CHICO – Brooke Ono had 44 assists throughout the day and Chico State managed to get a set win over Cal State San Marcos, but the Cougars prevented the conference match from going to a deciding set and knocked the Wildcats out in four games (17-25, 19-25, 27-25, 15-25) at Acker Gym Saturday.
Despite the defeat, the Wildcats made a great effort on paper. Ono's 44 assists were her highest in the last seven matches and was just shy of her career-high 52 set against Cal Poly Humboldt last month. The .248 attack percentage was the highest since the Wildcats took on the Cougars at their place last month.
Zoe DiNardo and Kassandra Nall combined for 25 of Chico State's 54 kills while Lexi Carpenter had 18 of the Wildcats' 53 digs. Ono also had 11 defensive saves.
The Cougars finished the day hitting .331 on the attack. Trinity Barr made 20 kills and Tori Goff had 52 assists.
The third set was quite a battle as neither side led by more than five points. The Cougars were at match point but Alexis Presser got a kill to prevent the clinch. Both sides traded attack miscues to take a point. Nall got a big kill to move ahead and a San Marcos attack error secured the set win for Chico.
Chico State hits the road one last time starting with a trip to Arcata to play Humboldt again on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Wildcats picked up a four-set win over the Lumberjacks at Acker Gym last month.
