Bulldogs outlast Roadrunners in five sets to complete season sweep

Tuesday, September 12

Bakersfield, CA

6:00 PM

Fresno State

5-6

CSU Bakersfield

4-7

Fresno State

CSU Bakersfield

Bulldogs outlast Roadrunners in five sets to complete season sweep

9/12/2017 10:21:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – In a back-and-forth match between central valley rivals that totaled 31 tied scores, Fresno State was able to outlast CSU Bakersfield 3-2 (25-23, 16-25, 25-21, 16-25, 15-13) in Bakersfield's home opener on Tuesday night. The match was the third straight for the Bulldogs to go five sets.

In a fifth set tied at 13-13, a CSU Bakersfield service error gave the Bulldogs a match point and junior Taylor Slover followed with a kill to give her team the win. Fresno State (5-6) completed a season sweep of the Roadrunners after a 3-0 win against them at home last week. CSU Bakersfield (4-7) dropped its fifth consecutive match – a streak that started at the hands of the Bulldogs.

Brielle Hefner continued her sensational play of late with a team-high 15 kills hitting .379 while also chipping in five blocks. Slover had 13 kills and three service aces while Haile Watson led the way with six blocks and had eight kills hitting .353. Madelyn Halteman had 42 assists and Jacqueline Hutcheson had 15 digs as the Bulldogs won despite CSU Bakersfield having an advantage in kills, hitting percentage, blocks, and digs.

How it Happened
The Bulldogs trailed 13-8 early in the first set but used a 10-1 run to take an 18-14 lead. CSU Bakersfield came back to tie it at 22-22 but the Bulldogs got kills from Hefner and Aubrey Folk to reach set point and won it on a kill from Lauren Torres.

Fresno State took a 5-1 lead in the second set before going on a 12-2 run to pull away. CSUB hit a match-best .379 in the set and pulled away for a 25-16 win. The Bulldogs came back strong in the third holding CSUB to its lowest hitting percentage of the match. It was tied 20-20 and with a 22-21 Bulldog lead the Roadrunners committed three consecutive attack errors as the set went to the 'Dogs.

CSUB forced a fifth set with a dominant fourth, turning a 10-10 tie into a runaway 25-16 win with a 15-6 run to end it. There were eight ties and three lead changes in the abridged fifth set with neither team leading by more than two points. The teams traded kills after the set was tied 12-12, and with CSUB serving Sydney Haynes sent a ball into the net and Slover followed with the winning kill.

Quotable
Head Coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell

On the match: "It's hard to beat a team twice, especially at their place. Bakersfield made us uncomfortable but we played confident in the fifth set. After coming off two 5-set heartbreakers, it's great to put one in the books. We all struggled and we all found ways to get the job done in the end."

On what's next: "We need a few of our players to step up and play with more confidence moving forward so we have people we can lean on when teams have answers. We'll be looking for more of that against Irvine on Thursday."

Notable
Fresno State has now won nine of the last 10 meetings with CSU Bakersfield…The Bulldogs had a pair of tough five-set losses last weekend against CSUN and San Francisco. The team has played three straight five-setters after not playing one through the first eight contests of the season…After breaking the three-set program record with 21.0 blocks in the sweep of CSU Bakersfield last week the Bulldogs were out blocked 14.0-11.0 in Bakersfield.

What's Next
Fresno State plays its final non-conference match of the season at 6 p.m. Thursday at UC Irvine.

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