Over the weekend, CSUEB womens volleyball again asserted their dominance, going 2-0 at home.

With 237 in attendance, CSUEB volleyball dispatched CSU Monterey Bay in just under an hour and a half.

Packed with an energetic student section, Friday was an easy match against Monterey Bay for the women who used crowd energy to win in three straight sets.

“We got started early,” said Cara Crowder “and we used the crowd to keep up the energy and dominance.”

“This was more than a game,” says Roxanne Neely, “this was payback for our first round loss to them. We had a focused warmup and were eager to show who really was the better team.”

Jit Athwal led the team in kills with 16 followed by Katie Allen’s nine.

Saturday’s game proved to be more troublesome. Falling behind early against San Francisco State Gators two sets to none, CSUEB women clawed their way back three straight sets to maintain a perfect weekend.

With a smaller, but none the quieter crowd of 167, the Pioneer women fought back point by point, led in part by Aaron Brown’s rowdy cheering and crowd boosting enthusiasm, finishing off the Gators in just over two hours.

“Our crowd definitely was there for us. Monterey brought some of their fans and SFS brought their ‘cheerleaders’, but our crowd out-cheered them too. It was a huge boost,” said Neely.

“We (the crowd) just didn’t give up,” student baseball player Aaron Brown said, “the further behind we got, the louder we got. Our team just needed the “Mo” (momentum), once we got that, we never let it go.”

After falling behind in two close sets, 25-23 and 25-18, the girls pulled it together and dominated the third set 25-11 followed by 25-21 and the final set of 15-8.

“It got close for a bit, but we knew the entire time we could win. We have great players, we just needed to have confidence in our system. Once we followed what we practiced, we pulled away,“ said Amanda Limeberger

“This showed that Friday’s win wasn’t a fluke.” Said Neely “our team was passionate and didnt allow balls to hit the floor.”

The pioneers were led by Katie Allen’s 12 kills and Cara Crowder’s 11 along with Lauren Massa’s staggering 25 digs.

Through phenomenal play by several key players, CSUEB staved off certain defeat, coming away with a hard fought victory at home extending their record to 11-4 in CCAA conference play and 16-4 overall.

Women’s Volleyball returns this week on Oct 27th, 29th, and 30th at 7pm in the Pioneer Gym.