California Baptist University
7-18,3-9WAC
Tarleton State University
16-9,9-3WAC
CBU's Season Concludes in the WAC Quarterfinals to #3 Tarleton
11/20/2025 2:16:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
ABILENE, TX--- The California Baptist University volleyball team ended its season on Thursday afternoon following a hard-fought five-set battle with the Tarleton Texans in the WAC Quarterfinals.
CBU and TSU opened the WAC Volleyball Tournament in Abilene, Texas, with a bang as they engaged in a five-set thriller at Moody Coliseum. Tarleton's win would be the first in its program history, while the Lancers' run ends in the WAC Quarterfinals in its final match as a member of the conference.
The opening set of the match was a good one with both teams going on big runs to keep each other off balance. The Texans had the first big run of the match, scoring five of six points at the midpoint of the frame to take the advantage. Tarleton led by as many as five points before the Lancers would counter with a 7-1 run to tie, then take the lead away from the Texans. With the score tied at 22, Tarleton would capitalize on a pair of Lancer errors to get to set point and would eventually hold on for the 25-23 victory.
CBU caught fire early in the second set behind three straight aces from Olivia Melton. The service run was supplemented by solid offense as they would lead by as many as seven points in the period. The Texans would make a few runs at the Lancer lead, but the early run by CBU would prove to be too much to overcome, and they would tie the match at one set apiece with the 25-22 victory.
The Lancers would jump out to an early lead in the third set as well, racking up a 6-2 advantage. CBU controlled the momentum throughout the set, leading by as many as nine points. The Texans trimmed the lead down to three late, but the Lancers would end the set on a 3-1 run with an Olivia Melton kill, ending the frame 25-20 in favor of CBU. The Texans would extend the match in the fourth set, overcoming an early deficit to force a fifth set with a 25-19 win in set four.
Tarleton snatched momentum early in the fifth set, clinging to a three-point lead to force Trevor Johnson to call an early timeout. CBU would rally with a 7-3 run to tie the frame at ten apiece, but the Texans answered quickly out of a timeout with a 3-0 run to put themselves in a great position. DeJong would manage two kills to keep the Lancers in the match, but Tarleton would score off a pair of attack errors from CBU to pull out the 15-12 victory and win the quarterfinal match.
Despite the loss, Emery DeJong put up incredible numbers that included a career-high in kills, aces, points, and digs. DeJong registered a career-best 21 kills in the match to go along with 14 digs, four aces, and 28 points. The First-Team All-WAC recipient proved why she belonged on that list with the best game of her career as she helped the Lancers nearly pull off the upset of the #3 seed. DeJong concludes her season with 309 kills and averages 3.43 kills per set, the third-best mark in the D-1 era for CBU.
DeJong was not the only Lancer with a career game as setter Maddie Brown produced a career-high 49 assists and made it a double-double with 12 digs. Eleftheria Baxa was also a significant force for CBU's offense with 15 kills on a .375 hitting percentage. Mia Rossman and Gianna Perez would combine for 25 digs at libero, while Olivia Melton and Lucy Ryan had 15 total kills.
