California Baptist University
Fresno Pacific
ROAD BLOCK
10/18/2008 7:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? No. 4 California Baptist hit under .100 for just the second time this season in a 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-13) loss to No. 1 Fresno Pacific, Saturday afternoon inside Van Dyne Gym. Oddly enough, the last time the Lancers (19-5, 8-4 GSAC) hit under .100 it came against the same Sunbirds (20-0, 12-0 GSAC) team back in September.
CBU hit .082 (25-17-97) and only hit over .200 in one set. The Lancers hit .114 in the opening set and .258 in the second before hitting -.129 in the final set. The only Lancers in double figures were Mical Bell with 22 aces and Fei Shi with 10 digs. Rene Simon was a bright spot for CBU posting seven blocks. Shi and Bell also notched a trio of blocks.
Fresno Pacific doubled the amount of digs California Baptist had at 52-26 and almost doubled the kills at 46-25. The Lancers also posted their second highest team block total with 10, but FPU matched it with 10 blocks of its own.
A 6-1 run midway through the first set broke a 12-12 tie and that was all the Sunbirds needed to jump up 1-0 in the match. Five CBU errors and two kills accounted for the run that gave control to FPU. Then tied at eight in the second set, Fabiana Leomil got bookend kills in a 5-0 run that featured three straight CBU errors in the middle as the Sunbirds got out to a 13-8 lead. The Sunbirds carried the five-point lead out to 22-17 before the Lancers scored three straight to cut it to 22-20 on a Dyk kill and two FPU errors. That was as close as CBU would come as the Sunbirds scored the final three points of the set to take a 2-0 match lead.
In the final set, CBU led briefly at 6-4, but a 9-2 run put any thoughts of at least a fourth set to bed. After the Sunbirds took that 13-8 lead, they closed out the set with a 12-5 run to take down California Baptist for the sixth straight time.
California Baptist doesn't get a break after playing the top-ranked team in the nation as the Lancers travel to No. 2 Concordia, Tuesday, for a 7 p.m. GSAC contest.
