BOX SCORE
SEASIDE, Calif. — For the second consecutive night, the Cal State Monterey Bay volleyball team pushed hard against one of the nation's top teams only to fall just short of victory. Saturday night, the Otters took the opening set from No. 14 Cal State San Bernardino before the Coyotes howled back to take a 22–25, 25–18, 25–19, 25–15 decision on Senior Night in The Kelp Bed.

CSUMB, playing its final home matches with seniors Molly Kennedy (Oakland/Bishop O'Dowd) and Lacee Ventura (Salinas HS), dropped to 17–11 overall and 11–9 in the CCAA with Saturday's decision. San Bernardino improved to 22–5 and 18–1.

The Otters got double–doubles from their two big guns as Jessica Malcolm (Lodi HS) finished with 11 kills and 19 digs while Julia Ashen (North Salinas HS) chipped in 11 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore libero Rachel Cookus (Thousand Oaks HS) added a team–leading 22 digs and is now just 45 digs shy of becoming the third player in Otter history to record 500 digs in one season.

The match started positively for CSUMB as the Otters never trailed in taking the first set. The Otters stayed close in the second and still were within 16–15 when San Bernardino eased away by finishing with a 9–3 run to even the match.
The Coyotes used a 6–1 spurt to break a 7–7 tie in set three. Though the final margin of six points proved to be their biggest lead of the set, they never let CSUMB closer than three points.

San Bernardino simply put the hammer down in the fourth set, racing to leads of 9–2 and 17–4 before a late CSUMB rally made the final a bit more respectable.

CSUMB will get to more cracks at improving upon its school–record 17 wins next weekend when it finishes the 2013 season with matches at San Francisco State and Sonoma State Nov. 22–23.