California Baptist University
Point Loma
CBU FANS, MEET SHI FEI
9/5/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- It wasn't a home opener, and it wasn't Shi Fei's first match in a California Baptist jersey.
But for the 560 screaming fans in attendance, it was the first time many of them had seen the 6-foot-2 freshman phenom in action. And Fei did not disappoint, ripping down 14 kills in 19 errorless swings to lead the No. 1-ranked Lancers to a, 30-26, 30-23, 30-27, conference-opening win over No. 23 Point Loma Nazarene.
The Lancers improve to 10-1 overall, and 1-0 in Golden State Athletic Conference play, while the Sea Lions drop their first match of the season, falling to 8-1, 0-1 in GSAC.
"Shi Fei was absolutely amazing tonight," said California Baptist head coach Ryan McGuyre. "She does what she does so quietly and with so little recognition, but she is very impressive. The atmosphere in the gym tonight was awesome. I can't imagine there being a better atmosphere anwhere in the GSAC than we had tonight."
Fei's .737 (14-0-19) hitting percentage for the match ranks second on the all-time school charts.
Capping off a list of outstanding individual efforts, 2005 NAIA All-Americans Yudelka Bonilla and Angela Willis ripped 13 and 10 kills, respectively, while 2005 NAIA Player of the Year Verania Willis posted 11. Point Loma's Melissa Boer notched 16 kills while Kate Alderson had 14.
With help from back-to-back Angela Willis service aces, the Lancers blazed out to a 15-8 lead in the opening set, and the 2-time defending national champions built up a 21-12 cushion on consecutive kills from Lindsey Siefken and Bonilla.
California Baptist led, 28-20, before Point Loma made a last-ditch charge fueled mainly by 3-straight Lancer hitting errors, but could only make it interesting, at 30-26.
The Lancers again rallied early on in game 2, jumping out to a 10-4 lead that forced a Sea Lion timeout, and Siefken jammed another of her 5 kills to make the score 21-13. Point Loma seemed poised to make another run, but back-to-back blocks by Angela and Verania Willis took the wind out of its sails as California Baptist cruised to a 30-23 game-2 victory.
With the crowd cheering louder than ever in the finale, Point Loma rose to the occasion in game 3, tying the game 12 times before the Lancers could finally pull away. A 9-3 run that was again helped along by 3 unforced hitting errors by California Baptist left the home team down, 15-13, but the Lancers took the lead again on Caitlin Parker's service ace (17-16), and finally took control of the game thanks to Bonilla's kill, making the score 24-23.
The Sea Lions tried again to make things interesting, but Verania Willis put the game and the match away with a kill at 30-27 as the Lancers hit .410 (22-6-39) in the closing set.
Overall, California Baptist hit .333 (54-19-105) compared to Point Loma's .228 (40-17-101) and posted 6 team blocks to the Sea Lions' 2.
