Box score, play-by-play

SAN FRANCISCO – The Seattle Pacific Falcons are still looking for that quick volleyball start.
 
Nikki Lowell had a season-high 14 kills, but San Francisco State had four players go for double-figure kills on Tuesday night as the Gators won the first two games and beat the Falcons in a non-conference match, 3-1.
 
Scores at The Swamp were 25-16, 25-13, 23-25, 25-22.

The Falcons (2-3) dropped the opening game all four times last week in Hawaii, but came back to win two of those matches. Coach Chris Johnson was hoping to gain the early edge on Tuesday, but SPU could not find its offensive groove during the first two games, hitting -.061 in the opener and .036 in the second one.
 
San Francisco State (3-0) led all the way in both of those games. The Gators took control of the opener with a 6-0 spurt that expanded a 12-9 lead to 18-9, then used another 6-0 run to go up 14-4 in the second.
 
“We just came out flat. There wasn't a lot we were doing well,” Johnson said. “We started off passing well. But we just shot ourselves in the foot again. We had too many hitting errors, and we were missing assignments on defense.
 
“More than anything, we just have to come out with a mental connection and just a better focus in that first game,” Johnson added.
 
Junior middle blocker Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) came on strong in the final two games with nine of her 14 kills and just one error, finishing the night with a .321 hitting percentage. Freshman outside hitter Ellie Britt (Orange, Calif.) had six kills, and freshman middle blocker Jackie Arnold (Anaheim, Calif.) had five kills and a team-leading .571 hitting mark. It was Arnold's third error-free outing in five matches this season.
                                            
Senior setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) had 34 assists, and now is just 25 away from joining the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's all-time top 10 in that department. Senior outside hitter Cailin Fellows (Edmonds, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS) had a career-high 15 digs, beating her previous mark of 11. Sophomore Brianna Leenders (Portland, Ore.) came up with 24 digs.
 
Seattle Pacific got on track after the intermission, going back and forth with San Francisco State for much of Game 3. Down 20-17, the Falcons ran off four straight points, the last of which came on a kill by Lowell, for a 21-20 advantage. The Gators tied it at 21, 22 and 23, then SPU closed it out with kills by senior outside hitter Cailin Fellows (Edmonds, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS) and Arnold.
 
A 5-1 burst by the Gators pushed a 7-6 lead to 12-7 in the fourth game. The Falcons had one last rally in them, cutting a 24-20 deficit to 24-22 before Jaclyn Clark clinched it with a kill.
 
“We all believed that we could come back and beat that team,” Johnson said. “But we said, 'OK, if we're going to do that, here are the things we have to do. They're simple things – we just have to do them.' We did that really well through Game 3 and part of Game 4.”
 
Meagan Wright led San Francisco State with 14 kills and hit .448. Megan Johnson and Kelly Ostello added 13 kills apiece, and Clark had 10.
 
Thanks to .273 hitting in the third game and a .278 mark in the fourth, Seattle Pacific finished the match at .149 (42 kills 21 errors on 141 swings). The Gators wound up at .289 (60-16-152).
 
SPU heads about an hour north to conclude preseason play in the Seawolf Spike tournament on Friday and Saturday at Sonoma State. The Falcons open play against Chico State on Friday at 1:30 p.m., then get a rematch against 23^rd-ranked Sonoma State that night at 7. The Seawolves swept SPU in last week's season opener at the Honolulu Invitational.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012
The Swamp / San Francisco, Calif.
 
San Francisco State 3, Seattle Pacific 1
 
Game scores – 25-16, 25-13, 23-25, 25-22.
 
Service aces – SPU 2 (two players with 1), SFS 12 (Iris Tolenada 4). Kills – SPU 42 (Nikki Lowell 14), SFS 60 (Meagan Wright 14). Assists – SPU 37 (Shelby Swanson 34), SFS 56 (Tolenada 49). Digs – SPU 69 (Brianna Leenders 24, Cailin Fellows 15), SFS 69 (Megan Johnson 18). Block assists / solo blocks – SPU 8 / 0 (Jackie Arnold 2 / 0, Fellows 2 / 0, Lowell 2 / 0), SFS 10 / 0 (Wright 4 / 0). Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 42-21-141--.149 (Arnold 5-0-9--.556, Jessica Miller 5-2-8--.375, Lowell 14-5-28--.321), SFS 60-16-152--.289 (Wright 14-1-29--.448). Attendance – 236.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 2-3, San Francisco State 3-0.
 
Next match – Seattle Pacific vs. Chico State at Seawolf Spike (Rohnert Park, Calif.), Friday, 1:30 p.m.