Lancers Clinch PacWest Title Early

Saturday, November 4

Azusa, Calif.

3 PM

California Baptist University

24-0, 16-0PacWest

Azusa Pacific

18-5, 11-4PacWest

California Baptist

Azusa Pacific

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

Lancers Clinch PacWest Title Early

11/4/2017 5:18:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

AZUSA, Pacific – With a chance to wrap up a share of the PacWest championship early, California Baptist University was not going to let that chance slip away, despite dropping the first set on the road at conference rival Azusa Pacific on Saturday afternoon.

The third-ranked Lancers in NCAA Division II battled back and won three-straight sets to take the match, 20-25, 25-20, 25-13, 26-24. CBU's defense proved to be the difference and held the Cougars to a .179 hitting percentage (51 kills, 22 errors on 162 attempts).

It brings CBU's record to 24-0, 16-0 in the PacWest and moves second-place APU to 18-5, 11-4. With four matches left in the regular season, CBU needs just one more win or a Biola loss to clinch the conference title outright. The Lancers play their final regular season match at home against Hawaii Pacific on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and then face Biola on the road Saturday at 7 p.m.

Even though it clinched its first-ever PacWest title, CBU's celebrations were very reserved.

"I think we're kind of waiting to celebrate, it kind of feels like we just have our sights set on something different," said Coach Branden Higa, who has no intentions of sharing the conference crown.

Three Lancers posted double-digit digs and the team put up 13 blocks to limit Azusa Pacific's offense. McKenna Witt put together a monstrous double-double with 24 digs, 11 kills and two blocks.

"Her 24 digs were huge," Higa said. "The first set we didn't play our best, we knew we had to rely on getting more attempts by digging balls and she gave us that. That number is huge, she pretty much made any play that came her way."

Madison Witt put on an impressive display herself with 15 kills, 14 digs and five blocks. Elizabeth Gilley also added 15 digs for the Lancers in her first career start at libero.

Yagoda Jedrzejczak continued to be a wall at the net with 10 blocks and five kills, giving her at least 10 blocks in consecutive matches.

"Yagoda is just doing a great job of getting across the net and closing," Higa said. "It seems like she's been dialed in extremely well over the last few days. She's at her best when we're playing high-level attackers. Her ability to read and to block and the emotional lift she gives us when does is a huge contribution."

Sydney Kralj orchestrated the offense with 51 assists, nine digs and three kills to have CBU hitting .272 (63-20-158) as a team. Sydney Marks posted nine kills on a .444 percentage (9-1-18) in the middle. Lauren Hackett led the match with 20 kills on a .333 percentage (20-5-45) and also had nine digs and four blocks.

"We can't undersell what Hackett did, she had a dominant hitting performance tonight," Higa said. "I think clearly she had something extra tonight and they were scheming very heavily against her, they sent two blockers against her all night and she was dominant. It was probably one of the best matches of her career tonight."

CBU was in trouble early after dropping the first set and trailing 12-10 in the second. Madison turned the tide with a kill and block on back-to-back plays, which sparked an 11-2 run. Madison had three kills and two blocks in the run overall to put the Lancers ahead 21-14.

Consecutive kills from Marks and McKenna put CBU two points out, 23-17, and two more kills from McKenna and Marks ended the set in CBU's favor, 25-20.

"We've been really poised this year and able to stay in the moment and we don't get rattled, even tonight," Higa said. "There were so many reasons they could have got upset, but they weren't -- they were poised and executed down the stretch. It's exactly what you want to see out of your team."

The Lancers built on that momentum and used an 8-2 run to take a 13-7 lead in set three. Hackett had two kills and a block in the run, while McKenna had a kill and ace. Azusa Pacific managed to keep it a six-point deficit, 16-10, before CBU scored seven straight to put itself on the verge of victory, 23-10. McKenna had three kills in that span, while Gilley fueled the run with her serving.

Neither team wanted to give an inch in set four. There were 13 ties in the game and no team led by more than 10 points after a 12-9 lead from the Cougars in the early stages.

A Hackett kill gave CBU the first match point, 24-23, but APU answered back to force a tie at 24-24. Hackett broke it with another kill and then ended the match on yet another spike to keep the Lancers out of a fifth set.

"She was able to take over tonight," Higa said of Hackett's final three kills. "It was impressive, she hit deep corner, bounced a ball down the line and they put their two biggest blockers against her and she crushed it into the seam on the last one."