• Cal State Bakersfield women’s basketball closed out its preseason against Hope International, a conference championship winner and NAIA tournament participant last season.
• The Roadrunners and Royals faced off at the Icardo Center in a tight, back-and-forth exhibition test where Bakersfield was able to eventually pull ahead in a thrilling fourth quarter comeback.
• Regardless of how close the matchup ended up being, Greg McCall called it: “A really good early test. We knew they were going to be smaller sharpshooters and it will prepare us well for facing teams in the Big West who play a similar type of game.”
• For the first time since 2021-22, the `Runners put up two different 20-point scorers, while Shaunae Brown, Grace Hunter, and newcomer Jordan Olivares took the vast majority of Bakersfield’s points during the victory.
• Now looking towards the regular season, CSUB travels for two straight road games before its homecoming against Fresno State. The `Runner first face off against Pac-12 foe, the California Golden Bears on Monday evening.

CSUB 72, HIU 61 – Thursday, Nov. 2

• Bakersfield began slowly, something reminiscent of last year’s team, as the `Runners shot just 5-for-20 from the field in the first quarter but quickly found its footing to improve to nearly 45% in the second.
• The `Runners went on a fantastic 22-7 run that showed the true gap between the two squads as Jordan Olivares made her mark on her new squad, putting up multiple buckets from behind the arc.
  • CSUB was able to break away for a massive 36-21 gap heading into halftime. Scoring 12 points off turnovers in the second quarter, the `Runners shined the potential of their full-court ability particularly with Shaunae Brown already nearing a double-double.
• Hope International evened the score by coming out of the break with a humongous run of 19 points before CSUB was able to settle back into its game.
• Nearly twelve full months since her last competitive game, Shaunae Brown looked like she never stepped off the court. Brown was the clear difference maker, especially during the fourth quarter.
  • She totaled 27 points and 10 rebounds in just 29 minutes of play by the end of the game. 
  • Jordan Olivares followed closely behind her, participating in all phases of the game with 20 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 assists.
• With an all-around comeback effort in a 20-16 fourth quarter, Bakersfield was able to secure a comfortable win. The `Runners have now increased their streak of victories over non-D1 teams for a seventh-straight year.

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CSUB vs. Pacific – Saturday, Nov. 4

• With the FINA World Championships in Doha, Qatar on the horizon, Vili Sivec and a few other headline men’s and women’s swimmers have been shining in this season’s meets.
• On Sunday afternoon, both teams of Roadrunners found a way to beat Pacific, with the women’s team doubling the Tigers’ score as Chelaine Van der Westhuizen, Josiane Hill, and Kylie Ney swam their way to multiple victories.
  • Men: Win, 158-136
  • Women: Win, 205-86
• All of Sivec’s winning times from this weekend placed in the top-50 in the NCAA Division I Mid-Major rankings.
• Kylie Ney was able to reset her personal best 200 Free time by almost four second, winning that event at 1:56.13, while Van der Westhuizen’s two victories also placed top-25 in the NCAA Division I Mid-Major Rankings.
• Josiane Hill and Arthur Schneider also managed a pair of wins each, and Yigit Saglam picked up a win as well as a very close runner-up finish to Sivec in another race.
• As we now pass the halfway mark of the season, the `Runners will eagerly train for nearly four weeks in anticipation of the annual Big Al Invitational on December 1-3.

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Menlo Open – Saturday, November 4

• The Roadrunners began the 2023-24 season in Atherton, California for the Menlo Open.
  • CSUB won the tournament beating out Pac-12 rival Oregon State by .5 points.
• CSUB had two first place finishes, Jonathan Viveros (149) and Guillermo Escobedo (165).
• Bakersfield also had five other place in the top five.
  • Santino Sanchez (133) placed second.
  • Hayden Zinkin (133) and Luis Ramos (141) placed fourth.
• Coen Quinata (157) and Eric Mittlestaed (285) placed fifth. Despite the result, Bakersfield and third-year head coach Luke Smith have a lot of positives to look back on and will surely look forward to building in year two.
• A full list of results from the tournament can be found on the Wrestling schedule.

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• Cal State Bakersfield's women’s volleyball team head onto the road for the second straight week to face off against UC Riverside and UC Davis. 
• Bakersfield-native Ava Palm continues to rank highly in the Big West for kills-per-set. 
• Alongside Palm, Breklyn Pulling is 11th in hitting percentage and 10th in blocks for the big west. 

CSUB 0, UCSD 3 – Friday, November 6

• Bakersfield got out to a 12-8 lead in the first set.
  • CSUB notched 10 kills to start, as Sydney Dunning led the team with 5 of the 10 total kills by the Roadrunners.
• In the second set, CSUB improved their hitting percentage by 23%.
  • Nene Hawkins led both teams in assists (6). Hawkins also had 20 assists in the match, which was tied for first.
• Set three saw two lead changes, but seven tied scores. CSUB’s largest lead was 3 as both teams quickly had answers for each other going back and forth for much of the set.
  • UCSD ran away in the end of the set taking the match 3-0. 

  CSUB 0, Long Beach State 3 – Saturday, Nov. 4

• Bakersfield went head-to-head with Long Beach State after the first game of the season with them ending in a five-set match.
• This game started off close, with the first set ending in 25-19, Long Beach State. 
• Bakersfield worked in a new system, having Ella Erteltova play hand-in-hand with Nene Hawkins as CSUB’s setters. Erteltova had a game-high of 12 sets with Hawkins following right behind with 11. 
• For the rest of the game, Long Beach would lead the way, with the final score ending 3-0.
• Ava Palm continues to be the primary offensive player for the `Runners, leading the team in kills(8) as well as service aces (1). Palm and freshman Sydney Dunning led the team in kills with 9 each, with Palm having three blocks for the game. 

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