Lancers Maintain First-Place Standing

Saturday, September 24

San Rafael, Calif.

4 p.m.

California Baptist University

4-09-3/ PacWest

Dominican

3-27-6/ PacWest

California Baptist

Dominican (CA)

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

Lancers Maintain First-Place Standing

9/24/2016 6:27:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – A day after taking over sole possession of first place in the PacWest Conference, California Baptist University was determined to keep it in a match at Dominican University of California on Saturday.

While it may not have been a sweep, the Lancers maintained their No. 1 spot in the PacWest with a 25-16, 25-20, 22-25, 25-16 victory. The two-way play from hitters Jenna Perry and Lauren Hackett were a big factor in the match, along with the team's overall defensive intensity.

CBU is now the only team in the PacWest with a 4-0 conference record and is 9-3 overall. The Lancers return home next week for a match against Hawaii Hilo, another undefeated PacWest team at 4-3, 2-0, on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Dixie State won on Saturday, as well, to improve to 6-4, 3-0 in the PacWest for second-place footing. Dominican slips to 7-6, 3-2 after dropping its second-straight match.

Hackett continued to dominate for CBU, with a career-high 27 kills on a .309 percentage (27-10-55), four aces and 14 digs for her third double-double in a row and fourth in the last five matches. Perry hit .389, with 19 kills and five errors on 36 attempts, and also posted a team-high five blocks and eight digs. Setter Sydney Kralj joined Hackett with a double-double on 49 assists and 11 digs, along with two kills.

It was on defense where the Lancers separated themselves. They held the Penguins to a .150 hitting percentage (38-19-127) and posted a 9-5 advantage in blocks and 67-57 edge in digs, led by a season-high 20 digs from libero Tori Ortman. Jessica Harris and Abbie Gortsema caused fits to the Dominican attackers, with five and four respective blocks.

Saturday marked the first time CBU dropped a set in PacWest competition, but it responded in a big way in the fourth set after Dominican logged a 25-22 win in the third. The Lancers opened the game with an 8-0 run on two kills and a block from Hackett and a block-kill combo from Perry. CBU put together its best showing in the set, posting a match-high .429 attack percentage for itself and holding Dominican to a match-low .074 percentage.

The Penguins were impressive in the match, and played the Lancers to a 15-15 tie in set one. CBU flipped the script and won the set on a 10-1 run, with Hackett scoring five points (four kills, one block) and Perry adding three (two kills, one block) in the charge.

CBU carried the momentum over into the second set, opening it on a 10-3 spurt -- sparked by three Perry kills and two aces and a kill from Hackett. Dominican fought back within two, 12-10, with a 6-1 run but consecutive Perry spikes forced sideout and the Lancers would not look back en route to a 25-20 win.