CBU Takes Down Another WAC Champ in Five

Saturday, October 6

Riverside, Calif.

1:00 PM

California Baptist University

13-5, 4-2WAC

CSU Bakersfield

10-7, 3-1WAC

CSU Bakersfield

California Baptist

CBU Takes Down Another WAC Champ in Five

10/6/2018 4:27:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – One of its best offensive performances of the season helped California Baptist University down CSU Bakersfield, the defending Western Athletic Conference Tournament champions, in five sets (25-27, 25-17, 25-17, 21-25, 15-12) on Saturday.

Offensively, the Lancers hit .311 (68-16-167) for their best percentage against an NCAA Division I opponent. CSUB was held to a .240 clip (63-22-171), with a 12-6 advantage in blocks proving to be big for CBU, along with composure in the fifth set.

"Poise has been one of our things and something the team does well naturally, they're pretty level headed, and that was really tested today," Coach Branden Higa said. "To win two sets easily and then get blown out [in the fourth], at that point it's a 50-50 ball game. Whoever is going to focus more and stay more poised stands a better chance at winning, and we were able to do that."

The Lancers improved to 13-5, 4-2 in the WAC and to 4-0 in five-set matches this year, while Bakersfield dropped to 10-7, 3-1 in its first conference loss. The two will get a rematch in Bakersfield next Saturday at 1 p.m. after CBU faces Seattle U on the road Thursday at 7 p.m.

"It's going to be really cool because it's really fresh," Higa said. "For us to be able to have a rematch right away is going to be great for both teams because our team knows a lot of their team. There was a sense of 'I have to go beat my friend here,' which is really fun."

CBU can now say it has defeated the defending regular-season and tournament champions in the WAC, with five-set wins over NM State and Bakersfield. That wasn't even a focus for the Lancers, though.

"To be honest, we don't even look at it that way," Higa said. "We are just trying to play well every time we go out. We haven't talked about that going in because every win in the WAC is good."

Natalie Zimmerer set a NCAA-era, single-match record with 60 assists for CBU. The redshirt junior setter spread out the offense, with five Lancers notching at least six kills. Tesa Oaks had a match-high 22 kills on a .373 percentage (22-3-51), while Megan Sester had 17 kills on a .316 clip (17-5-38) and Sydney Marks added 13 more kills on a team-high .458 percentage (13-2-24).

"The offense was going and the passing went well, too, which helped us put some service pressure on them," said Higa, whose team had nine aces. "Nat did great running the offense. The big thing was getting everyone involved, she found the middles a lot and that opened things up for our outside hitters.

"It was good to have an offensive output like that against a team like Bakersfield that can shut a team down."

Oaks and Zimmerer both had double-doubles with 19 and 11 digs, respectively. Nicole Abreu had a team-high 20 digs, while Summer Avery continued to make an impact all over the floor with 13 digs, eight kills and four blocks. Yagoda Jedrzejczak led the block party with eight stuffs and six kills, while Marks had four blocks of her own.

And once again, a five-setter brought out the best in the Lancers.

"We just take advantage of the moment, being in the fifth set is a lot of pressure, but we just stay poised and go with it," Marks said. "We don't really know what to expect playing these teams, everything is a first this year, but it's big to be able to go out and take out these top teams."

The Lancers' nine aces were spread out, with Elizabeth Gilley posting three and Cassidy Dennison and Zimmerer adding two each.

After dropping the first set in overtime, CBU won sets two and three on identical scores of 25-17. Sester led the Lancers with five kills in set two, while the home team also out blocked the Roadrunners 4-0 in the game. Oaks then led CBU to victory in set three with seven kills on a .545 percentage (7-1-11).

CSUB answered back in a big way and appeared ready to cruise late in set four, up 23-14. The Lancers made a big last stand and created some momentum for itself by ending the game on a 7-2 run with Gilley back at the service line and Oaks tallying three kills in the charge.

"We got crushed early but found a way to right the ship and make the run at the end," Higa said. "Battling for those points at the end of set four made it easier for us to reset in five."

Set five was a wild ride, but a 3-0 edge in blocks, with Jedrzejczak in on each one, and three kills from Sester on a .750 percentage (3-0-4) proved to be key in the deciding game. CBU held an 8-4 lead at the halfway point after two block assists from Jedrzejczak and three points from Sester (two kills, one block).

The Roadrunners fought back within two, 9-7, but CBU then scored the next four points to take a 13-7 lead. Marks and Gilley started the run with a kill and ace, respectively, before a team block from Jedrzejczak and Zimmerer forced a timeout from the visitors. Oaks added to the run out of the break, though, with a kill.

A spike from Jedrzejczak gave CBU match point, 14-9, but the Roadrunners dug in and cut the deficit down to 14-12 to force a Lancer timeout. CSUB committed a service error out of the break to hand the Lancers another big victory.