UC San Diego, ranked No. 20 in the nation and No. 3 in the Pacific Region, rallied from a two-game deficit to hand No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino its first CCAA conference defeat in women's volleyball this season, 3-2, before a noisy throng of 441 fans in Coussoulis Arena.
    The Tritons are now 16-7 on the season and 10-5 in the CCAA while the Coyotes are 21-2 overall and 13-1 in the CCAA with four matches remaining. Cal Poly Pomona beat Cal State L.A., 3-0 to trail the Coyotes, ranked No. 1 in the region, by three games in the CCAA standings with four to play.
    The victory by UCSD avenged a 3-0 loss the Tritons suffered at the hands of CSUSB on their home court. It was the first home court loss in conference play since 2005 fo CSUSB and their first loss to an NCAA Div. II team this season.
    The match was shown live on www.cstv.com via steaming video to a national audience.
    Junior Rebecca Bailey led the Tritons with 19 kills on .304 hitting while Sylvia Schmidt had 16 kills on .387 hitting. Sharea Drawn had 16 kills on .407 hitting with three blocks to lead CSUSB. Sara Rice had a phenomenal game with 13 kills in 16 attacks (.812 hitting) to go with five blocks. Ashtin Hall chipped in 10 kills and three service aces.
    Sophomore Sara Hoffman had 53 assists and two aces. Meghan Haas made 26 digs on the back line and served up three aces of her own.
    The Coyotes took game one 30-23 and walloped the Tritons 30-13 in game two, but the never-say-die Tritons rallied in game three to take it 30-25 and force a fourth game. In game four, CSUSB led 25-20 but UCSD rallied to tie the game and took the lead on a kill by Schmidt and a combined block by Schmidt and Kimberly Carpenter. Schmidt's kill off an assist by Kim Adams gave UCSD the game at 30-27 to tie the match at 2-2.
    In the pivotal fifth game, CSUSB was up 9-8 but UCSD forged a tie at 10-10 then produced four straight points to arrive at match point 14-10. CSUSB got two points back on kills by Jessica Granados and Drawn but Schmidt drove home the match-winner off a set by Adams to end the match at 15-12.