ONE FOR THE ROAD
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — If California Baptist University seemed a little sluggish in its final regular season match of the year who could blame them? The Lancers came into Saturday's match against Hope International playing five sets each in their last three matches against teams all ranked in the top five. Despite dropping the opening set to the Royals, The Lancers didn't have much trouble putting away Hope, 3-1 (23-25, 25-10, 25-7, 25-23).
The Lancers (26-5, 16-4 GSAC) close out the regular season with a second place finish in the Golden State Athletic Conference. The Royals (7-25, 3-17 GSAC) ended their season.
Ingrid Carmona led the way for the Lancers with 17 kills and hit the best she has since Sept. 10 with a .517 (17-2-29) attacking percentage.
Fei Shi notched her 16th double-double, and her fourth straight, with 13 kills and a match-high 14 digs.
Krista Hasemeyer dished out a match-high 36 assists and was just three digs short of a double-double with seven.
Bree Rauschenbach ripped nine kills and had five blocks to go with her three aces.
Noelle Dyk and
Colleen Sweeney each ripped eight kills while Sweeney had three blocks and Dyke had two.
Kari Oliver also notched 13 digs.
CBU hit at a season-high clip at .431 (58-11-109) and posted eight team blocks. The Lancers hit .333 in both the first and last set and hit .500 and .625 in the middle sets.
Hope caught the Lancers by surprise in the first set. After the Royals took their first lead at 2-1 they never trailed the rest of the set. HIU never led by more than five at any point in the set, taking a five-point lead on two occasions. The Royals led 20-15 when CBU scored three straight to make it 20-18, but Hope answered back with two straight to lead 22-18. Hasemeyer then notched a kill before Rauschenbach served an ace and Shi put a kill away to bring CBU within one at 22-21. Hope took a 23-21 lead before the Lancers eventually tied it at 23, but Hope closed out the set with two straight points to lead 1-0 in the match.
The Lancers then outscored the Royals 50-17 in the next two sets. CBU led 9-7 in the second set before closing the set out with a 16-3 run and then climbed out to a 13-2 lead in the third set before closing it out with a 12-5 run. In the final set, CBU did not hold a lead bigger than four and led 22-18 before a 5-1 run by the Royals tied the set at 23. The Lancers went to their top choices of the night with Carmona who blasted a kill to give CBU match point before Shi put it away with a kill.
The Lancers now will prepare for their sixth straight trip to the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Tournament. The only team to make it to the semifinals in each of the past five seasons, CBU will go for its third national title, Dec. 1-5 in Sioux City, Iowa.
