California Baptist University
UC San Diego
"LEVI"TATION
1/14/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? After debuting with a school-record 38 kills in a loss to Pepperdine, Levi Cabral finally brought his levitation act home to the Van Dyne Gym.
For the second straight match the freshman had over 30 kills in a grueling two hour and 45 minute, 3-2 (30-28, 27-30, 32-30, 27-30, 22-20) win over UC San Diego. Cabral went for 33 kills with a .403 hitting percentage, served a pair of aces and posted four blocks.
“This win was good for the sake of confidence,” said CBU head coach Ryan McGuyre. “It was good to win ugly though because I didn't think we executed that well. Hopefully this will keep us fired up and spur a little desire to do our best. I really didn't think we controlled the sets we won, but we did what we needed to do.”
Adiel Tiedjop was right behind with 24 kills while hitting .304 and notched his first double-double of the year with 11 digs. Mike MacNeill also added nine kills while Blair Penner led the way with a match-high 64 assists.
Four different Lancers, including Tiedjop, reached double-figures in digs as MacNeill led the way with a match-high 12 digs while Micah Tokuda and Blair Penner each had a career-high 11 digs. Adam Church led the way at the net with a season-high six blocks while Penner joined Cabral for a season-high four kills. Garet Kreutziger added three blocks as well.
“We had to fight so much tonight because we let down a little bit too much,” said McGuyre. “We still had some clutch play tonight. Mike got us started with serving and hitting out of the back row. Levi also served us back into it late in the fifth set. This defense is something we haven't had for a while. We came up with clutch digs and clutch blocks.”
The win is the fifth straight over the Tritons and moves CBU to 15-3 all-time against UCSD
The Lancers hit .307 (77-30-153) and posted 11 blocks. CBU out dug UCSD, 53-37, and also served seven aces.
No set in the entire match was a lock until the final point. The match featured 39 ties and 10 lead changes.
CBU broke the final tie in the first with a Cabral kill and a Triton error to take a 26-24 lead and held on to take a 1-0 match lead. UCSD never trailed in the second set to tie it at one set apiece, but CBU answered back in the third.
The Lancers trailed 23-17 in the third before they started to inch their way back into the set. CBU went on a 5-1 run that was capped off by a Tiedjop kill to get within two at 24-22, but UCSD answered scoring two straight to push it out to 26-22. The Lancers then scored three straight on a kill each from Cabral and Church and took advantage of a Triton error to close the gap to one at 26-25. UCSD then pushed back to a three-point lead at 28-25, but two kills from Cabral and another from Tiedjop tied it for the first time since 2-2, at 28. The Tritons had set point twice at 29-28 and 30-29, but the Lancers scored the final three points on a pair of kills from Tiedjop and the final kill by Cabral.
“I thought the third set was the key to the whole match,” said McGuyre. “We stole it fortunately and that played a big role after they stole the fourth from us.”
UCSD battled back from being down 24-19 in the fourth set and closed with an 11-3 run to steal the set and force a fifth and final set.
The Tritons stormed out to a 5-0 lead in the fifth before MacNeill popped Frank Fritsch of UCSD in the face with a kill to finally put CBU on the board. Trailing 7-3, the Lancers turned the tables with a 7-3 run that tied the set at 10. Then after nine straight ties, with the final one coming at 20, a service error by UCSD and a kill from Tiedjop closed the book on the longest match of the year.
“I was ticked off that we were so complacent in the fifth,” said McGuyre. “I told them in the timeout that whoever had the most fire better be asking for the ball from Blair. Clearly that was Mike on that first kill when he almost broke an opponent's face. It was nothing personal, but that got us going.”
