California Baptist University
Grand Canyon University
UNFRIENDLY FIFTH
10/30/2011 2:14:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Coming into play, CBU was 1-3 in five set matches including a heartbreaking loss at GCU earlier in the season. CBU moved to 1-4 Saturday after the Antelopes once again broke the Lancers' hearts, coming back from a 2-1 deficit to win in five (25-14, 17-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-9).
"We were up early in game four and squandered some opportunities," said Head Coach Ryan McGuyre. "This match comes down to two or three points really. Grand Canyon played hard and won those points and we didn't."
CBU came out and blasted GCU early in the fourth, going ahead 7-2 and forcing an early timeout from the Antelope bench.
It wasn't long before GCU found a run of its own, rattling off five-straight points to take an 11-10 lead. The Antelopes used two kills, a block, an ace and a Lancer error to take the lead. Subsequent runs of three and four points helped GCU take what looked like a commanding 22-16 lead late.
With the fifth looming, the Lancers made one final push, getting kills from Jessica Kalama and Ingrid Carmona, and a huge block from Jordyn Siko and Bree Rauschenbach to pull within one at 23-24. CBU couldn't complete the comeback however, as Caelen Hiller put the game away with a kill that just squeezed through the Lancer block. The kill came on a long rally where each team had opportunities to score.
"After the first set we were able to reign in our defense and keep their hitting percentage down," said McGuyre. "We just didn't sustain it and they came back."
Though neither team hit well, it was all GCU in the fifth game, with the Lancers committing 10 errors on 23 kill attempts. CBU actually won the kill battle in the fifth, 5-4, but GCU only committed two errors to seal the win. The Lancers hit -.217 in the game.
Carmona posted 23 kills in the match, hitting .333. Kalama led CBU with 14 digs to go along with her 14 kills. Rauschenbach's three aces in the match gave her 51 on the year and put the senior eight behind the CBU career record of 196.
Hiller led the way for the Antelopes, scoring 18 kills and posting 11 digs. As a team GCU out-blocked the Lancers 10-7.5.
"We just need to get healthy for this last stretch of the season," said McGuyre, who was again missing starting middle blocker Jelena Dragovic for most of the match and Andrea Csaszi for the ninth-straight contest. "We have a week off here before traveling up north, so that helps."
The Lancers will play their last four conference matches in the Bay area, beginning with Notre Dame de Namur on Nov. 8.
CBU drops to 15-9 overall, 7-5 PacWest with the loss and GCU improves to 19-6, 10-4.
