The San Jose State volleyball team made it all the way to the Mountain West tournament Championship at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo. where they lost to Utah State 3-1, on Friday night.
After earning the No. 2 seed, the Spartans earned a first round bye in the tournament, where they would play the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between No. 3 seed Colorado State and No. 6 seed San Diego State. The Aztecs eventually toppled the hosting Rams.
The Spartans had their chance at redemption against the Aztecs after SDSU played spoiler on SJSU’s senior night the previous week and won 3-1.
Just like their previous matchup, the match was a back and forth battle.
SJSU started hot, taking the first set 25-17. Sophomore outside hitter Madeline Boerstra led the Spartan offense with 6 kills.
However, the Aztecs flipped the script and took the second set 25-17 score, tying the match at 1-1.
In the third set, the Spartans started finding their momentum as redshirt sophomore Blaire Fleming had 5 kills en route to winning the set 25-19.
The Spartans were 1 set away from going to the championship game.
SJSU carried momentum from the previous set where it would eventually lead the Aztecs 12-4. SDSU had other plans and gained momentum fast where it eventually tied with the Spartans at 20-20.
The Spartans fought back, taking a 26-25 lead with the game winning point coming from an SDSU attack error. SJSU won the third set 27-25 with the game score being 3-1.
The win marked the Spartans’ first MW championship appearance in program history where their last hurdle was against No. 4 Utah State.
Not only did the game have a conference championship on the line, but a guaranteed bid to the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tournament was also up for grabs.
SJSU took the early lead and won the first set from a Utah State attack error in a close finish 26-24.
In the second set, the Spartans struggled to keep up with the Aggies as their only lead came at 3-2. The Aggies won the set 25-14 to tie up the match.
There was some life left in the Spartans as they made a 4 point run to turn their 1-4 score to 5-4. But the Aggies had other plans and went on a 7 point run where their momentum led them to winning the third set 25-17.
The Aggies closed out the tournament with a fourth set in which they never trailed, being crowned MW tournament champions.
Fifth-years Sarah Smevog and Haylee Nelson were the Spartans’ top performers. Smevog led the team with 10 digs ending her career as second-all time in school history with 1,734. Nelson led with 13 kills and moved up to fifth-all time in school history with 1,439.
“Just fell a little short against a really great Utah State team”, said head coach Trent Kersten. “We really wanted to do this for our seniors.”
The loss ended the Spartans’ historic season and marked the end of long-tenured Sarah Smevog and Haylee Nelson’s collegiate careers who were both named to the MW All-Tournament team.
