CBU Splits a Pair on Day One of St. Thomas Tournament

Friday, September 1

St. Paul, MN

9 AM

California Baptist University

2-2,0-0WAC

Milwaukee

0-4,0-0Horizon

California Baptist

Milwaukee

Photo by: Ryley Collom

CBU Splits a Pair on Day One of St. Thomas Tournament

9/1/2023 7:24:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Ryley Collom, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications & Digital Media

ST. PAUL--- In the team's second tournament of the season, the California Baptist University volleyball squad split a pair of matches in the St. Thomas Tournament. The Lancers handed the Panthers a 3-1 loss before being defeated by the same margin by host St. Thomas in the later match.

CBU vs. Milwaukee:

In the opening set, Milwaukee and the Lancers battled back and forth until a late Panther run ended the set in the Panther's favor. CBU got outhit in the set, and despite a late four-point rally, Milwaukee claimed the frame 25-23.

CBU shook off the early loss and dominated Milwaukee in the second set to the tune of a 25-13 win for their largest margin of victory of the early season. The Lancers cleaned up their hitting woes from the first set, finished with a .333 attack percentage, and doubled up Milwaukee's kills to even up the match.

CBU flipped the script of the opening set and took a tightly contested third set 25-22. Milwaukee made a late run at the Lancers, but Chandler Gorman and Alexa Niko racked up a pair of blocks, and Michalina Rola delivered the final kill to stave off the comeback and take the 2-1 lead.

In what proved to be the match's final set, CBU jumped out to the early advantage, opening up an early 12-5 lead over the Panthers. From there, CBU continued to showcase efficient offense and stellar defense to wrap up the set 25-19 and secure their second win of the young season.

CBU takes down Milwaukee in the first match of the St. Thomas Tournament 3-1.

✨Catherine Krieger- 16 K 14 D
✨Leah Pease- 30 A
✨Chandler Gorman- 7 BL 5 K#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/8ZFAr8bk2a
— cbuvolleyball (@CBU_volleyball) September 1, 2023

STATISTICAL NOTABLES:

The Lancers defeated the Panthers in all six of the major categories in the match, including a sizeable advantage in assists (55-44) and kills (56-45). For the fifth game in a row, CBU won the service battle with four aces compared to two for Milwaukee and had their best showing in the block department with 11.

Coming off a strong performance in the win over Cal State Northridge, Catherine Krieger followed up with another impressive showing, tallying a game-high 16 kills and 14 digs to record her first double-double as a Lancer. Mia Jerue, usually a starting outside hitter, got her first start as a libero for the Lancers and put together a 22-dig 5-assist performance, both of which were new career highs.

Middle Blocker Chandler Gorman helped CBU record its highest team block total of 2023 with seven of the team's 11, while teammates Alexa Niko and Michalina Rola combined for 3.5.

Setter Leah Pease recorded 30 assists for the second straight match, while freshman setter Maddie Brown chipped in 15. Brown, who played sparingly in the previous tournament, took advantage of her opportunities in this match with five digs and a service ace to go along with those 15 assists.

CBU vs. St. Thomas:

In their first true road match of the season, the Lancers were handed a 3-1 loss at the hands of the St. Thomas Tommies, with their lone win coming in the second set.

CBU struggled out of the gate, quickly falling behind 11-2, with errors being the biggest reason for the deficit. The Lancers committed 11 errors in the frame, five of them being service errors. The Tommies would defeat CBU 25-17 to nab the early 1-0 lead.

The Lancers quickly shook off the rough opening set and led through most of the second set. Michalina Rola set the tone with four kills in the frame to lead the team and even up the score with a 25-20 victory.

The errors would once again rear their ugly head in the third and fourth sets for CBU as the Tommies took full advantage and pulled out wins of 25-20 and 25-22, respectively. For the match, CBU committed 40 errors, with 13 of them being service errors and 26 in the attack category.

STATISTICAL NOTABLES:

Freshman setter Maddie Brown continued her strong tournament showing with a team-leading 21 assists and aided the team with eight digs to boot. Leading attackers Michalina Rola and Catherine Krieger put together double-double performances, with Rola posting 14 kills and 12 digs and Krieger coming away with ten kills and 12 digs to pace the CBU offense.