By Juan Garcia 

Reporter

CSU Bakersfield volleyball couldn’t come together to clinch any of the sets in the Thunderdome Classic that was held at UC Santa Barbara this past weekend. CSUB was swept by all three teams and was unable to advance in the tournament.

The Roadrunners began the tournament on Friday with a match against UC Santa Barbara (5-2). The Gauchos took a strong lead to begin the series with a 25-11 win. The Roadrunners would respond with an early lead to kickoff the second and third matches. This, however, would not be enough as the Gauchos would respond back with a strong charge and ultimately dominate the sets with a 3-0 score against CSUB.

“The effort is there, and we are in games, but if we continue to play this way, it will be very difficult to win on a consistent basis,” said CSUB volleyball director Giovana Melo from gorunners.com.

CSUB continued the Thunderdome Classic on Saturday Sept. 3 with two more matches as they faced off against Baylor (4-2) and Pittsburgh (4-1).

The Roadrunners start the day with a match against Baylor, with the Bears taking the win in the first set of the series 25-13. CSUB would respond with a strong lead in most of the second set, but Baylor would overcome the Roadrunners and win the set 29-27.

The third set was a close one for the Roadrunners as a block by Baylor ultimately secured the win for the Bears 26-24.

The third and final match against the Pittsburgh Panthers would not be any different for the Roadrunners as the final score ended 3-0 for the Roadrunners.

The Panthers defeated the Runners 25-20 in the first set and 25-21 in the second. Pittsburgh would wrap it up with a 25-15 win in the third set against the Runners.

“We are making too many errors and are still playing very inconsistent at this point,” said Melo.

After the Thunderdome Tournament, CSUB ended the weekend with an overall record of 1-5.

The CSUB volleyball team will host its debut home game of the season this Tuesday against Sacramento State.