California Baptist University
Cal Poly Pomona
BROKEN BRONCOS
10/19/2011 4:29:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Lancers second game win was all it needed in the match to cruise through the third and extend the team's season-high winning streak.
"We're feeling pretty good right now," said Head Coach Ryan McGuyre. "We showed great composure and steadiness tonight and got a great win. We still have things to work on, but overall I like the way we are progressing."
The Lancers took set point four times in the second game before they could finally put a scrappy Bronco team away.
CBU had been down by as much as two points several times in the game, but came back and took a late 23-22 lead. Two points later CBU had a chance to put it away, but a kill attempt just caught the top of the net and stayed on the Lancers' side.
The teams traded points until the Broncos' Kristin McNeese followed a Lancer service error with an emphatic kill to give her team a 27-26 advantage, and put the Lancers' sweep in jeopardy.
Out of a timeout, Jessica Kalama placed a perfect kill attempt in between CPP players to draw the teams even again. The Broncos could not regroup after that, committing two costly errors to drop the set 29-27, the last of which was a ball that sailed just beyond the end line with no CBU players near it.
The second game featured 24 ties and nine lead changes.
After that the Broncos never recovered, losing the final game 25-11. CBU hit a match-high .450 in the last set, while CPP hit -.074.
"I think they just felt defeated in that last game and we were in a great rhythm," said McGuyre. "Both teams had opportunities to put the second game away and didn't take advantage of them. We were fortunate to come out on top, though. That was key, if we don't win that it's a whole different match. I thought our resiliency was great there and also in the first game as well."
CBU trailed early in the first, but again took a late lead and finished strong. CBU closed the game on a 9-1 run. Bree Rauschenbach ended the set by serving a laser beam that just cleared the net and fell in for an ace. She led the team with three aces on the day.
Jelena Dragovic had yet another scorching night, leading the team with 12 kills and also posting three blocking assists and one solo block. Taylor Parker also had a big night in leading the Lancers to a .304 hitting percentage with 35 helpers. Dragovic has 20 kills and a .613 hitting percentage in her last two matches. She hit .750 Tuesday, committing no errors on her 16 attempts.
"Taylor has settled in and it seems to have sunk in on how she needs to distribute the ball," said McGuyre. "Between her and Jelena our offense is rolling right now."
CBU committed 11 errors on the night and the Broncos posted 23. It was the Lancers' third-straight match hitting above .300 as the team had a .304 hitting percentage on the night.
McNeese led CPP with 10 kills, accounting for 11 of the team's 35 points.
The Lancers move to 13-8 on the season, while the Broncos fall to 9-10. CBU is back in action Thursday facing Hawaii Pacific at 7 p.m. The Sea Warriors come in to town currently sitting second in the PacWest standings.
