California Baptist University
Azusa Pacific
LANCERS ROLLING
9/25/2008 7:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? It might be starting to click for California Baptist as the NAIA's second-ranked team rolled No. 16 Azusa Pacific, 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 26-24).
Fei Shi once again put her team on her shoulders with a match-high 13 kills and seven digs. It was kills by committee for the rest of the Lancers (16-1, 5-1 GSAC) as Noelle Dyk had nine, Colleen Sweeney had six and Rene Simon and Jessica Kalama each notched five. Mical Bell dished out a team-high 19 assists while Krista Hasemeyer chipped in 16. Bell also served a trio of aces.
“We definitely served tough tonight,” said CBU head coach Ryan McGuyre. “Each time we were down in each one of the sets, we broke it open with our serves. We made some good adjustments and put hitters in different areas and got good results.”
Katrina Clark dug out a match-high 10 attacks and Rene Simon and Colleen Sweeney each posted three blocks.
The Lancers hit over .300 for the first time since it defeated Concordia, hitting a .319 clip (41-12-91) against the Cougars. CBU also recorded six team blocks.
Shi got the Lancers rolling out of the gate with seven kills and hit .500 in the opening set. She also got bookend kills to open and close the set. CBU started to take control of the set after a kill and an ace from Shi put the Lancers up 19-16. California Baptist took its biggest lead of the set at 22-18 on a pair of Cougar errors, but APU cut to 22-20 on back-to-back kills. Dyk answered with consecutive kills to set up Shi who slammed down a kill to take the set.
CBU trailed 10-12 in the second set, but used a 10-1 run, including a pair of kills from Dyk, to take a 20-13 lead and held off the Cougars to take a 2-0 match lead.
Trailing 18-15 in set three, the Lancers went on an 8-1 run to take a 23-19 lead. Shi had three kills in the run. Kalama set up CBU with match point at 24-20 with a kill, but the Cougars scored four straight to tie it at 24. The Lancers didn't have to do anything in the final points as two Cougar errors gave CBU the set and match.
California Baptist now gets set for an Inland Empire showdown at Cal State San Bernardino, Saturday at 7 p.m. The Coyotes are the No. 1-ranked team in NCAA Division II and both teams have split over the last two years winning each match at home.
