California Baptist University
Chaminade University
SWINGING AWAY
10/16/2011 4:41:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Lancers again took down the Silverswords in straight sets, winning 25-11, 25-23, 25-19. All four of the Lancers' victories during the winning streak have been by way of 3-0 wins.
"We're moving in the right direction towards where we want to be," said Head Coach Ryan McGuyre. "We've been getting our kill percentages up and getting some harder and heavier swings on the ball which is something we have been working on all week."
CBU cruised through the opening set for the 25-11 win to open the match, but found itself in a dog-fight in the second game.
The Lancers didn't trail in the contest until Chaminade took an 18-17 late in the second set, on a kill by Poerava Gantt. Jessica Kalama responded with a kill and then a Gantt error gave the lead back to the home team.
CBU continued to hold on to a slim advantage down the stretch and an Ingrid Carmona kill gave the Lancers set-point at 24-23. Off a Carmona serve, Crystal Powell went up for an attack at the net but was stuffed by CBU's Bree Rauschenbach and Kattie Givens for the win.
The second set featured nine tie scores and two lead changes.
Chaminade again kept it close in the final game, but the Lancers firepower was too much for the Silverswords to handle as CBU got the six-point win.
"Taylor Parker really helped us offensively hit a high percentage," said McGuyre of his sophomore setter who posted 37 assists in the match. "As a team I feel like we left the door open a bit with too many errors in the second two games, but I don't mind that too much. As I said we have been focusing on hitting hard in practice and with that comes more errors a lot of the time, we also have a chance to score more points off kills, though."
The Lancers hit .500 with three errors in the opening game. CBU would commit 11 errors the rest of the way, but still finished with an overall hitting percentage of .320 and a total of 46 kills. It was the Lancers' highest kill total in a three-set match this season.
Carmona led CBU with 21 kills, hitting .405 on the night. Jelena Dragovic also had an effective offensive night for the Lancers, hitting .467 on her eight kills. Kalama had a match-high 16 digs and Carmona added nine.
"We moved Bree to opposite hitter recently and I feel that has really been opening things up because she has a heavy arm and can spread the other team out from antenna to antenna," said McGuyre. "It also keeps her on the court for six rotations. She has always been an impact player in her natural position as a middle blocker and I think it says a lot about her that she's able to play somewhere she isn't used to for the sake of the team."
CBU's .320 hitting percentage was also the team's fifth highest this year.
The Lancers move to 12-8 overall, 5-4 PacWest, while the Silverswords fall to 2-13, 1-8. CBU faces Cal Poly Pomona at home Tuesday night in a non-conference matchup.
