PAYBACK

Saturday, October 30

Riverside

7:00 PM

California Baptist University

Biola University (Calif.)

10/31/2010 5:26:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- Five points don't make a season, but a run of five points on Saturday night may have saved one for No. 6 California Baptist University.

After taking a 2-1 lead over No. 3 Biola, CBU looked dead in the water nearing the end of the fourth set and headed to a decisive fifth game with the Eagles carrying all of the momentum. The Lancers, however, dug deep and used a five point run to take the lead before closing out the 26-24 nail-biter in front of a raucous home crowd.

“The girls played great under pressure,” said Head Coach Ryan McGuyre. “This was a big win against a very good team that we needed to have.”

With the 3-1 (25-15, 18-25, 25-18, 26-24) victory the Lancers move into a tie with the Eagles for second in the GSAC standings, as both teams are now 13-3 in conference play. CBU owns the better overall record at 26-4. Biola is now 22-7.

The win was also a bit of payback for the 3-1 loss Biola handed CBU earlier this season to break the Lancers school-record 18-match winning streak.

The run that finally put the Lancers ahead in the fourth game was actually started five points earlier when CBU was down 21-16. The Lancers got three straight points, two coming off big kills from Ingrid Carmona, to halt the momentum that Biola had at that point.

Amy Mosebar stole the serve back from CBU with a kill for the Eagles, which was followed by a Lancer error, making it 23-19.

That's when CBU turned it on.

CBU's defense buckled down and made all the key blocks and digs they knew they needed to have, forcing five errors from the Eagle hitters. Mosebar hit a ball long to make it 23-20 and then Bree Rauschenbach and Linjun Ji stepped up to stuff Biola's Christine Douglas and push the score to 23-21.

Following a Biola timeout the Lancers did not lose any focus as the Eagles were unable to get anything to drop on CBU's side and eventually had three more attacking errors, putting the home team up 24-23.

Mosebar kept the match alive with a kill to even things up, but Rauschenbach quickly put the Lancers back on top, slamming one home down the middle of the court. After the Eagles returned the following serve, Ji got the ball set to her on the right side of the court and hit a ball that was just barely dug out and returned by Biola. Nevena Dragovic went right back to the sophomore outside hitter and Ji drilled a ball off two Eagle players and onto the court for the final point of the night.

Carmona led the way on the stat sheet for CBU, recording 23 kills and 16 digs. The Lancers had four players in double figures in the dig column including Carmona, with Jessica Kalama leading the way at 18, Katie Lockard with 17 and Ji with 16.

“Ingrid was on fire and dialed in from the get go,” said McGuyre. “The key for us was the digs tonight. When you're getting 20 digs a game you're going to win those and we did. I also thought we did a good job limiting their outside hitters, which was something we knew we had to do coming into the match.”

CBU will be back in action on Tuesday, as The Master's comes to town.