Turning Up the Rohit

Saturday, January 31

Riverside

7:00 PM

California Baptist University

Long Beach State

LBSU

California Baptist

Photo by: Lauren Garcia

1/31/2015 9:17:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Once again California Baptist University showed it was not going to be intimidated by a top-15 ranked team in the NCAA when No. 11 Long Beach State wandered into the Van Dyne Gym Saturday night.

LBSU may have won a big first set, but the Lancers put up a fight in the second and third games. Nevertheless, the 49ers showed why they are one of the top teams and picked up the sweep to improve to 6-3, 3-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. CBU falls to 3-7, 1-6 as its home stand comes to a close and it prepares for a two-match trip to BYU next week.

A three-headed attack of Rocky DeLyon, Roy Powell and Rohit Paul led the Lancers in the match. DeLyon and Powell tied for a team-high in kills with 10 each, while Paul came up with some big kills to eventually finish with nine.

Defensively, Enrique de Diego Garcia was in on all of CBU's six blocks, Kevin Kustura put up double-digit digs with an even 10 and Zachary Melcher finished with 27 assists, five digs and three blocks. Paul also ended up with five digs.

Things were tight early, with there being four ties in the opener and DeLyon providing the last one at 6-6 with a kill. Long Beach State found some separation with a 3-0 run. The 49ers used another 3-0 run to take a 16-11 advantage, which was enough cushion to coast out the first set.

Despite falling into a 9-5 hole, CBU showed a lot of grit in the second set. A 7-1 run dotted with three kills from Paul and one each from DeLyon and Powell gave the Lancers their biggest lead of the set, 12-10.

LBSU rode a 5-1 spurt to a 15-13 lead, but CBU never hung its head and tied things back up at 18-18 after consecutive kills from Paul. The 49ers worked their way to set point, 24-21, but the Lancers gave it one last charge and pulled within a point, 24-23, after a Powell kill and some good serving from Cody Jackson.

The 49ers just managed to squeak by, however, as a Taylor Gregory kill clinched the set for the visitors. The Lancers had their best performance in the second set, hitting at a .206 percentage and holding the visitors to a .182 clip.

CBU got off to its best start in the third, taking a 5-2 lead, before playing to ties at 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12. LBSU looked to pull away, as it jumped out a 17-14 edge on a 3-1 run, but the Lancers dug in to knot the score again at 17-17 on kills from Powell and DeLyon.

The 49ers came up with arguably their biggest run of the night to take a 21-17 lead, which allowed them to escape Van Dyne with a victory.