California Baptist University
Chaminade (HI)
Drama-nade
10/19/2013 9:11:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
HONOLULU, Hawaii --- There was no shortage of drama in California Baptist University's 3-0 win over Chaminade on Friday night.
The Lancers trailed in all three sets and were forced to go into extra points twice to take the 26-24, 27-25, 25-23 win. The win moves CBU to 14-6 overall, 11-1 in the PacWest and drops the Silverswords to 5-15, 2-9. The Lancers are now even with Point Loma atop the conference standings.
“We weren't at our best and Chaminade was playing great, but we still hung in there and found a way to compete and win,” said head coach Branden Higa. “It wasn't about big runs, it was point by point, hanging in there and staying together.”
After trailing 11-4, CBU used a 10-5 run to climb back in the opening game, pulling to within 15-14. The teams would trade points until CBU got an ace from Kaitlyn Edwards and a kill by Kim McCalmont to finally pull even, 20-20.
With the teams continuing to play close down the stretch, a Jenna Perry kill gave the Lancers set point and then a long rally came to an end with a Silversword attack sailing long to give the Lancers the game.
The second game would start out the same way, with Chaminade taking a 14-8 lead early and going up by as much as eight in the game at 19-11.
CBU again clawed its way back, going on a 10-3 run to make it 22-21. The Lancers would fight off set point twice, finally evening the game on a Tori Hinderaker ace. Fighting off game point for a third time, CBU got a kill from Lauren Marr, followed by a Chaminade error to get a set point of its own. The Lancers went right back to Marr, who terminated a ball down the left side of the court for the win.
“Our focus was on just keeping the ball in and making their defense work,” said Marr, who posted a .400 hitting percentage on the night. “As long as we executed our game plan we knew we could fight through and it worked.”
Playing out like the two previous sets, CBU again trailed 6-1 early in the third before crawling all the way back to within one at 15-14.
Jelena Dragovic completed the comeback by combining on a block with Perry to even the game at 18-18. A subsequent Dragovic ace gave CBU its first lead, 20-19, sparking a run that would put the Lancers up 22-19.
This time Chaminade found the late run, coming back to go ahead 23-22, but it was short-lived as Malika O'Brien slammed a kill home to even it back up. The next two points went CBU's way as a Silversword error created match point and O'Brien tipped a ball over the Chaminade block to finish it off.
“We had to fight really hard through each set tonight because they were a scrappy team,” said CBU's Katie Rotondo, who led all players with 16 digs. “Our block was in the right place and that's what helped me back there defensively. It was good to be able to fight through and get this win.”
Marr led the Lancers on the attack, recording 10 kills on 25 attempts without an error. McCalmont posted nine kills and O'Brien had seven for CBU.
Chaminade's Kim Spring led all players with 11 kills and Brenda Walker posted 14 digs for the Silverswords.
CBU finishes up the road trip at No. 5 BYU-Hawaii Saturday night.
