Beavers women’s volleyball team couldn’t continue their success as they fell 3-1 against the San Diego Toreros on Saturday at Gill.
The Beavers led after a hard-fought first set, winning 25-22. The set was all Beavers until the Toreros fought back to tie it at 20 apiece, then 21, and again at 22. Finally, the Beavers put the set away with a block and a pair of forced errors by the Toreros.
Lauren Rumel led the way in kills with 13, followed by Annika Hester with nine. Emma Lilo had 19 assists, while Zaria Thornton had four blocks.
Hester, a former Torero, had fun playing her former team.
“Honestly, I was super excited,” Hester said. “My teammates know this means a lot to me; it is pretty frustrating that we didn’t get to win, especially at home; it just meant a lot to have my friends on the other side, overall really grateful.”
San Diego played over half the game without one of their star players, Kennedy Osunsanmi. The freshman from California went down early in the second set with a knee injury and could not put any pressure on it. She was seen getting aid from her teammates when the teams switched sides.
The Toreros rallied off the injury, winning the second set. Nemo Beach led them with 14 kills and Kylie Munday with 37 assists.
The third and fourth sets for the Beavers were close, losing set three by five and set four by three. A highlight from the game, though, was it being Senior Night.
“This group of seniors was so fun to play with,” Hester said. “Obviously, Elly (Shraeder), we played at USC together, so it meant a lot to both of us; I’m just like, we are going to miss them a lot.”
The four seniors were libero Iris Coba, setter Amanda Burns and middle-blockers Elly Shraeder and Kalli Schoening.
What stood out in the game was the presence of serving errors, where the teams combined had 24, whereas the last time they played, there were only nine.
“For us, if the serve is aggressive, we are ok with it,” head coach Lindsey Behonick said. “So I think we were going after it in big moments, it was just poor timing. For us, it’s like, let’s keep leaning into it because we did a good job at acting them.”
The Toreros return home to California to face the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The Beavers have their last two home games next week, the first on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. against the Portland Pilots and Washington State on Friday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m., both at Gill Coliseum.
