Box Score

HOUSTON – Houston Baptist senior outside hitter Heather Leaverton recorded her fifth-straight double-double, her team-leading ninth of the season, but the Huskies fell to Cal State Northridge, 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-18), in their final match at the Rice Invitational Saturday afternoon at Tudor Fieldhouse.
 
Leaverton had 10 kills and 12 digs for the Huskies (8-7), while junior middle blocker Caiti Wenger added eight kills and a pair of blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Jasmine Casey, who was named to the all-tournament team, had six kills and 14 digs, while sophomore middle blocker Madeline Gaffney had six kills and three blocks. Senior setter Victoria Weatherly had 29 assists, six digs, two kills and two blocks, while freshman libero Haley Mueller led the team with a career-high 15 digs.
 
Britney Graff had a double-double for the Matadors (9-3) with 10 kills and 14 digs. Casey Hinger added nine kills, while Mahina Haina had seven kills. Cindy Ortiz led CSUN defensively with a match-high 16 digs.
 
CSUN hit .197 for the match, while holding HBU to .079, its lowest attack percentage of the season. The Matadors outdug the Huskies, 60-57, outblocked them, 10-5, and held a 6-0 advantage in service aces.
 
CSUN scored four-straight points to take an 8-5 lead in the first set, then went up by five at 12-7. The Matadors scored three in a row to extend their lead to 18-11, then scored the last four points of the set to take the 25-14 decision. Leaverton led the Huskies with five kills, while three players had three kills each for the Matadors.
 
The second set was tied 7-7, but the Huskies got a kill by Gaffney, then went up 12-9. Leading 13-10, HBU surrendered the lead by giving up five-straight points to trail 15-13. The Huskies, however, scored the next three to reclaim a 16-15 advantage. HBU scored two in a row to take a 21-19 lead, but CSUN came back to tie the set, 23-23, and got an ace and a block to win the set, 25-23. Wenger and Casey had three kills each for HBU, while Graff led CSU with four.
 
The Matadors scored five-straight points to take a 5-1 lead in the third, then went ahead, 8-2. The Huskies scored three in a row, including back-to-back blocks by Gaffney and Weatherly, but the Matadors answered with three of their own to go back up by six, 11-5. CSUN cruised the rest of the way to close out the match, 25-18. Gaffney had four kills for HBU in the set, while three players had three kills for CSUN.
 
The Huskies return to action when they travel to face UT-San Antonio Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in San Antonio, Texas.