HARRISONBURG, Va. – The Bakersfield volleyball team marched into Sinclair Gymnasium Friday afternoon with a chip on their shoulder from Wednesday's heartbreaking loss to Radford and swept Presbyterian College, 25-18, 25-16, 25-20, to in its opening match at the James Madison Classic.

"We responded really well by keeping a more clean match," said head coach Jolene Shepardson. "By keeping our errors to only four a set made it difficult for Presbyterian to gain any momentum," said Shepardson regarding their ability to repond to consecutive five-set losses.

Danika Youngblood (Jr., Salt Lake City, Utah, Western Nebraska CC) led all hitters with 12 kills while Molly O'Hagan (Jr., Tonganoxie, Kan., Tonganoxie HS) and Kelsee Sawyer (So., Temecula, Calif., Great Oaks HS) chipped in with 11 and 10 kills respectively.

O'Hagan was crucial to the CSUB (3-2) attack as the junior opposite hitter finished the evening hitting with a .667 clip, just shy of tying Sarah Warner's school record of .700 hitting percentage. Fernanda Gonçalves (Sr., Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Western Nebraska CC) returned to form as the senior served up 35 assists while tallying 10 digs for her second double-double of the season.

The CSUB defense also stepped up keeping PC to just a .168 hitting percentage as a team. Nine service errors also hurt Presbyterian while Bakersfield didn't commit a single service error.

CSUB came out swinging in the first frame hitting .303 as a team and held the Blue Hoses (1-5) to just a meager .184 hitting percentage. With a 14-11 lead, the 'Runners used a 6-0 run capped off by Sawyer's kill to break open the match and led to the eventual Roadrunner 25-18 victory.

Bakersfield continued where they left off in the first set and raced off to a 9-1 start paced by Sawyer's four kills. PC battled back to get within six points, 21-15, before CSUB finished the second frame out with a 4-1 run led by O'Hagan who was hitting with a .583 clip through the second frame.

The 'Runners saw the third frame slip away as Presbyterian College jumped to a 7-0 run before a service error by PC's Mary Trimpke made it 17-11 and breathed some life back into CSUB. That error led to a 14-3 run by the Roadrunners to complete the three-set sweep including an 8-0 run in the end.

Bakersfield continues tournament play tomorrow with a double header vs. James Madison at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) and the Cowgirls of Wyoming to conclude the JMU Classic at 2 p.m. (PDT) at Sinclair Gymnasium.

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