California Baptist University
USC
Trojan Down!
3/29/2013 5:07:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- No. 7 California Baptist University has made a habit as of late of battling teams to the bitter end of five sets.
With three of the last four of those battles ending in much needed conference wins, including a 3-2 victory over USC Thursday night, the Lancers might not mind the long nights so much.
CBU was forced to a fifth game by the Trojans after holding a 2-1 lead, but held on for the 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-10 win. It was the Lancers' fifth victory in its last four matches as CBU moves to 13-12 overall, 9-10 MPSF.
“We knew they were going to come in and challenge us so it was important for our guys to take care of the game the way we know how to take care of it,” said CBU Head Coach Wes Schneider, who has the Lancers in seventh place in the talent rich MPSF and ranked seventh in the country. “We worked hard to figure out what it was they wanted to do and at some critical moments they came back to it and we had the advantage. That was big.”
After trading sets for the first three games, CBU had an opportunity to close it in four as the two teams played to a 21-21 tie late in the game. USC rattled off two straight points on a kill from Austin Rysyk and a Lancer error to go up 23-21, though.
Out of a CBU timeout Guilherme Koepp scored a much needed kill for the Lancers, but followed it up with a service error to give USC set point. Aaron McCalmont momentarily fought off the fourth game loss with a kill, but a final spike from Josh Kirchner would end it and send the match to a decisive fifth game.
CBU gave away 12 free points in the game on six attack errors and six service errors.
The loss wouldn't slow CBU down, however, as the Lancers came out and fired three straight points behind the service of Levi Cabral to open the fifth. Cabral started the run with an ace and then was followed by a Trojan error and a McCalmont and Rocky DeLyon block.
Hanging around, as they had all night, USC evened the set at 4-4 and the race to 15 was on.
CBU made the sprint to eight first, getting blocks from Amir Lugo- Rodriguez and Brett Anderson to go up 8-5.
The three point advantage would prove to be more than enough as the Lancers' serves kept USC off balance the rest of the way and CBU's big guns fired away from the outside. Cabral and McCalmont combined for seven kills and an ace in the game.
“We were able to capitalize late and that was the difference,” said Schneider. “Levi and Aaron were great down the stretch.”
McCalmont and Cabral posted 20 kills each on the night and McCalmont hit a career high .643 on hits 28 attempts. Cabral and Michael Cate led all players with 13 digs.
USC was led by Christian Rivera with 15 digs and Rysyk with 14. The loss drops the Trojans to 5-14, 5-14.
