by Christine Owen
Managing Editor
Bringing more power and intensity to the court than could be dealt with, Cal Baptist University shut out the University of La Verne Leopards in three straight games on Tuesday night in the Supertents, 30-27, 33-31 and 30-24.
The ULV men’s volleyball team entered the match coming off a weekend loss to the University of California Santa Cruz, that dropped them from second to fourth place in NCAA Division III ranking, and struggled to take control in the games against the Lancers.
“I don’t think it’s a technical problem, something that we’re technically not doing well on offense or not doing well on defense,” said ULV assistant coach Morgan Coberly. “This team has a lot of talent, but right now they’re just trying to find it in their hearts and see if they want to play hard or not, because tonight we didn’t.”
Cal Baptist took and held onto an early lead in the first game despite the Leopards tying the game at 26-26 after a solo block by junior middle blocker Tom Hilton. However, two consecutive errors by La Verne put Cal Baptist ahead again, 27-26. Junior outside hitter Will Paulson registered a kill that brought ULV within one point, 28-27, but a strong Cal Baptist defense did not allow any more points for the Leopards while they finished the game.
“I thought our defense was probably the strongest part of our game tonight,” said Cal Baptist head coach Wayne White.
Aggressive play by La Verne kept the score close in game two while 12 times in the game the score was tied. With the score tied at 30-30, Cal Baptist outside hitter Matt Peacock had a kill that put his team up by one, but Paulson quickly responded with a kill to tie the game again at 31-31. A Lancer unanswered point put them up by one, and setter Adu Rando recorded the game-winning kill.
Game three was also close until Cal Baptist went on a seven -point run that put them ahead 17-10. The Leopards capitalized on Cal Baptist’s hitting errors and came within four points, 25-21, but a strong offense from Peacock (16 kills) and outside hitter Rafael Paal (14 kills) overpowered the Leopards.
“We were close every game and they were just waiting for us to start taking over,” said senior Agke Grow, libero. “They [Cal Baptist] didn’t go out and win those games, we lost them.”
Both coaches agreed that serving errors were costly to both teams (ULV with 12 and Cal Baptist with 15) and must be improved upon for next week’s rematch. “Our serving was absurd tonight,” White said.
For the Leopards, sophomore outside hitter Jake Swann contributed 14 kills for the match and Paulson had 11. Junior opposite Nate Michael, sophomore middle blocker Nate Silva and Hilton had three kills apiece.
On Feb. 21 the two teams will face off again as they take the court on the Lancer’s home turf in Riverside.
“They’re [Cal Baptist] even with us,” Paulson said. “At times [tonight] we blocked well and I think that’s going to be how we beat Cal Baptist, by blocking well.”
