CSU East Bay women’s volleyball (11-16 overall) found confidence as they defeated the reeling CSU Monterey Bay (12-15 overall) three sets to one handing the Otters their fifth-consecutive loss in November.

The anticipation was in the air for this game as the Pioneers were going to face the second-ranked kills scorer in the conference in CSU Monterey Bay’s sophomore outside hitter Julia Ashen. She would have to face the conference leading digger in CSU East Bay’s sophomore libero Veronica Sanchez who would rack up 30 digs on the night.

Not only would the 6’1” Ashen have to deal with Sanchez, but CSUEB’s scoring leader in the 6’2” junior opposite hitter Suzi Ni Xu, who broke a career record with 28 kills and hit .522 on the night.

Sanchez was pleased with her performance against the matchup with CSUMB.

“Initially it’s a lot of work but we worked really hard and it paid off tonight,” Sanchez explained with a smile on her face. “This time we were in system. Our block was there and we stopped [Ashen] defensively, it feels awesome.”

At the first set, the Pioneers looked like they were going to be in for a long night trying to handle the two mentioned threats. The first match in the set was played fairly even with neither team enjoying a comfortable advantage on the scoreboard.

Everyone witnessed why Ashen was a threat and the second ranked scorer in the conference as she showed off her powerful striking finding holes in the Pioneers’ defense, posting six kills leading the team in the first set.

The Pioneers would struggle, giving up easy points on three serves even as Ni Xu and junior opposite hitter Hannah Bell would split five kills between them for the Pioneers. However the hard work of Sanchez, Ni Xu and Bell would prevail in the first match.

For the next two sets the Pioneers would shut Ashen down allowing her only one kill for her team and even then, Monterey Bay could barely hang on for their only win of the night as Ni Xu again would not be outdone with her 10 kills in that set.

This was one of Sanchez’s most impressive sets as she was frantic in her attempts to do everything in her athletic ability to help keep her team in the game with superb defensive moves in the back line. The CSUEB defense seemed sluggish making defensive mistakes and couldn’t keep from making errors like playing over the net.

The third set, however, was an evenly played set, but was won on efforts such as senior setter Danielle Stewart’s stellar sneaky two-handed soft hit that caught the Otters off guard.

The fourth and final set was all CSUEB.  The powerful offense from the Otters’, Ashen and Jessica Malcom, were nowhere to be found as they only accounted for two kills a piece, as Pioneer’s Ni Xu would post seven kills on her own totaling 28 on the night to lead the team.  It was almost as if the Pioneers were scoring at will.

Spagle had his reservations for the game. “It’s tough [for replacement starters] grinding through adversity with injuries. They’re slowly getting used to the system but it takes time for it to become instinctual. They just need to play with confidence and they can win,” Spagle told The Pioneer.

Spagle also stated his worries were to contain two hitters in particular on the Monterey Bay squad and that was Ashen and freshman outside hitter and second on the team in kills Malcom.

“If you noticed we had two blockers on her most of the time they were hitting. Our kids made a real nice adjustment there,” he said.