'Dogs survive five-set thriller over Cowgirls

Friday, March 12

Fresno, CA

5 P.M. PT

Fresno State

6-3, 6-3MW

Wyoming

7-4, 7-4MW

Wyoming

Fresno State

Photo by: Samuel Marshall

'Dogs survive five-set thriller over Cowgirls

3/12/2021 8:45:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Travis Blanshan / Assistant Director of Strategic Communications

FRESNO, Calif. - For the second consecutive match, the Fresno State volleyball team survived a five-set thriller defeating Wyoming on Friday evening at the Save Mart Center.

Fresno State won sets 19-25, 25-22, 25-17, 16-25, 15-10 to improve to 6-3 on the season while Wyoming falls to 7-4.

The Bulldogs were led offensively by a career-high 22 kills from sophomore Amaria Kelley who hit .378 in the match and added three digs and a block assist.

Senior Desiree Sukhov posted a double-double, her fourth of the season, finishing with 16 kills and 12 digs while serving up a career-best four aces.

Sophomore Grace Doyle registered a career-high 14 kills, one match after setting her previous career best of 12 last Saturday at Air Force, and added three blocks.

The final career high of the match went to senior Amilya Thompson who recorded 53 assists, one match after going for 50 last Saturday at Air Force.

How It Happened
After dropping the opening set, 25-19, Fresno State responded with a strong second set opening up a 9-6 lead (watch) on a kill by Rebecca Rendahl. An ace by Sukhov (watch) put the 'Dogs in front, 16-12 and forced a Cowgirl timeout as the set ended with a kill by Rendahl (watch) for a 25-22 win.

The 'Dogs went up two sets to one with a 25-17 win in set three as the set was punctuated by Kelley's 16th kill of the match (watch).

Wyoming stormed back with a 25-16 win in set four using a 12-4 run to stretch a 4-2 lead to 16-6 to ease to the win to force a deciding fifth set.

Opening up with a 4-4 tie, the 'Dogs used a 5-0 run (watch) to force a Wyoming timeout. After a Sukhov kill out of the break, the 'Dogs finished out the set with the final five points coming via three kills and two aces to complete the victory (watch).

Notes

The 'Dogs are now 3-0 this season in five-set matches and have won their last four dating back to 2019.
Under Coach Winder, the 'Dogs are 10-3 when matches go to five sets.
Kelley's previous career high in kills was 20 at New Mexico in 2019.
The Bulldogs finished with 10 service aces to tie a season high.

Quotes
Head Coach Jonathan Winder
On the match.....
"We served pretty tough and we are at a point in the season where we are trying to figure out how to play at a high level and we are doing it in stretches and today we did it for the longest we have been able to sustain. We have to serve tough and aggressive and stick with learning how to play aggressive where we hit it high, serve it high and serve it tough."

On Kelley, Thompson & Doyle....
"Amaria was great and showed some durability when things are not perfect, continued to play at a high level which was a great growth opportunity for her. Grace has been great all season and was great to have her find more space, everybody knows we are trying to set her a bunch of balls and the challenge then is can you keep killing it. Mil did a good job paying attention to the scouting report and the matchups we thought were pretty good."

Up next
The Bulldogs and Cowgirls close out their series on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Save Mart Center.

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