{"id":475067,"date":"2026-09-25T07:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475067\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T07:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:04:13","slug":"falcons-open-mw-play-with-sweep-of-san-jose-state-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475067\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons Open MW Play with Sweep of San Jose State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>USAF ACADEMY, Colo. &#8212; The Air Force volleyball team opened conference play with an impressive 3-0 sweep of San Jose State this evening (Sept. 24) at the Cadet East Gym. Backed by the return of senior <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/annamaria-ramos\/28870\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28870\" target=\"_blank\">Annamaria Ramos<\/a> and junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/alysa-walker\/28872\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28872\" target=\"_blank\">Alysa Walker<\/a>, the Falcons rolled to a 25-16, 27-25, 25-15 victory over the Spartans \u2013 and improved to 2-1 in MW openers under head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/coaches\/macey-donathan\/2783\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"2783\" target=\"_blank\">Macey Donathan<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIn her return to the front row, Ramos put down 13 kills on .429 hitting (13-1-28), while Walker tallied 12 kills after being out the last four contests. Junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/grace-fiaseu\/28861\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28861\" target=\"_blank\">Grace Fiaseu<\/a>, who added 11 strikes and three blocks (two solo, one assisted) to the Falcons&#8217; total, hit at a season-high .667 clip \u2013 committing just one error on 15 swings. Sophomore <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/sam-pope\/28868\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28868\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Pope<\/a>, who tied with freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/aylani-correa\/28874\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28874\" target=\"_blank\">Aylani Correa<\/a> for a match-best three service aces, led the team with 20 assists, while freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/ella-vogel\/28881\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28881\" target=\"_blank\">Ella Vogel<\/a> recorded a match-high 17 digs.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Falcons out-performed the Spartans in kills (46-36), digs (42-39), and blocks (5-3), while holding 119-point advantage in hitting (.315-.196) and out-serving San Jose State by an 8-0 margin.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSan Jose State struck first in opening plays of the match, before an ace from Pope tied the set at four. Following a tie at five-all. Air Force started to pull away, with sophomore <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/sonia-donkeng-okpara\/28867\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28867\" target=\"_blank\">Sonia Donkeng Okpara<\/a> putting down a pair of kills to give the Falcons a three-point cushion (9-6). An ace from Correa and a kill from freshman Jeness Orcutt helped double-up the Spartans at the 12-6 mark, while two kills and a block from Ramos (assisted by Fiaseu) sent Air Force into the media timeout with a 15-9 advantage. Back-to-back kills from Donkeng Okpara, as well as a strike from Walker, pushed the lead to nine (19-10). Orcutt, Fiaseu (two), and Walker added kills, while an ace from junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/mia-loyd\/28866\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28866\" target=\"_blank\">Mia Loyd<\/a> helped to secure the 25-16 win.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Spartans struck early and often in the second set, racing out to an 11-4 lead \u2013 and extending it to 15-6 at the media timeout. Donkeng Okpara (kill) and Pope (ace) started a run by the Falcons, who eventually pulled within one (17-18) behind kills from Walker, Ramos, Donkeng Okpara, as well as another Correa ace. Fiaseu kept the Falcons within one at the 18-19 mark, while a pair of attacking errors from the Spartans allowed Air Force to tie the set at 21 and take the lead (22-21) on the next play. A block from Donkeng Okpara and junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goairforcefalcons.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/lainie-stapleton\/28871\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"28871\" target=\"_blank\">Lainie Stapleton<\/a> gave Air Force its largest lead of the set (23-21), while a kill from Walker put the Falcons at set point (24-22). San Jose State evened the set at 24 \u2013 and again at 25, but a kill from Ramos helped Air Force complete the ferocious comeback with a 27-25 victory.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nStapleton opened the third set with a kill, while a solo block from Fiaseu, a service ace from Ramos and a kill from Walker gave Air Force the quick 4-0 lead. San Jose State responded to tie the set at eight, but Air Force scored the next four points from Ramos (two kills) and Fiaseu (kill, solo block) for a 12-8 lead. The pair each added another kill for a 14-11 advantage, while Walke put down four of the Falcons&#8217; next five points, enroute to a 19-13 lead. Correa served up her third ace of the day for a match-ending run, as two kills form Ramos secured the 25-15 sweep \u2013 the program&#8217;s second-straight home sweep of the Spartans.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAir Force and San Jose State will face off at Cadet East Gym again on Saturday (Sept 26), under the Mountain West&#8217;s new scheduling format. The first serve is set for 1:00 p.m. (MT) and the contest will be streamed live on <a href=\"https:\/\/watch.themw.com\/air-force\/?ra=air-force\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MW+<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USAF ACADEMY, Colo. &#8212; The Air Force volleyball team opened conference play with an impressive 3-0 sweep of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-475067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}