Editor-in-Chief
After losing 4-1 at home against University of San Francisco on Thursday, the CSU Bakersfield beach volleyball team split a pair of matches at Folsom, Calif. on Saturday.
Despite falling behind 2-1, the Roadrunners (3-12) beat Sacramento State 3-2 in the morning match thanks to victories in the number one and number two pairs.
In the No. 2 pair, seniors Edithza Urias and Jocelyn Rodriguez rallied back to beat the Hornets’ team of senior Lauren Aikels and junior Morgan Stanley (17-21, 21-12, 15-11) to tied the match up for CSUB.
At No. 1, senior Carol Grasso and redshirt-junior Sydney Haynes fell behind early to the Hornets’ senior Sloan Lovett and junior Madeline Cannon as Sacramento State won the first set 21-17. CSUB bounced back winning the second set 21-16 and winning a close final set 15-13 and earning the team win.
However, the Roadrunners dropped the final match against the University of Washington as CSUB lost 5-0.
The two closest matches came in the number two and number three pairs.
At No. 2, CSUB’s Urias and Rodriguez pushed UW’s junior Cassie Strickland and sophomore Courtney Schwan to three sets but the Huskies won it in the end (21-18, 14-21, 15-7.) At No. 3, redshirt-senior Sophie Flemion and senior Kelsee Sawyer lost in the closest match to UW’s senior Lianna Sybeldon and junior Bailey Tanner (13-21, 21-16, 12-15.)
On April 7, the Roadrunners fell at home to the San Francisco State Dons.
CSUB dropped the first four matches, but managed to win the final match thanks to its No. 1 pair of Haynes and Grasso.
Haynes and Grasso beat senior Sarah Staengle and sophomore Oluoma Okaro (21-15, 21-17).
“I think we did good,” said Grasso. “Last weekend, was a bad a weekend for us, but I guess, it was just a bad one for us. We picked it up.
“As a team, we are struggling a little bit, but I think me and Syd we are holding it together and getting our job done. I think our communication is really good and we really trust each other. I think that’s the most important to partners in the sand because it’s only you two out there so you got to trust each other.”
Sawyer, who she and Flemion lost in a close match (15-21, 23-21, 6-15), said they had a tough loss.
“Point by point, I think we worked harder than the other team, but that last game didn’t show it,” said Sawyer. “It is just tough when we don’t start off strong and jump on and get the first couple points. That was really the difference of our game.”
CSUB coach Olivia Simko said she wants the team to go for it moving forward.
“We rebuilt everything with the sand program this year,” said SImko. “We had three returners, so we had to re-do pretty much everything and start from scratch. I just want to see them go out there and play tough volleyball all the time.”
