Nearly 200 friends and family members of the San Francisco State University volleyball team packed the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza on Saturday to watch the No. 3 ranked California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Broncos versus the No. 19 ranked SFSU Gators.
The game between the top two seeds in the California Collegiate Athletic Association was not only for the CCAA regular season championship but also for Senior Day at SFSU.
Six seniors, including Kimberly DeBoer, Brianna DeBoer, Chloe Henning, Izzy Issak, Cynthia Beall, and Alhana Velasquez were honored before the match.
“I love them all,” Head Coach Matt Hoffman said. “They’ve done a lot for this program, and [I’m] so thrilled to have had the chance to coach them, and proud of what they’ve done, and looking forward to seeing them close out their senior year.”
The match started with a back-and-forth opening set, with each team unable to pull away from one another. At 24-24, the Broncos got the decisive last two points to earn the set win.
In set two, the Gators came out much improved from the opening set, forcing the Broncos to use both of their set timeouts early. Senior Izzy Issak dominated the second set with eight kills, which led to a 25-17 set win for the Gators to tie the match.
“It was a high-emotion game. Two great teams going after it with a lot on the line on senior night, playing for a share of the conference championship,” senior outside hitter Izzy Issak said. “I think we did a really good job of managing the load of this game with all the outside factors and just really playing at next play, speed, taking it point by point.”
After a quick intermission, the game was back on as the crowd inside the gymnasium started to get loud. However, it wasn’t enough to get the Gators over the edge. The Broncos won the third set 25-19, giving them a 2-1 set advantage in the match.
“I felt like we kept up with them for a very good amount of time. Their serve and pass is just really good,” freshman outside hitter Alana Larson said. “So that’s something that we tried to stay up there with them with but they came out on top.”
Like the previous three sets, the fourth set was another cagey back-and-forth set between the two teams, as it had been all game. However, it was once again the Broncos who pulled away late to ultimately win the set 25-20, and the match 3-1.
“I mean, it’s a tough battle. That’s like a playoff mentality kind of match, and they just kind of did a better job than we did of handling the moment,” Hoffman said. “I was proud of our fight but we didn’t handle some moments in times where we needed to execute on our side of the net and do our jobs. They just did a little bit better job of that than we did. Nothing outstanding. They just played a cleaner game than we did.”
Issak led the Gators with a team-high 21 kills on her senior day game and junior outside hitter Tamiya Wilson totaled 16 kills, adding to her already over one thousand kills in her collegiate career. Senior sister duo Brianna and Kimberly DeBoer also led the Gators in the stat sheet, with Brianna totaling a match-high 16 digs and Kimberly providing a team-high 46 assists.
The game also marked the Gators’ first home loss of the season, ending their chance of a perfect regular season at home and matching last year’s total of only one home loss.
“It’s super, super tough to play in this gym. The atmosphere, the fans. We’re comfortable in this gym. We play our best volleyball in this gym every day in practice, and so that translates every time we play,” Issak said.
Postgame, most of the players were overcome with emotions, not only because of the loss but also due to the senior class playing one of their last matches in their collegiate careers. The players’ families crowded the court to greet them.
“It’s been great. I couldn’t imagine being coached by anyone else or playing with anyone else, so I’m really glad that this was my college experience,” senior outside hitter Alhana Velasquez said.
The Gators will now await their first opponent in the CCAA Tournament, earning a bye as the No. 2 seed in the tournament. They will play the winner of California State University, Stanislaus versus California State University, East Bay, which takes place Thursday, Nov. 21 in Pomona.
“The goal is to win a conference championship. We’ve got two games to do that in the tournament and then after that, we’re going to regionals, and we’re going to go as far as we can,” Issak said.
