CSUB kicks off beach volleyball season by beating Vanguard
It wasn’t exactly the typical matchup between an NCAA Division I home team and an NAIA opponent, but Cal State Bakersfield emerged victorious nevertheless in its season opener, posting a 4-1 win over Vanguard Friday at the Barnes Beach Volleyball Complex.
Juniors Paige Calvin and Hayley McCluskey pulled off a dramatic three-set victory at No. 3 over the Lions’ Emma Galloway and Carly McKinney, shaking off first-set struggles and overcoming a 10-7 deficit in the tiebreaker to win 13-21, 21-9, 15-12, to highlight the morning’s action.
“They’ve been having some struggles, and they’re working through that really well,” CSUB coach Cesar Benatti said. “And today was the proof that they have surpassed those moments that they had ... They stayed together, they brought the best out of each other, so that was great to see.”
Calvin and McCluskey were joined as winners by Brooke Boiseau and Anna Unke at No. 4 from the first group of games to take place, then Caroline Benke and Megan Gilbert at No. 5 and Cameron Solberg and Milica Vukobrat at No. 1 from the second group. (There was also a sixth, non-counting exhibition played.)
Solberg and Vukobrat are back with the Roadrunners after earning All-Big West First Team honors in 2021, only the second CSUB pairing ever to do so. They looked as authoritative as ever in a 21-8, 21-15 win over Vanguard’s Natalie Escher and Conley Harris.
“They set the standard,” Benatti said, “they hold everybody accountable, they give everybody good examples, they work really hard.”
Returning pair Boiseau and Unke also opened the season with a decisive victory after going 2-12 overall last year.
They were joined at the bottom of the lineup by the novel combination of Benke and Gilbert, which earned the Roadrunners’ greatest margin of victory by beating the Lions’ Madison Arnold and Hally Herder, 21-8, 21-10. The No. 5 partners opened the first set up 7-1 and cruised to victory. Gilbert, a redshirt freshman from Downers Grove, Ill., made her first-ever appearance.
Another new pairing, however, did not fare as well. Hana Makonova, who earned an honorable mention from the conference last year for her performance alongside Emily Hansen (now at USC as a grad transfer), joined Canadian freshman Sophia Hladyniuk at No. 2.
The pair fell behind Morgan Nash and Emilee Hall 9-8 early, before Hladyniuk managed a tough dig leading into a weak-side spike to go up 17-16. But Vanguard got four of the next five points, and while CSUB forced a 21-21 tie, the Lions pulled out the first set 23-21.
CSUB started stronger in the second set, only to end up at a nearly identical conclusion when a pair of late miscues gave Vanguard a 21-19 victory.
Nash and Hall became only the second Lions pairing to ever beat Roadrunner opponents in 35 (non-exhibition) tries. But it was for naught, since CSUB was so dominant at Nos. 1, 4 and 5.
There remains plenty of room for improvement for the
Roadrunners, in Benatti’s first season focusing solely on beach volleyball after leaving his position as an indoor assistant. Areas to work on, he said, include “being able to stay in system, give good sets (and) give good possibilities to score points as quick as possible.”
CSUB will be tested right away, as it takes on higher-level competition Saturday in Pacific and Pepperdine.