October 25, 1998
BERKELEY, Calif. - The University of California women's volleyball team (6-14, 2-9 in Pac-10) lost a disappointing 3-2 match (7-15, 11-15, 16-14, 15-5, 15-11) to visiting Arizona State (8-10, 5-6 in Pac-10) Sunday afternoon at the Recreational Sports Facility on the Cal campus. It was the Bears third, five-game match of the season (1-2).
Cal played extremely well in the first two games, winning 15-7 and 15-11, to take a 2-0 lead. The Bears then lost a tough third game, 16-14, and seemed to run out of gas and played poorly in game four, losing 15-5.
In the fifth game, which is scored by rally scoring, Cal struggled early and was down 9-4 before sophomore outside hitter Alicia Perry sparked the Bears with a kill to make the score, 9-5. Cal then ran off three more points to get within 9-8. But, the Bears faltered again as Linda Johansson had a service error, followed by a receiving error by Johansson. The Sun Devils then recorded their ninth service ace of the match and added another kill to take a 13-8 lead. Cal was not quite down yet, as junior outside hitter Brook Coulter had back to back kills to get the Bears within 14-11, before Arizona State put the match away, 15-11.
"We displayed a good effort today," said Cal interim coach Lee Maes. "We played well enough, and deserved to win the third game. But, after that we weren't as sharp. Towards an end of match is when you need to be playing your best. After the third game, our passing broke down and we became to predictable."
The Sun Devils were led by 18 kills from sophomore outside hitter Amanda Burbridge and 17 kills by freshman middle blocker/outside hitter Robyn Mattingly. Mattingly also led Arizona State with 15 digs and setter Jolynn Faatulu had a fine match with 56 assists. Coulter led the Bears with 19 kills and had five service aces. Perry chipped in 13 kills and had a team-high 10 digs. Coulter had entered the weekend No. 1 in the nation in service ace average and now has 55 service aces on the season.