CSUB volleyball looking to build momentum in Central California Challenge
Sep. 16—The Cal State Bakersfield volleyball team has already been through the wringer this year: three weekends on the road, three games each, including four total against last year's NCAA Tournament qualifiers.
"It's not enough with how new this team is for each other," head coach Giovana Melo said after practice Wednesday.
Indeed, when the Roadrunners earned a triumphant 3-0 victory over West Virginia last Saturday — CSUB's first-ever win against a Big 12 opponent in six tries — they did it with a starting lineup that included three transfers and a redshirt freshman.
So any little bit of extra experience helps, and the Roadrunners will have one more chance for additional seasoning before Big West Conference play when they host the Central California Challenge, a four-team tournament beginning Friday.
"I feel like we are growing a lot in tough moments and we're getting more connected every time," said setter Laura De Pra, who is poised to make her official Icardo Center debut.
The new contributors have already made their mark throughout the preseason. De Pra, playing at her fourth school, sits fourth in the Big West in assists per set, with 8.77. Middle blocker Sophia Bertotti Metoyer tied a school record with eight blocks in the three-set WVU match. Outside hitter Lizzie Binder, the redshirt freshman, earned all-tournament honors at the Cougar Challenge the previous weekend. And Ava Palm leads the team in aces per set, plus boasts a solid .242 hitting percentage.
Certainly, the team has faced its share of highs and lows during its 3-6 start to the season. The Roadrunners took just one set combined in three matches at the Webb-Burbridge Classic in Arizona to open the year. They responded the following weekend with 3-1 victories over Cal Baptist and Belmont — even after dropping sets early in both games — and, in a loss at Washington State, took a set off a Pac-12 opponent for the first time in six years.
That progress appeared to go out the window when CSUB got swept in back-to-back matches last Friday in Vermillion, S.D., against South Dakota and Northern Colorado. But then came West Virginia.
"We really got together, we were talking a lot about being good for each other," De Pra said, "and I feel like that game, we just did everything that we were talking about for the first time ... The chemistry was just very fluid."
In the 25-22, 25-22, 25-20 victory, fifth-year senior Hayley McCluskey had 12 kills in three sets and Binder added 10 more, but the highlight was the block party led by Bertotti Metoyer: 13 team blocks against a team with a slew of 6-foot-3 outside hitters.
"It's mostly, I think, because we served really well, we were able to put them in out-of-system situations," Melo said, "and then when that happened our team (was) in a good spot to be a good blocking team."
The Roadrunners posted nine aces to WVU's three.
CSUB pulled out the first set with three straight points — including consecutive kills from Bertotti Metoyer — clung to a one-point lead late in the second, then looked the most in control by the time it got to the end of the third set.
"We have learned to figure it out in moments, stressful moments, frustrating moments," Melo said. "We have figured out some of the things that we need to do to be better as a team in those moments."
The Roadrunners will look to bolster their record ahead of Big West play when they face Pacific (5-4) and Sacramento State (3-6) Friday, then Fresno State (4-5) Saturday, in their first home tournament since 2019.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
