THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Senior
Josh Bigford made St. John Fisher College history on Friday evening as he became the first-ever men's volleyball player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-kill mark. The Cardinals, who are currently ranked number 10 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, slipped to 14-6 overall following two four-set losses at the Cal-Lu-Fornia Classic, held at the Gilbert Arena on the campus of California Lutheran University, falling to hosts California Lutheran and to No. 9 Marymount University.
CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN 3, NO. 10 FISHER 1
Following a back-and-forth first set drop, the Cardinals came out in the second set with a three-point run, including a point from
Jake Baker, to tie the frame up at five points.
Cal Lutheran rallied to take back as much as a four-point advantage, but Fisher chipped away at the lead until the hosts reached the 20-point mark. Down four points, the Cardinals went on a 7-1 run, ignited by Bigford, filled by a big block from
Matt Cieplicki and
Griffin Stella, and punctuated by back-to-back kills by Baker.
Now with a one-point lead at 23-22, Cieplicki scored again and Stella teamed up with
Paul Hackford for a match-winning and series-tying block.
Despite building an early 5-3 lead in the third set, the teams went point-for-point until the Regals battled to take a two-point advantage at 16-14. From there, the Cardinals made a short push of their own to tie the game at 18 apiece, but a Cal Lutheran four-point run forced Fisher to work from behind. The Cardinals were able to create a three-point swing themselves, but the effort was just short of overcoming the hump as they fell to a 2-1 scoreboard hindrance.
Set-opening kills from Bigford and Baker put the east coasters at an early 5-1 advantage in the fourth set, which extended to 9-5 just moments later. The Regals strung together a handful of two- and three-point runs, which outnumbered the Cardinals' runs and evened the score at 20. With momentum opposing them, Fisher fell victim to a 5-1 run by the hosts, as the game closed at 25-21 favoring Cal Lutheran.
The standing AVCA Division III Player of the Week, Baker, led the way for the Cardinals with a game-high 23 kills and 24.5 points in four sets of action, while Bigford chipped in 15 kills and a pair of service aces to go with a .324 hitting percentage. Stella led the defense at the net with five assisted blocks to go along with four kills in the contest, while Hackford cleaned up the backcourt with a team-high 11 digs and dished out 43 assists.
As a team, Fisher hit .252 and tallied 54 kills as opposed to their opponents, who swung .227 with 43 kills.
NO. 9 MARYMOUNT (VA.) 3, NO. 10 FISHER 1
Throughout the first set, the Cardinals and the Saints traded short runs until the good guys trailed by one point at 13-12. Then, Baker and Bigford went 1-2 to take the lead and a block from Stella and Hackford gave Fisher the firepower it needed to extend the lead to three following Stella and
Matt Beiter kills.
Marymount did not shy away though, as they put together three two-point runs of their own to tie the score up at 20-all headed into the home stretch. The squads traded pairs of points until a Baker kill pushed the score to extra digits at 26-26, but the Saints sent consecutive kills to the floor and put Fisher at a 1-0 set disadvantage.
Unabashed, the Cardinals broke out to a 5-2 lead in the second frame, before spiraling into three consecutive points, scored by Beiter and Baker, pushing the lead to seven. From there, Fisher refused to look in the rearview mirror and instead piled on pairs of points at a time, taking as much as a 10-point lead at 23-13, to own the second set and tie the match up at one set apiece.
Frame number three saw the teams go point-for-point until Marymount pulled away at the 6-5 mark, and extended their lead to three – a lead which was maintained and improved upon for the duration of the set.
In their final chance to remain alive, the Cardinals did not go down without a fight. After falling victim to a 9-2 run to open the fourth frame, Fisher strung together four-straight points including a kill and two service aces by Bigford and a block by Stella and Hackford to keep the score within three points.
Marymount again extended their lead to seven points, but the Cardinals went on an 8-2 run to bring the score to within just one point, at 21-20. After trading points, Steve England's team sparked a three-point run to take their first lead of the frame, then continued to go back-and-forth with the Saints until it was knotted at 29 points apiece. A momentum-shifting block from Beiter and Bigford was sure to lock up the result for Fisher, but Marymount capitalized on a big kill of their own, to tie the score back up and earn the two-point victory.
Fisher, as a unit, tallied 48 kills and swung at a .195 percentage, with their best output coming in the second set at a game-best percentage of .435.
Bigford led the squad with a game-high 17 kills to go with four service aces and five digs, while Baker chipped in 13 kills and a team-high eight digs. Hackford tallied 20 dimes, seven digs, six digs, and three blocks in a well-balanced contest while
Evan Ingerick also had 18 assists.
The Cardinals will have another chance to take on some great national competition tomorrow, Saturday, March 12th when they take on the University of California, Santa Cruz at 12 P.M. and then meet with Aurora University at 3 P.M.
