Moment of the Year: #5
Women's Volleyball Defeats Fresno Pacific
On Nov. 6, 2010 the CBU women's volleyball team did something no other team had done since 2002.
The Lancers defeated three-time defending national champion Fresno Pacific on its home floor, handing the Sunbirds a stunning 3-0 sweep.
CBU ended a streak of 122-consecutive home wins, dating back to Nov. 3, 2002, with the victory. Beating a team that had won four NAIA National Championships during the eight-year time frame.
"We have had some great matches against them in the past, but this one was special," said Head Coach Ryan McGuyre following the historic victory. "It's always a tough place to come and play, but tonight was the quietest I'd ever heard that gym."
The Lancers came in to play fighting to stay near the top of the race in the conference standings, battling Biola for second place behind Fresno Pacific. The win would eventually become the decisive factor as the Lancers took second place in the GSAC.
Fittingly the match opened with a high-intensity, high-drama opening set.
CBU jumped out to a five-point advantage, holding the lead all the way to a 20-15 score late in the first set.
With a packed house behind them the Sunbirds made a run, rattling off four straight points to draw within one.
Out of a timeout, though, Jessica Kalama ripped a kill to end the run. Fresno Pacific continued to battle and would eventually tie the match at 23-23 on a kill by Keke Wang.
After the team's traded points, Lunjun Ji stepped up for CBU, forcing game-point and then following it up with the game winner, on a pair of right-handed smashes. CBU took the set 26-24.
"Coming out and winning game one was key to give us confidence and take their crowd out of it," said McGuyre.
After that the Lancers turned it up a notch and scorched the Sunbirds 25-16 and 25-17 for the win.
The stat line for CBU was equally as impressive as Ingrid Carmona led the team with 20 kills, hitting a blistering .421 on the attack. Ji had the second most kills with 11 on 20 attempts and one error (.500). Nevena Dragovic dished out assists at a rate of 14.3 per set, recording 43 in the sweep.
It was just the second loss of the season for the Sunbirds and their only one in conference play. Fresno Pacific had not lost a GSAC match since 2007 and had just three total losses during that time, coming into the historic sweep.
The match was part of a 33-6 season in which CBU made it to the quarterfinals at the NAIA tournament and went a long way to help McGuyre win his first ever NAIA National Coach of the Year Award.
Archive:
Moments of the Year: #6 - Baseball Wins Second Consecutive GSAC Championship
Moments of the Year: #7 - Men's Volleyball Wins Eighth National Title
Moments of the Year: #8 - Softball Beats Okla. City/CS San Marcos at NAIA Tournament
Moments of the Year: #9 - Men's Soccer Defeats NCAA DI Sacramento State
Moments of the Year: #10 - Stieger Nets 400; Holden, Gorham Break Records
Moments of the Year: Honorable Mention
