Sept. 26, 2008

Box Score |  Photo Gallery 

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - LMU (10-4) played highly efficient volleyball in a three-set sweep of Cal State Bakersfield (8-7), 25-9, 25-21 and 25-13. The Lions have now won six of their last seven matches.

There was a scoring discrepancy in the last point of the match, as an extra point was played that shouldn't have counted. During that point Emily Day recorded a dig that would have been the 1,000th for her career. Instead, she currently sits at 999. Despite that, Day played a great match leading the team in kills with 17 on only 25 attacks, with no errors, for a remarkable .680 hitting percentage, a new career high. The Lions recorded only five errors as a team during the whole match and finished with a .473 mark.

Cal State Bakersfield on the other hand, was error prone throughout the match as they had 20 errors to only 25 kills for a .063 hitting percentage. One of the lone bright spots for the Roadrunners was Sarah Warner who led the team with 10 kills on 22 attacks.

LMU jumped on Bakersfield from the beginning of the first set, their best of the match. The Lions set the tone for the whole match, as they led 7-2 early in a set that never got closer than three points after that. Bakersfield recorded a negative hitting percentage due to seven attack errors in the set.

On the other side, LMU was devastatingly efficient, with a team hitting percentage of .625 on 16 kills in 24 attempts. Megan Nash led the way with four kills on five swings. Renee Horton, who had a match-high 30 assists, had 14 of them in the first set. Day scored three of the last four points to give the Lions a commanding 25-9 first set win.

The Roadrunners were not going to lie down, though, and played much better in the second set. They lowered their error total to four in the second set and more than doubled their kills to 15 for a .379 hitting percentage. Bakersfield took the early lead at 2-0 and held the lead for much of the first half of the set. The Lions were forced to take a lead with the Roadrunners leading 14-11 after a service ace by Mystie McNaughton.

The momentum changed from there as LMU reeled off four straight points, forcing Bakersfield to take a timeout with the Lions leading 15-14. LMU never trailed after that point and slowly pushed their cushion to three points at 20-17 on a kill by Day, one of six for her in the set. The Lions finally put Bakersfield away in the second set on a kill by Ariana Covington, who had five kills in the match.

LMU continued to roll in the third set as they never trailed throughout. Day once again led the charge for the Lions with six kills on nine attempts, including a kill on what should have been the last point of the match. She also had two of her match-leading three aces in the set. On the other side, Bakersfield couldn't muster much offense, recording only four kills and a remarkably low hitting percentage of -.208. LMU finished with a .485 hitting percentage for the match, their highest of the season. Their previous best was .415 against San Jose St. on September 13.

LMU's next match is at Santa Clara on Thursday, October 2 at 7:00 pm. That match marks the beginning of conference play for the Lions.