California Baptist University
Princeton
TAMING THE TIGERS
1/31/2008 8:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? Yukai Sun and Donald Baliaba combined for 45 of California Baptist's 68 kills in a 3-1 (30-25, 22-30, 30-25, 30-26) win over Princeton, Thursday night.
“I think last night's game with UCLA took a little out of us,” said CBU head coach Ryan McGuyre. “We stayed strong mentally though and we got a little spark from David (Mendoza) and Blair (Penner) because they had fresh legs. Donald and Yukai carried us tonight though.”
The Lancers (3-4) break a three-game losing streak with the win over the Tigers (0-2). CBU has played four straight NCAA Division I opponents falling twice to No. 1 BYU and just missed upsetting No. 4 UCLA, Wednesday. It was the first win over a D-I opponent since last season (March 27, 2007) when the Lancers downed UC Santa Barbara 3-0.
Baliaba ripped a match-high 23 kills to go along with Sun's 22. Blair Penner dished out a team-high 35 aces while Eric Plunkett notched 22. Corey Spence had a team-high nine digs while Baliaba had eight. The Lancers recorded nine blocks with Romain Vetter leading the way with five.
As a team, the Lancers hit .333 (68-25-129) capping the final two games by hitting over .400. CBU hit .469 (19-4-32) in the third game and .457 (21-5-35) in the fourth.
“I wish we would have defended a little better tonight,” said McGuyre. “It looked like we were a half a step slow to everything. We struggled a little all around. We need to get used to playing two nights in a row because once you get to nationals it's twice in one day. It's a little bit of a wake up call for us right now.”
CBU will now get prepared to host Lindenwood, Feb. 15-16, with both games starting at 7 p.m.
