita Berntsen, UCSB’s sophomore setter from Norway.

“Their setter from Norway is very, very good,” SDSU Coach Rudy Suwara said. “Whenever you have someone who has played internationally, it’s a big help. It’s much different from coming from the high school game.”

From a playing standpoint, Gracie Schutt is right out of high school. The sophomore outside hitter, a member of the 1990 Sports Festival team and the Aztecs other all-tournament selection, redshirted her freshman year.

But the combined talents of Martin and Schutt provide the Aztecs with perhaps its most valuable asset: a powerful outside hitting game.

“I felt San Diego had the two best outside hitters (of the tournament),” UCSB Coach Kathy Gregory said of Martin and Schutt.

But Gregory also had some suggestions for the Aztecs, tips she felt will help them climb in the college rankings.

“Their setting has to develop and their ball control has to improve,” she said. “But they’re physically talented and they’ll get better.”

Last year, the Aztecs finished fourth in the first year of the tournament, which Colorado won by defeating Santa Barbara.

“We feel fortunate, because we lost last year in the final,” Gregory said, insisting that the difference in rankings between her Gauchos (7-1) and SDSU (7-2) isn’t all that much. “It’s been proven that anyone can beat anyone,” she said.

Suwara agreed. “Really, there were some very good teams in this tournament,” he said. “Four could be in the top 20 (rankings).”

Suwara said despite the loss, he was proud with the way his players played throughout the three-day tournament.

“They’ve made lots of progress,” he said. “They made a miraculous comeback in beating Pepperdine. We were so happy to get to the final.”

In that match, the Aztecs lost the first two games and were losing, 5-0, in fourth before pulling out the victory.

And UCSB just got off to an even better start in the championship. “We came out flat. We were not rested, and (UCSB) jumped to a good start,” Suwara said.

In the third-place game, Pepperdine defeated Arizona State, 15-6, 9-15, 16-14, 16-14.

Martin had a game-high 12 kills, and Schutt added eight. For UCSB, Maria Reyes had 11.