NORTHRIDGE, CA--- The California Baptist University volleyball team notched its first win of the season at the Ridge Invitational as they defeated Idaho State in a five-set thriller in Northridge.
After a rocky start to the opening set, the Lancers would turn it around quickly behind the stellar offense of Emery DeJong and Filippa Botcher. The two combined for 11 of the team's 17 kills in the frame, and DeJong would seal the set with the final kill for the 25-20 victory to start 1-0. The Idaho State Bengals would quickly regroup themselves in the second set and would take advantage of several Lancer errors to tie the match at one set apiece. CBU would mount a late comeback in the frame, scoring five straight points, but the damage was too severe as the Bengals would win 25-17.
CBU would go right back at the Bengals with a dominant display in the third period. The Lancers would lead by as many as eight in the period and would grind out the 25-17 victory to reciprocate what the Bengals did in the second. Once again, Idaho State would punch back with a 25-7 win in the fourth set to set the stage for a winner-take-all fifth set.
In the pivotal fifth set, the Lancers would start strong with an early 5-0 run to give themselves a 7-3 advantage. Eleftheria Baxa would be the main catalyst of the run, registering three kills all off of perfectly placed passes from setter Maddie Brown. Idaho State attempted to close the gap with a block, but a costly error paired with a pair of aces from Botcher of the Lancers would put the Bengals behind the eight ball. CBU's lead ballooned to as many as eight before Idaho State mounted a strong comeback attempt. The Bengals would rattle off six straight points to force Trevor Johnson to burn both of his timeouts and bring the score to 14-12 in favor of CBU. The Lancers remained calm and would get the final point out of the second timeout via Baxa claiming her fourth kill of the set and staving off the comeback.
DeJong would once again lead the offensive charge with 17 kills and would add two blocks to help CBU get its first win of the season. Brown put together an incredible double-double performance with a career-high 44 assists and 12 digs. The win was a milestone for Coach Trevor Johnson, marking his first as the DI Head Coach of the CBU Volleyball program, and would also be the first in program history over the Idaho State Bengals.
NEXT: The Lancers will finish up their opening weekend on Sunday, August 31, as they play host Cal State Northridge at 2 PM.
